Urbanschlepper bike scavenger hunt: amazing race style
To say this past weekend was jam-packed is a complete understatement. It was ridiculous, really... And I can't even decide whether saturday or sunday took the cake as the best time because both days were equally amazing and fun..so let's recap:
URBANSCHLEPPERS BIKE HUNT:
I've never done anything like this before but it sounded really fun, entry fee was only $35, and just about all of it went to a charity! It's a win-win situation! I could go on and on about this day but I'll do the short version: You're sent on a 3-hour scavenger hunt on your bike around ALL of manhattan to photograph or collect things of different point values. Team with the most points wins. Using Subways & buses were ok, cabs and private transportation were a no-no. Tasks range from finding an NYC subway token to taking a picture in a kayak on the water. Mr. P and I (aka The Silent Blazers) teamed up with the Mirees (aka IVY Champs) and man, did we bike ALL OVER THE PLACE. Hunt highlights:
• Spotting a female cab driver (10pts) but the boys had the cameras and were in a hospital looking for physician business cards (2pts each)
• Taking jersey photos in a footlocker dressing room (3pts)
• Talking our way into cutting the long ass line for our kayaking photo (7pts)
• Bumrushing onto the 2 train in Times Square on a saturday afternoon with 4 bikes
• Not dying on 5th ave, 7th ave, houston st, 14th st (lol)
• Mr. P sweet talking his way into letting a bikini clad girl take her photo (4pts)
• Arguing with middle eastern souvenir shop dude to take I love NY shirt photo (2pt?)Finding our 2nd female cab driver in soho and Kiana running down to catch her lol
• Randomly stopping to take a photo of clocks and food trucks
Needless to say we missed a bunch of stuff and didn't think we'd place considering it was our first time doing this but surprise - Mr. P and I came in 1st and the Mirees came in 2nd!!!!! woo woo! It would have been a tie except one item was to take a photo by a sign that bears your first or last name and Mr. P got that one! We split the prizes though since it was a team effort and were already down to do it again next year!
Afterwards, I tracked our distance and found that we biked a total of about 20 miles that day. I personally did 24 miles since I had to detour and teach a class in union sq right after the race so that little round trip was 4 miles long. (sheesh!) After a brief nap and showers, we headed out to Chelsea piers for more competitive action where we did some cosmic bowling/dancing. Had a very funny episode with the waitress who gave us attitude and after a brief talking-to from Prince, she did a 180 and was suddenly our BFF (haha). And from Chelsea Piers was a few hours of dancing at Mr. West. Good times
Despite the late night. Sunday was an early day since Mr. P had to clean and I had to run errands at whole foods and target for our BBQ. We had a little mini-reunion with west coast friends and long-time-no-see harvard peeps that was filled with some amazing food (the ladies did it up with our strawberry vanilla glaze ice cream shortcakes) and roofdeck chilling on a perfect summer day. Good times all around. Nice to be blessed with such great company :-)
Photo highlights (out of order):
Laying out some kind of strategy
Take a picture with the Naked Cowboy
Take a photo of a teammate sitting in a lawn chair in times sq.
Take a photo sitting in the back of a pedicab
Take a photo of the Tom Otterness sculpture (we got 1 out 2 of these)
Take a photo next to a sign that bears your name
Take a photo next to a menu item that is exactly 320 calories
Take a picture with the Naked Cowboy
Take a photo of someone (not your teammate) wearing a sports jersey - the higher the number the higher the pt value.
Take a photo of a teammate sitting in a lawn chair in times sq.
Take a photo sitting in the back of a pedicab
Take a photo of the Tom Otterness sculpture (we got 1 out 2 of these)
Take a photo next to a sign that bears your name
Take a photo next to a menu item that is exactly 320 calories