We had to show up at Jillian's at South Lake Union, and the place was packed! We would receive all 12 clues at the same time, but we only had to complete 11 of them. Our plan was to study the clues, decide where we were supposed to go, and then map out the best route. We had a few "phone a friends" ready because the competition allowed the use of smart phones and home Internet connection is much faster than Jon's iPhone. We were only allowed to use our own two feet or public transportation the entire time.
At 1:00PM sharp they gave out the clues, and just getting a clue paper was mayhem. We immediately high tailed it to the closest bus stop and quickly figured out we needed to get to the Space Needle for one of our clues. Instead of stopping and determining what order we should go in, as we originally *said* we would, we just started going since the bus wasn't coming for over 10 minutes. The clue about the Space Needle was pretty easy, but we had to photograph our team and someone else jumping in the air with the Space Needle in the background. It is harder than you'd think having everyone's feet off the ground at the SAME TIME in a time delayed shutter shot. We must have jumped 30 different times, and even then we weren't sure if it would count.
The biggest time waster ended up being the answer to this clue:
"This park shares a name with a failed presidential candidate and was actually a stop on The Amazing Race when the show came to the region, so we had to include it. Plus it offers some pretty spectacular views-take a photo with your team inside/on the central sculpture-and capture as much of the skyline as possible. "
The answer to this is Kerry Park, located at the top of Queen Anne hill. The reason why the views from this park are so great is because Queen Anne is STEEP, and it took a lot out of us to climb this thing. Plus, it was very out of the way. By eliminating this clue and answering all of the other ones we would have shaved at least 30 minutes off our final time.
What other wacky things did we have to do: do the Charlie's Angels pose with a Seattle cop, find a street musician and take a photo, find a building that was constructed before 1869, find someone in a Mariner's jersey (not tee shirt) and have your team mime pitching while the fan's swinging in the photo.
The hardest clues to decipher were probably these:
1. These craft perform "Chesley S." like maneuvers everyday-with no headlines. Fine one and take a picture of it.
2. What do you get when you add a dramatic former View personality and an NBA Team? Take a photo at the original and make a human pyramid out front including one other Challenge team.
3. The inventor of the mobile sculpted this massive red bird 25 years
before it found its permanent home in Seattle. Take a photo under it.
Jon and I finished the race in about 2.5 hours, but the winners were done in a blistering 82 minutes! We ended up in 52nd place out of 140 teams, but we had lots of fun doing it. I was sore for about 4 days afterwards because in total we probably ran/walked at least 4 miles. So are we signing up for The Amazing Race anytime soon? We'll keep you posted, but don't hold your breath! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment