Get Your Brain Busted At The Inntrigue In Laramie, Wyoming’s Only Puzzle House

She greets you at the door, Miss Inntrigue herself. Personified in the form of an attractive detective lady, peering out at you from behind a coy fan and a magnifying glass, all set behind a window glass frame.

It’s adorable, and all a bit of playful misdirection.

The real clue is hiding in a tiny pocket watch that dangles from her hand. It’s the least noticeable thing in the picture, and the first of about a dozen little brain teasers that invite guests to play.

Welcome to the Inntrigue of Laramie, a one-of-a-kind Airbnb that invites guests to participate in a house-wide puzzle chase throughout their stay. The house is so popular on Airbnb, those who manage to get a reservation get a congratulations email, informing them that the house is normally booked.

A box on the dining room table explains the concept behind the house. It includes a magnifying glass and a journal that chronicles guests’ adventures in the house. Every guest may add their own adventures to the never-ending mystery tale, becoming part of the story.

The box also includes a guide sheet for each floor of the house, listing all the puzzles for those with FOMO, otherwise known as fear of missing out. That way they will be sure not to miss a single puzzle.

But guests who aren’t worried about missing out can also simply wander and wonder, too, chasing their own adventures as they happen to see them, and letting others go for another time.

Some puzzles are quite obvious, like the brainteaser above the coffee pot, which asks, “Can you find the Mistake?”

At first, it seems like it’s all about a math problem. Two ounces of espresso, one cup of milk, six ounces of foam, filling a 16-ounce mug.

But puzzlers must think outside the math box to actually solve this one.

Hard to do on just one cup of coffee.

Perhaps a third cup will do the trick?

No?

Well, the answers are always available on a unique cheat sheet that the Inntrigue’s puzzle masers have devised and placed in the dining room table’s centerpiece. The cheat sheets are tucked inside an opaque plastic sleeve with a single viewing window. That way puzzlers can pull up one answer at a time into the small slit, keeping the other answers hidden. That way there’s no spoilers for the next puzzle.

From Ocean To Sky And Earth In Between

Each of the home’s floors offers a different puzzle theme. The basement, for example, is an ocean of puzzles — literally. It’s decorated in a seafarer’s theme with things like an octopus statue on the wall that tosses a boat on a stormy sea.

You, the guest, can turn that colorful sea on with a remote-controlled light that will cast waves of color on the walls and the ceiling.

It’s fun for children — and adults, too, if they’re willing to admit it.

There’s a sandy beach photo in one bedroom with a magnifying glass. It’s an obvious invitation to take a stroll of the mind, seeking out hidden curiosities in the “sand” below the photo. It could consume hours if you let it. There are so many cool doodads to look at.

The bathroom on this floor, as on the other floors, offers a fun newspaper article. “Songs of the Indian Whalers,” reads the headline on the basement bathroom wall. The laundry room has a couple of rebus puzzles to solve.

Each floor ascends one level. The middle is an earth theme, and then the third floor, which was added to the home, is the sky. Flying contraptions of all sorts, ranging from birds to airplanes and blimps, decorate the space, along with a whole new set of aerodynamic puzzles to solve.

There’s a rebus, a sky puzzle to rearrange and a hopeful message spelled out by sunset above the desk.

There are also bonus puzzles for the home, including one with a treasure chest. It’s an epic collection of funny hats and costumes just right for an Inntrigue selfie.

Always Changing

The puzzles aren’t necessarily the same all the time. They do get changed up now and again by the master puzzlers themselves, Neika Lundberg and Bethel Medina, who not only designed all the puzzles, but rehabbed the house itself from the inside out.

The Airbnb was something of a pandemic project for the girls, according to their father, Lawrence Thomas.

“During 2020, our famous year, my wife and I figured, well, let’s get the girls some work, because they do kind of handyman work and a lot of painting and stuff like that,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “So, we bought that little house, and we were just going to flip it.”

After the girls were finished restoring the interior of the home — even building a third floor for it —the girls decided it was too nice to flip. They talked their mom and dad into running it as an Airbnb instead.

With their blessing, the dynamic duo went in search of unique decorations at thrift stores. Some of the finds were so unique, they couldn’t help but start making up puzzles from them, an activity they say was inspired by their mom, Danny Rue Thomas.

“She’s always bringing all kinds of puzzles to family gatherings,” Medina said.

“Yeah, that was in the back of our heads when we were shopping,” Lundberg agreed.

The first puzzle item the two found was a foot being tickled by a hand with a tiny feather.

“We were like, that has to be incorporated somehow, it’s just such a unique piece,” Lundgerg said, laughing.

Eventually, as more and more puzzles worked their way into the home’s decor, the two realized this was the thing that could set their Airbnb apart from all others.

“There’s a lot of Airbnbs in town, so we knew that ours had to stand out,” Lundberg said. “We were looking for a theme that’s not in your face, that you could do or not do if you wanted. And so that’s kind of how we were just inspired by the weird things we found in thrift stores.”

The house itself, which was built around 1925, and was also a source of inspiration. As they were tearing down the walls, they found old newspapers hidden in the walls.

“There were stacks and stacks,” Lundberg said. “So, we went through and picked what we thought would look good in a picture frame.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.