Tracy Dobie
Winner of the grand prize, Dinner for 2 at Alinea,
by solving The Tour
Tracy and her husband Andrew. (Photo by Elisa Braithwaite.)
Walk me through your experience with solving The Tour.
I was busy attending a virtual conference for the first few days after the puzzle was released, so I started working on it mid-week. My husband (Andrew) and I made our way through all the rooms during a few lunches and dinners. I started sketching out the location of the rooms right away because I assumed that would be relevant, and I took detailed notes by hand as I went. (I also tried to dance with every waiter we encountered because I love to dance, but sadly most were not up for it.) After we made it through all the rooms, I transferred our information to a spreadsheet and recognized that there were 26 rooms so we must need to find a letter for each. I had noticed the connections to the various pop-ups earlier, so we started trying to match pop-ups to the various rooms until we got them all (Torus was the last one we figured out). We actually moved through that part fairly quickly. Then I immediately re-ordered the rooms from A to Z, and I made a digital version of the map with the room numbers on it to play around with. From this point on, it was a family effort. While I was trying to put the letters in each room, Andrew realized that the 10 passwords lined up with the 10x10 grid. Then my parents and sister noticed that each row of rooms corresponded to a different puzzle, so we had to re-order the passwords to align with the correct rows. I finished us off by putting the letters from the passwords in the grid and mapping them on to the room numbers, working from A to Z. Getting the final phrase was so satisfying - and I must say, our Excel spreadsheet definitely helped! I loved this puzzle and had lots of fun bringing together all the themes from the prior pop-ups to get to the final solution. Bravo to the creators!
How did you hear about the game?
I'm on the Alinea email list, so I saw the announcement come through and immediately was excited to participate with my husband! Since my parents love puzzles, too, I quickly told them about it, and the four of us were all in it from the start.
Besides The Tour, How many of the puzzles did you solve?
All of them! We started with The Line Break and finished all of the puzzles prior to the posted deadlines. Though more time-consuming than I could have imagined, we had a blast!
What other kinds of puzzles or games do you play?
I've been a puzzle enthusiast since I was a little girl. It all started with jigsaw puzzles, which my grandma got my sisters and I started on, and we would do puzzle races at home. I always had some kind of puzzle book going -- including cryptograms, word searches, logic puzzles, whatever! And my parents have been doing crossword puzzles together since they met more than 40 years ago, so they got me into those, too. In fact, I just made my first crossword puzzle for my dad for Father's Day! I still do all kinds of puzzles, though I find myself doing crosswords and jigsaws most frequently. And I love board games, as well, although these days I prefer cooperative board games where I'm competing with others against the game, rather than competing against others.
Have you solved any text adventures before?
No, never! (At least not that I can remember...)
Have dined at Alinea or our other restaurants?
I took Andrew to the Aviary on one of our early dates (in 2012) when we were doing long distance, and he was visiting me in Chicago. Then we returned a couple times after that because it was such an amazing experience. I was also lucky to go to Next once in 2012 for the Sicily menu -- it was incredible! However, I have never been to Alinea. After I moved to Chicago for graduate school in 2010, I decided that my treat for getting my PhD would be dinner at Alinea. Unfortunately, I ended up having health issues around the time I graduated so I wasn't able to go, and I subsequently moved to Salt Lake City for a new job. I am so excited to return to Chicago and finally enjoy my celebratory dinner!
Who will you be taking to dinner with you?
I will be taking my husband (of almost 1 year!), who not only helped with the puzzles but who moved to Chicago after 2.5 years of long distance so that we could be together, and then moved to Salt Lake City with me for my new job. He is so wonderful and supportive (and looks damn good in a suit), so I cannot wait to return to Chicago to celebrate with him!
How do you spend your days?
I'm a professor of math education at the University of Utah. I help train future elementary teachers, and I do research on how we can teach math in ways that empower students and connect with their lives. When I'm not teaching and doing research, my husband and I take advantage of the incredible outdoors here and do lots of hiking and camping. I'm also a very social person, so I love to organize friends to get together for local events, host folks for cocktails, or plan outings to new restaurants and bars (which of course looks more like organizing Zoom calls during the pandemic).
How are you keeping healthy and sane during quarantine?
I'm still working full time from home, so there's never a shortage of reading, writing, and research to do. Aside from that, I've been connecting with lots of friends and family virtually, and I always have plenty of hobbies to keep me busy -- reading, sewing, cooking, doing puzzles, playing flute, practicing Spanish... Andrew and I also love to do yoga, walk around the neighborhood, and dance -- a spontaneous dance party always lifts my mood! Oh and cuddling, lots of cuddling.
Anything else you want to add?
I had so much fun with all of these puzzles! Being in the math education world, I think we so often strip mathematics of the fun, and make people feel like there's no place for creativity in problem-solving. But it's really the opposite, and these puzzles show that beautifully! There was so much outside-of-the-box thinking required, and there was room for many different ways of sorting through ideas and problem-solving. The puzzles also help remind us how beneficial collaboration is and how much we can learn from problem-solving with others. And I love how these puzzles inspire joy and playfulness, and encourage us to persist in the face of difficulty. Thanks to Alinea, Sandy, and the Mystery League for taking me back to my roots, stretching my brain, and giving me a fun way to connect with my family across the country during quarantine!
