The Great Urban Race...

I've always been a big fan of the AMAZING RACE. I love watching the teams traverse the globe, decifer various clues and try to beat eachother to the finish line after completing different stunts and tasks. My good friend Tiffiny and I have always wanted to apply so when we found out the GREAT URBAN RACE was coming to Portland, it was a no brainer. We had heard it was similar to the Amazing Race just on a much smaller scale. Teams would be traveling around Portland, completing different tasks and racing to the finish line. We were in...sign us up!

The race began with all of us gathering at a Pub in North Portland where we received our sheet of 12 clues. Tiffiny and I sat for about 20 minutes figuring out the clues (with the help of Paul, Tiffiny's husband, who was our phone a friend and helped us look up things on the computer). We roughly mapped out a course of action and took off.

Here's a sampling of the things we did...

At a restaurant called EAT...I stood on one side of a table and rolled a quarter to the other side of the table where Tiffiny stood with a fork trying to catch it in between the prongs. Not as easy as it sounds, people! But we did it and received a pearl to take back with us to the finish line to prove we had accomplished our task.

We had to take various pictures with random things/strangers...

1. With a bald guy.

2. With a living animal (but it could not be a dog). This one was tough but we finally came across a fish pond outside the Dapper Frog in the Pearl. See the orange/red fish in between our heads?

3. And last, one with us balancing cups on our heads. Woot!

We were really hoping to not have to 'eat anything gross'. I have to say, I am NOT an adventurous eater. Nothing to out of the norm for me, thank you very much! The Great Urban Race people said there wouldn't be anything like that...buuuuuutttttt...they lied. When we came to a tatoo parlor they said one of us had to eat a scorpion. I was stepping back before the full sentence even left the guy's mouth and that's when my brave, brave friend completed the task without even a hesitation! She was a total rock star, I tell ya!!!

We did Yoga at the Lotus Seed...

We looked at a Chevy Sonic car...figured out the MPG divided by the number of airbags plus the number of passengers. The answer is 9...just in case you are dying for some incredibly useless mathmatical information.

And the grand daddy of them all was we walked on hot coals. YES...those are my toasty tootsies walking across hot coals....and it didn't hurt a bit. I have no idea how that is even humanly possible but it's true. Didn't feel a thing!

 We did a few other things, too...smelled different flavors of tea and had to guess the scent, jumped in front of an elephant statue, played a form of Bochi ball in Jamison Square Park, rode the Max, purchased toilet paper and napkins and delivered them to the Ronald McDonald House Charity and ran/walked our way all over Portland. It was quite a day and by the time we crossed the finish line we were utterly exhausted!

Once I got home and kicked up my feet, I couldn't stop smiling! It really was a fun day and quite an adventure. The Great Urban Race did not disappoint...LOVED IT!