So I got up early to finish my book, The Grand Design, as I was going to see Stephen Hawking speak in Seattle right after the race. It would be pushing it to finish the race, get home and shower, pick up my coworker, who was going with me, and then get to the lecture on time. I couldn't not do the race or not see Stephen Hawking speak! So let the fun begin.
We got to the race and saw our new friends we met at the last race, Yellow Tie Racing, we also spotted the GOATs, which meant the competition would be stiff. I got my sister on the line and then it was time to get the clues.
Right at noon, they handed out the first sheet of clues. I grabbed them and then headed to meet Bill down the stairs. Next we were one the phone getting to work. We figured out the first couple of clues and saw that we needed to go over to the convention center to get the 4th word on the plaque of the friendship bell and text it in to the organizers to get the next clue. Oh no, we don't text. Well my sister looked up the bell and said she could read the plaque online so we had her text the 4th word in and then worked on solving the puzzle. If we didn't have to go over to the convention center then that would save us some time. So we got the next few clues solved but then my sister called back and said that all the words she was trying from the plaque were not correct. Darn, we were going to have to get on the MAX and go figure it out.
We waited for the MAX and went to the convention center and tried all the words on the plaque because the 4th word was not working. There were a lot of other teams there not figuring it out too. Well after a while I figured there must be something else so I went around the corner and there was another friendship bell, this one had a plaque where the 4th word was donated and this worked. We got the next clue, which was to go to a park up the road about a 1/2 of mile and get the second set of clues. Well this was our first stop but we knew we needed to get a photo with a juke box and 3 strangers so we left the convention center and went about 3 blocks to Burgerville and got that clue checked off before we went to the park for the next clues.
Once we got to the park and collected our clues, we started to make a plan to get all the rest of the stops done. First we needed to get a picture of a Tom Selleck look-a-like. So we stopped a french tourist who didn't speak English and convinced him to pose with us and through sign language got his wife to take our picture.
Next, we jumped back on the MAX and looked at the best route to finish the race. We needed to get a Slurpee, tebow at the train station, find a brick in Pioneer Courthouse Square, get cat food, a donut at Voodoo, a pic at a food cart, and a pic of us at the elephant statue in the park blocks. So I had my sister look up the map of where the brick we needed was and send us a picture and off we went. We were on the MAX and then it stopped and told us we had to stop for a few minutes. Apparently there was a bridge lift. Oh no. We thought we were toast at this point. It was about a 7 minute wait and nothing we could do. We hadn't been very fast solving the puzzles and it took us extra time to find the correct bell as well. I looked at Will and told him we were just going to have fun and winning was probably not the goal anymore. We waited patiently on the MAX and then got off in downtown to get the Slurpee.
Then on to Pioneer Courthouse Square to get our George Washington brick. Thanks Ang, for the map. That was a big help. As soon as we ran to the square we saw the GOATs. Wow, I thought they were way ahead of us, maybe we were still in this. So we got our pic and off we went.
Next we headed toward Voodoo and we could get the food cart on the way.
Then it was off to Voodoo to get a donut. The line was around the block so I just went in and grabbed the guy who just finished buying his donuts and asked if we could borrow one for a minute and take a picture with it. He was a great sport and allowed us to.
Next, it was off to the elephant statue followed by the train station. Will did his best tebowing and we snapped the picture as we saw another team. Oh no, I thought they might be finishing as well. Run Will Run.
Okay, so Will called the Safeway just across the street from the start/finish and asked them to hold the cat food for us at customer service. We just had to run in and purchase it. So we ran up Northwest and to Safeway and ran in. Holy cow, we got the cat food quickly but then there was a long line to purchase it. We asked a guy in the self check if he would allow us to cut and get it, which he was so nice to do, and then we were out of there. Less than a block to the finish and then it was up flight of stairs to check in. We checked in and found out we were second! Not bad for having the texting issues and the bridge lift. We won $100 and free entry to next year's race. The Yellow Tie Racing team came in 1st and the GOATs were right behind us.
I sat down, had a couple beers and a sandwich and then it was off to Seattle. I left Will before the awards, thanks to the Yellow Tie Racing team for taking him home. On the way home, I got stuck at another bridge lift over the Columbia River, man not my day. I made it to Seattle just in time to grab dinner before the lecture and it was a great night too. It was an all around great day.
Thanks to Angela and Annette for the help. We couldn't do it without you.
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