Cornucopia

The familia Nieves took a little spin (day trip) to a corn maze today near Cumberland, MD. Just a mere 200 miles each way, give or take.

I'm not sure what got into us, but when we were Alpharetta-ites, we made an annual pilgrimage to the coolest corn maze in Dawsonville, GA. It was a different maze every year with different challenges (the goal was to find as many hidden stations as possible, get your maze card punched, and oh yeah, find your way out). Over the last few years, we developed a kind of "corn maze fever".

This corn maze was a bit different. The kind folks at J&B Farms in Oldtown, MD, also design a different maze each year, but they are all educationally-based themes. We learned today that in years past, they had themed mazes including a food pyramid, a map of the U.S., agriculture in America, and many more.

This year's maze at J&B was "Passport to Colonial America", in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. We were sent into the five-acre corn maze which from the air was reportedly shaped like the original thirteen colonies plus the American flag of the original thirteen colonies. From our perspective, it looked like endless corn with lots and lots of paths running through it.

We were given our instructions: find the answers to the 13 questions on our "scavenger hunt" card. Record each answer correctly and report back to the J&B staff. The prize? "I Conquered the Maze at J&B Farms" stickers for each of us!!! Shortest distance to the goal, approximately two miles. If we got lost and went off course....who knew?

Clues and answers were posted on signs that could be found throughout the maze, but we were warned that some of the signs/answers could be a bit tricky, so to read each sign carefully.

We knew one answer without even having to find the sign: "The autumn celebration in 1621 became known as _____". We knew right away it was Turkey Day, and that only left 12 more clues to find.

Along the way, we discovered some games that colonial children played (tops, blind man's bluff, walking on stilts); the names of the three ships that landed at Jamestown (Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery); what colony was founded as a haven for debtors (Georgia by Oglethorpe); what do the red, white, and blue colors represent on the American flag (bravery, libery, justice); and who told the men in his colony, "If you don't work, you don't eat" (Capt. John Smith). These are some of the questions we answered correctly, and the first time.

We did however, have two of the 13 questions answered incorrectly, and we had a choice. Walk away from that pretty green "I Conquered the Maze" sticker, or march our buns back in there to find the correct answers. And march we did.

We discovered that Pennsylvania was founded as a haven for Quakers (not New Jersey as we had thought), and that Squanto was the person who helped the first settlement in Massachusetts survive the first winter.

And guess what? We got our stickers PLUS an ear of corn for each of us! What a day.

Somehow we forgot to bring the camera on our adventure, so the boys were kind enough to reenact their victory pose once we arrived home, with their stickers, their completed maze answer sheets and of course, their corn.

Brian would say that this is the CORNIEST joke of all, but it was a truly an a-MAZING experience!