The Amazing Race - Gateway Edition

Connie and I love the Amazing Race.  We don't watch much TV and watch even less 'reality' tv.  But one of the shows we do like to watch is the Amazing Race.  We like to see all the cool places around the world that the racers go and like to see the different activities the racers have to do that represent activities from the cultures they are visiting.  We also like to see how the teams interact, especially when some couples pull together when time get tough and others implode.  It is often educational and sometimes inspiring.

We currently have a goal to make it on the show in 2020 and we often talk about what skills we should develop so we would do well.  Even if we never make it on (but we will) it is a fun way to broaden our horizons and learn new things.

So anyway, quite a few fridays ago (I actually started this entry over a month ago and then never finished it), some friends invited us to participate in a couples date night "Amazing Race" at the Gateway.  We of course jumped at this chance to test our mad skills.

The Start

We met at the Gateway food court where we were given 5 clues.  The first couple to finish all the clues and make their way to the Applebee's would be the winner.  We had to film or take a picture of us completing each challenge on the clues.   So we read the first clue and then took off like lightning!

Clue One

Find the staircase where there is graffiti.
Run up them like Rocky then yell the name of your sweetie.
Challenge:
Record yourself running up the stairs while humming the Rocky Theme Song, then yell your sweetheart's name when you get to the top.

We guessed that "graffiti" referred to the names inscribed on stone near the big fountain which has some stairs next to it.  It was kind of stretch to call that writing graffiti, but we figured it was the place that made most sense.  Fortunately we were right.  Unfortunately for one other couple, they tried to find actual graffiti and ended going a block south of the far end of the Gateway on a dark and deserted street.  This caused them to lose about 25 minutes to all the other teams, effectively eliminating any chance of their winning.  So anyway, We ran full speed to the fountain, turned on the camera and ran up the stairs humming the rocky song (which if you read this post you know I am familiar with), at the top Connie screamed "Kevin!" and I screamed "Connie!".  Then as I went to stop the camera from recording, I realized that camera wasn't actually recording.   So... we ran back down the stairs and did it again with the camera recording this time:

Clue Two

Skip on down and take a look

Inside a store that has a book,

In fact you'll find much more than one.

And lounging there is so much fun.

Hold hands there and don't let go

If you're in love then let it show

Challenge:

Find a book whose author's name is the same as your own 

This proved to be the hardest challenge for us.  Figuring out that we had to go to the Barnes and Noble was easy, finding a book by a Kevin or Connie was hard.  We tried to find a computer we could look up a book on, but only employees had access to the computers.  We tried to get help from the employees, but they were busy.  We tried to just randomly walk down aisles and spotting a Kevin or Connie book, but that didn't really work either as it seems that there are not a lot of authors named Kevin or Connie.  (At this point we were a little jealous of our friend Stephen who was also there since we could come up with multiple authors named Stephen)   Finally, Connie remembered that there was a book "The Sonoma Diet" that her friend had read that was by a Dr. Connie Something.  Not knowing the last name, it took us a while to find, but finally we got it:

Clue 3

Make your way to the "fruit" store...

You will find gadgets, gizmos and so much more!

While inside you must find...

The newest device that will blow your mind.

Challenge:

Take a picture of yourself next version 4 of the devices sold in this store.

Being over anxious to get to the next challenge, I saw "fruit" store and thought of "Banana Republic", then Connie pointed out that it was probably the Apple Store, since they sell gadgets and junk.  I couldn't believe I made such a fundamentally mistake.  If you watch the Amazing Race you know that one of the most common mistakes teams make is to not read the clue completely.  Fortunately, I redeemed myself by knowing that challenge refereed to the iphone 4 and I knew right where it was:

 Clue 4

Find a store whose commercials have mannequins who speak
And tell the mannequins what they need to do this week


Challenge:
Find the correct store and record yourself talking to the mannequins.

Freaky talking mannequins?  That would have to be Old Navy.  We rushed over there, walked in the door, saw a mannequin and despite the stares of passerbys started talking to it:

 Clue 5

Some are pink and some are blue

But all of them are brand new.

Some get dressed and some go "bear".

But either way, I don't think they care.

Some are real and some are stuffed,

The kind at this store aren't so tough.

Challenge:

At this store, find someone to recite the story

of Goldilocks to.

If you have a child under 10 you have probably been invited at some point to a Build-A-Bear party and would recognized immediately what store this clue was talking about.   Having three children under 10, we figured it out instantly and we sprinted there and I recited to a patient employee the story of Goldilocks:

   

Last Clue

Okay I cannot remember what the last clue was.  Actually, I couldn't remember exactly what clue 1 or 4 where either so I just made up poems that fit the challenge.  But now I am too tired to make up a poem for the last clue.  I know it was somethings about planets and the earth, Atlas, blah, blah, blah.

Challenge:

Find a big model of the earth and take a picture of you holding it up like you are Atlas.

We actually have footage of us figuring out this clue (It is the Clark Planetarium).  After the goldilocks story, Connie forgot to turn off the camera.  I would post it, except it would probably make you throw up, since I am running with the camera and all you can see in swinging glimpses of store fronts, random people, and my pants. 

It took us a while to figure out which earth we were supposed to take a picture of because there was a big globe in the front that kept changing which planet it showed.  We didn't want to risk getting the wrong thing so we ran around for a while until we found a earth that fit the description perfectly:

Race To End

Now we just had to make it to AppleBees first.  We sprinted as fast as we could, I pulled ahead of Connie and on rounding the corner saw K of our friends KAR already there.  But A was not there!  I yelled at Connie, "Run! Run for you life!".  She dug deep down inside and pulled into the finish mere seconds before A, giving us the absolutely undisputed* victory.  

All in all it was a fun night and though it was much shorter and much less stressful then the real amazing race would be, it was fun to pretend it was the real one and I am pretty sure it was foreshadowing our future Amazing Race 2020 victory.

*Okay so there was a small dispute about the victory.  You see, our instructions said that after we had finished at Applebee's, we were supposed to get a table for the whole group.  Well, while we were waiting in line like good polite people, a certain person jumped in front of us and got the table under their name, trying to make it look like they had gotten there first.    We were not going to let this stand, so we started throwing punches and then a huge brawl erupted.  5 police cars showed up and hauled our whole group to jail.  It made the whole night very expensive because we had to pay bail and we did not get back home until 6 in the morning and so we owed the baby sitter a lot of money**

**Okay so only part of this actually happened.  I just like to see if people read all the way to the end.