The Allison Wonderland

The thought had crossed my mind too - lacrosse Ave over by Beaver Lake and there are a couple of lacrosse centric spots in the city too - Monroe park always seems to have the nets set up for example.

Food for thought:

DescriptionLacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins in a tribal game played by the indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands and by various other indigenous peoples of North America.

The couple of small parks near the Fitzgerald home certainly might fit with the “old sport”. Though a literal reading could mean something like the Handball court they put in by Newell park a couple years back - an Old Sport.

Several knights if you go the Arthurian route- McKnight road, the Harding High Knights etc. to my knowledge nothing directly tied to Percival or Galahad directly ( the grail knights)

the “way to dreams” could be sleep? That line feels important but I’m stumped.

Park picks : Battle Creek 5                      Hansen Park 5 

5 Acorn
3 Phalen
2 Highland

I am staying all with Battle creek until l see anything else.

Obvious homage to No Time for Cold Feet ~ "the holy grail of St. Paul". Confirmation that it's in a St. Paul Park? "Old sport" nod to F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Great Gatsby.

Oh boy! Time to noodle! Anagram anyone?
Also, has anyone else noticed the use of semicolons and colons? Clue 1 after the word hunt (:) and Clue 2 after the word do (;).  But no use in Clue 3.

Here is the new clue:

No time, old sport, to play and cavort.
Pursue the grail with your schemes!
Out at night? Then follow the light
To cross the way to your dreams.

And here are the previous clues:

Clue #2

Stay away from links and risky hijinks.

Disturb not ground, tree or trail.

Don’t wait for last clue to know what to do;

This year you’ll figure or fail.

 

Clue #1

Be it turmoil endemic or global pandemic

It’s been a tough year for us all.

So rather than punt, we renewed this year’s hunt:

Join us, it’ll be a ball!

 

Don’t be odd, stay in your pod.

Keep six feet away from strangers.

Wear a mask when on your task

To keep all safe from dangers.

10 harriet island 

I just can't do it on Como

Please change my guess to 10 on Phalen for clue 2.  

Perhaps a statue?

I bet lots of people are thinking "fail"= Phalen. But, what do they mean by "figure"? Figure skating? Tax accounting or something similar for "figure"? A choice between 2 parks... figure? or fail( for Phalen)?

Put me down for Phalen Park (regional) for this one Allison. All 10. My first pick was Swede Hollow before the clues came out and before there were 2 homicides discovered west of the park. Cancel that pick. Too dangerous!

5 phalen 5 Battle Creek 

5 on Phalen
5 on Oh No Como (this breaks my heart to even guess but this year I think they want it found right away)

I think you may very well be right in saying that this clue is telling us that it's in a very obscure spot, but the first person to that spot will be the finder. That would certainly be the way to set up a hunt during a pandemic.

This next clue is vague yet specific I think. Its telling us the basics of staying out of off limit places, such as the links, golf courses, could also mean stay away from parks with courses, and now that Frisbee golf is getting popular that may also come into play. The specific thing about this clue has me thinking that this year is going to be different, no digging around in the snow, no tree limb kind thing either, so my thought was its going to be right along an easy path and will be found easily...if you can get the area correct, and the writer is telling us this by saying you ain't got a shot if you are waiting around for the last clue this year. So usually you get the park, maybe...but then its a full on dig fest, not this year, just walk over maybe look under a bench and grab it kinda thing, which are always the first things searched in an area...this year is first come first serve maybe...

5 Phalen
5 Hidden

To clarify something, I'm not saying the meter is strict this year. Just this clue. It was not true of Clue 1, but feels a bit forced on Clue 2, as if it were important that it be something specific.