I remember that I had trouble with the first puzzle because even after we figured out it wasn't a [redacted], my brain was pretty ratholed on that idea.
In general, the places where you picked up puzzles weren't great places to sit and solve. There were likely to be such places nearby, however. This got us into some trouble on the [redacted] puzzle, for which we needed a hint. We'd wandered off to a nearby cafe to sit and solve. When we figured out that we'd need a hint, rather than walking back to where Jan had handed us the puzzle, we called the GC hint line. We tried to describe our approach via voice; brave GC member Chris tried to figure out our situation and give us advice… but that didn't work out so well. Probably because it was a tough puzzle to describe over the phone. So we packed up and went back to where we'd picked up the puzzle. Jan was able to look over what we'd done and point out where we'd gone off the rails.
In general, though, we didn't need hints. The puzzles just guided us right along. And finding a nearby place to sit and solve was surprisingly easy. Cafes and hotel lobbies kept being not-full; it was as if the city's slackers were out of town or something.
We found out that H Cafe had a big "living room" table, good for spreading out a big [redacted] puzzle.
Once again, GC gave us "travel puzzles". There wasn't actually so much travel time in this game, though. (Well, except when we paused to track down a forgotten wallet. But that was just one travel leg.) Instead of solving these on streetcars, we walked around, not looking at where we were going, looking at puzzles. We didn't actually body check any tourists, so I guess that worked out OK, but there were some close calls.
I had a lot of fun with this hunt. The puzzles were awesome! Also I'm biased: these puzzles were "in my wheelhouse." Well, except that [redacted], but it was still clever. And I guess the [redacted] wasn't in my wheelhouse, either. But that gave me an excuse to zone out for a puzzle, and that was OK, too. But the [redacted] was both the kind of puzzle that I like and was like others I've come to associate with Coed Astronomy hunts. And [redacted] was also pretty exquisite, though probably a bear for GC to assemble.
I volunteered to site-monitor for the game's second running. Thus Jesse and I hung out for a few hours at [redacted], which was definitely the plum volunteer site, though it turns out that Jesse doesn't like their [redacted], so maybe not. After we were done there, I went off a ways to capture a Munzee (and fail to capture some others); then I headed to the second-to-last location, where I got to see the rest of that puzzle and make fun of Hawaiian Dale Nil, who thought it was cold. (And he remembered how cold he'd been outside the Japanese Tea Garden for the previous leisurely minigame. That's the spot I'd volunteered at for the second running of that hunt; and since I'd grown up just a few blocks away, I'd been used to the fog. That made me think maybe I should have been stationed here instead of with Jesse at the sunny place where I'd been… but then, I'd really liked the spot where I'd been so yay.)
