A Day of Illusions with Team Alex
By: Holly Hereau
I was so excited to hear that Team Alex was planning an outing to the Museum of Illusions in Detroit. Last spring, I had a work conference in Philly where Max and my sister Abby came back with some great stories about the Museum of Illusions there, and I was pretty jealous I missed it. Even though Max had been to this museum before, he was just excited to join us 1. Because he loved the museum and wanted me to experience it again and 2. Because he is super excited about riding with Team Alex some day so he jumps at any chance to hang out.
We kicked off our Team Alex adventure with lunch at Detroit Shipping Company. This was a perfect option for such a big group. Lots of space and plenty of options. Max is a sushi lover and immediately dragged me upstairs to place his order. We enjoyed a delicious lunch, caught up with friends and then started the arctic trek over to the museum.
Once we got to the museum, the staff split us into teams for a scavenger-hunt style challenge. Max and I ended up on separate teams, so I asked him if he wanted me to swap with someone so we would be on the same team. He said no before I could even finish the sentence. “Family by choice” leveled up!
Bruce was the strategic leader of our team, making sure we captured what we needed to secure our team win. Beyond our scavenger-hunt tasks, the exhibits prompt you to capture photos from different places and angles that resulted in some pretty cool outcomes. I had seen some of these before (because Max and Abby did a few similar things) but it was fun trying to get the coolest results.
Max’s favorite part of the museum was the crazy tunnel thing. He had been talking about it all day (from when he tried it in Philly) and was so excited to see it here. He ran through it who knows how many times and then taunted me when I struggled. Bruce asked if I thought I could ride a bike through it… I think if the bike was set up on a trainer and someone was dragging it I would still lean over so hard I would fall off.
Toward the end of the museum we all spent some time in the puzzle room. This is where Ray’s spatial genius revealed itself. While I watched several groups get frustrated and just walk away, I joined forces with Ray, Landi and a few others while we worked through it (but it was Ray who pulled out the final maze-solving move). Others worked on some mini-puzzles and Max was super proud of destroying the “peg-hopping” puzzle after watching me try and fail a few times.
This was such a fun day and Max kept talking about this adventure days later. He is even more excited to ride with Team Alex someday!