Congratulations to Mary Whalen for finding Dinosaur #45!
Here's a run-down of the hunt straight from Mary:
When I saw the clue I knew immediately that it referred to a
sculpture on Embarcadero but when it was posted I was at work and couldn’t
leave. On the next day it still hadn’t been found. So when I finished a meeting
at SF state early and had some time to kill before I gave my boyfriend and
fellow dino hunter Eric a ride to the airport, I decided that I should go dino
hunting. I’d had some bad luck in the past with not getting to the clue fast
enough and I hoped 4th
times the charm! Unfortunately I decided to park in the parking structure at
the Metreon so I had a bit of a walk. Good thing it was a nice day. I decided
to go down Market since I couldn’t remember where the statue was exactly. Once
I got closer I saw it. . .should of gone down Mission...oh well.
I wandered around the rocket looking to see if there was any
marking on it, and then I saw this info thing that had some stickers on it:
When I looked
closer I saw it, clue #2:
The
clue was a little hard to take a picture of since it was so long. I decided to
try to write it down and I wrote on an old receipt I found in my bag. My phone
was being incredibly slow and loosing battery power fast so I called Eric to
see if he could help out. He was trying to get work done and couldn’t really
help right then. But that did the trick because my phone started working. I was
able to figure out that the alphabet was shifted by 12 places and then spelled
out “And in the veil of the light the city
drifts anchorless upon the ocean”
This
stumped me some. I sat there
for a little while googling the passage and SF and anything else I could think
of. All it came up with though was info about the poem. I figured pier 14
wouldn’t be on there and underlined if there wasn’t something to do with it so
I decided to start walking out to the end of the pier. A little ways down I
noticed that there were plaques close to the ground along the railing with
passages written on them. Then I noticed further down that they were passages
from the poem so I looked for the one that was in the clue and that’s where I
found it, clue #3:
I pulled on the string and it seemed like something was tied to
it. I didn’t think it was the painting though, too light. Once I got to the end
I saw this:
I knew I had seen a statue like that before, but
couldn’t quite remember where. While I thought about it I decided that since it
was such a nice day I should take some pictures and enjoy the view while I
walked back down the pier. (Thanks Adam!)
I texted Eric again to see if he had any ideas. He hadn’t seen it
before but suggested it was in a park near by. I figured it was in one of 2
directions and tried to google it but again my phone was not cooperating. I
could see it come up on the google image search but that was as far as my phone
would take me. So I started walking, the 2 areas it could be weren’t that far
from each other so I could always walk back. As I was walking I thought I might
ask someone. They told me where I could find the visitor center but not the
statue. Then Eric texted me saying that it was across from the ferry building.
Awesome, that was the direction I was headed! Then I saw it! But I didn’t see
any obvious clue. I looked at the ground in between the heads and walked around
them but didn’t see anything.
I figured I better look closer before I gave up. The one on the
left didn’t have any markings or anything on it but when I looked at the one on
the left I fount it. At the base of the head was a little tag tied with a
rubber band:
“Walk ~27 steps to the christmas tree”. I looked around and
luckily there was only one tree that looked like a christmas tree. I ran to
it. I hoped this was the last clue and that the painting would still be
there! And there it was! Hanging
among some ornaments! YAY!
I love my new dino!
And it even matched my shirt!
