Kara's Getaways and Much Much More ~~~~ Where to Go What to Do: Mice on Main

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Mice on Main - Greenville Family Getaway Scavenger Hunt

On our end of summer family getaway to glorious Greenville, SC, we did a truly FUN and slightly challenging family activity. As you know, before I head out on any getaway I usually research a bit before departure. Well, our little Greenville Getaway was no different. I love when I can find an activity that involves all of us, especially since we have a big age range of kids 10 years from oldest to youngest. I also love when the activity I find wraps itself so neatly around shopping, strolling, eating and drinking. I ran across a fun website's post about this cute little scavenger hunt that you can do as you travel up and down Main Street in Greenville, SC.

Straight over to my neighborhood bookstore - Amazon I went to purchase Mice on Main so that we could have a copy in time for our trip. We read it in the car on the way to Greenville.

The whole story behind the Mice on Main book, statues and scavenger hunt goes something like this -
Once upon a time, there was a student named Jim Ryan. He came up with a cool idea to place a family of nine mice up and down Main Street as his senior project. The idea came about because as a small boy his mom would read Goodnight Moon to him every night. Apparently, there are nine mice in that story - who knew? Jim not only raised the money for his project but also contacted city officials to get their stamp of approval on the little cheese eating family. He then found a very talented sculptor by the name of Zan Wells who would create the tiny adorable little friends to be permanently installed along Greenville's Main Street.
Several years later while a grandma and her granddaughter were out hunting for the mice that grandchild asked if there was a story to go along with the mice. AND Poof - Mice on Main was written by that very grandma - Linda Kelly. Giving back to Greenville - since the mice are all about Greenville, proceeds from sales of the book, games and t-shirts go to a local Greenville charity.

Since us Byrds like to make things challenging (not always on purpose) we did our hunt SDRAWKCAB (backwards spelled backwards get it)! Starting with mouse number 9, Uncle Miles and working our way up the street to the number one mouse, the daddy mouse Marvin (we only did it backwards because our hotel Courtyard by Marriott was down at that end of the hunt). We used the book and we used the hints found on the Mice on Main website. To be truly honest for one really tricky little mouse we used some images found on Google Images to help us. It was a super fun game as we criss-crossed our way up the busy little shopping district. Popping into shops to browse along the route and grabbing a snack or drink when hungry or thirsty. Mouse Hunting makes you both those things!

I am happy to report we found all the mice (even one extra?)! Lots of giggles and proud smiles went along with our little hunt looking for these sweet little rodents...