The Amazing Race

My friend Stefanie and I did the Amazing Race in Chehalis last Friday night. For those of you who have never heard of it, it is basically a huge scavenger hunt that (on the CBS show)take teams all across the world in search of $1 million. In our case, we raced across Chehalis by foot and car, and it was worth 3 baskets full of goodies! Stefanie I didn't win (damnit!), but we had such a great time!

The clues were definitely tough if you didn't know Chehalis, but during one of our stops at the Market Street Pub (oh yeah, did I mention I had to do an Oyster shooter as a task?), we met "Shorty." And thank goodness we did. Shorty was a regular at the pub and a Chehalis local. He helped us with so many clues and was part of our cheering squad. Well, I'd love to call it a squad, but really it was Shorty and his friends cheering us on every time we had to run by the Market Street Pub, which was pretty often. One mistake we did make though was wearing flip-flops. It was a really hot day that day (90 something degrees) so we didn't want to wear tennis shoes. Hmmm...bad idea! I've ran in flip-flops before, but not when I'm sweating up a storm. And it didn't help that they were cheapos from Old Navy. Oh, well...lesson learned for next time.

Even though we didn't place in the race, it was so much fun. At the finish line there was a good spread of food, beer, wine, and other goodies, and it was fun to chat with all the other teams and talk about all the clues and tasks we had to perform. Here are some pictures I took from the Race:

Stefanie and I (team Double Trouble) getting "hydrated" before the race

Me, Brynn, and Stefani enjoying a little race pre-funk at Ciao Bella Boutique - this might be my new favorite store by the way...so cute!

My mother-in-law, Debbi, and her co-worker, Jennifer, also did the race. This was them at the starting line.

Me and my new friend, "Shorty."

At one of the tasks, after finding a certain book at the local bookstore, we had to run across the street to the Market Street Pub and read a couple paragraphs from the book to the pub patrons on a microphone. Since I did the oyster shooter earlier, Stefani did this one. Oh yeah, and she had to wear this ridiculous hat while she did it.

Stefanie and I at the end of the race. Ugh, we were so sweaty, so we were really glad to see cold beer on ice when we got there :)


Stefani and Brynn showing some good sportsmanship

My mother-in-law at the finish line get-together. She had to get a foil at the stop at the beauty salon. Of course it wasn't really color, just some conditioner.