The Puzzle Shop Is in the Middle of It All.
Saturday is the 48th Annual Whiskey Row Marathon, and downtown Prescott plans the weekend around it. The race starts and finishes at Courthouse Plaza. The full course is one of the harder ones in the country: it leaves the square, climbs toward 7,000 feet, and comes back. A half marathon, a 10K, a 5K, and a short fun run share the morning. The field is usually somewhere between 900 and 1,000 participants, with about 3,000 spectators around the plaza and along the course. Proceeds go to the James Family Prescott YMCA scholarship fund, which helps local families with child care, swim lessons, and youth sports. If you are coming to watch, an expo sits on Cortez Street, on the east side of the square, the morning of the race.
The Puzzle Shop is in the St. Michael’s Alley Shops at 110 South Montezuma — right in the middle of Whiskey Row, on the edge of the plaza. That is the convenient part. The start and finish are a short walk across the grass. The expo on Cortez is on the other side of the square. You are already on the Row. You do not need a car, a shuttle, or much of a plan beyond “we are downtown.” If you are here for the start, the finish, or just to watch, the shop is a good place to step inside for a few minutes.
It is Arizona’s only dedicated puzzle store: jigsaw puzzles, brain teasers, and games you can try before you buy. We are open daily from 10 to 5, including Saturday, so the door is open while the plaza is busiest and still open after the last runners are in. Come in, get off Montezuma, try something on the table, and leave with something that is not a race shirt. Perhaps even do a bit of early holiday shopping.
The rest of the weekend is a good reason to stay after the last runner, and the shop is an easy stop between plans.
Saturday and Sunday, Founding Fathers Collective is pouring Bloody Marys and mimosas. Saturday from 10 to 3, Sharlot Hall Museum hosts Harvest Feast: Recipes of the West. At 12:10 Saturday, the Prescott Public Library has Casual Chess. Saturday night at 7, the Elks Theater & Performing Arts Center has R.O.C.K. in the USA, the music of John Mellencamp. Sunday at 2, the library’s Coffee House Concert features Ryan Biter.
None of those need a registration bib. They just need you already in town. The marathon brings a few thousand people around the plaza on Saturday morning, and the museum, the library, and the theater keeps downtown busy after the course reopens. The shop sits on the edge of that square, right in the middle of Whiskey Row, between the morning crowd and whatever you do next.
October is already a full month for Puzzle Rides in Prescott — Ghost Riders after dark, and the Live Game of Clue on the golf cart through these same streets. Rides leave from the shop. This weekend you do not have to book one to have a reason to walk in. Come for the marathon. Stay for a puzzle, a game, or ten quiet minutes out of the crowd. If the carts are what you came for, book while the October dates are still there.
The Puzzle Shop, 110 South Montezuma Street, St. Michael’s Alley Shops, right in the middle of Whiskey Row.
