NYC Trip - Day 2 - The Hunt

On Saturday morning, the alarm clock went off at 9:15, far too early considering the 4AM bedtime from the day before. Nevertheless, I dragged myself out of bed, showered, and got ready for the day. I woke the girls at 10 and we managed to all be ready by 11. We were just a little late for The Hunt.

Scavenger hunts seem to be a big thing these days, at least among my friends. While it looks kind of goofy to those who don't do it, if you're willing to keep an open mind, want to find a new and fun way to explore a city, and are just a little shameless, then scavenger hunts are a pretty good way to spend a Saturday. We met at Union Square and divided up into 3 teams, then ventured out to take pictures or videos of as many of the things on the list as possible. Many of the items weren't necessarily objects but rather things that you might see people doing. For example, one of the items was a police officer eating a donut (extra points if you got a picture of you eating a donut with the cop). I asked 3 NYPD officers, but all of them said that wouldn't look good for the department and gave me a look that said Get the hell out of here. I'll give them credit - NYPD cops take some pride in their jobs, so it's hard to fault them for that. We ran all over town, talking to random people, discovering new parts of town, and in some cases doing some unfortunate things that I won't describe here (let's just say that it helps a LOT in this game if you don't have any shame). The best part of the Hunt was when we went to the west side of town, where the Intrepid is docked, to take a picture of us "swimming" in the Hudson River. The guys didn't actually jump in and swim because that would just be gross (and I thought the Inner Harbor was nasty). Instead, we spotted a boathouse with a long ramp that led into the water. We talked to the staff there about the Hunt and asked them if we could just let the guys put their feet in the water and dance "the swim." The staff were surprisingly pretty cool about it and gave everyone life jackets before sending us down the ramp and taping the whole thing. The onlookers must have been wondering if this was some kind of field trip for mental patients, but we didn't care - that was worth 2000 points! The neat thing was that it was a perfectly sunny afternoon, the boats were out on the Hudson, and kids were running around in the park and playing in the fountain. It was a very different side of the city that I had never seen before. I also now know where the Intrepid is docked, so I can go and check out the carrier the next time I'm in town.

We were back at the hotel by 4PM, the deadline for all teams. Chris and Maddie went to one of the rooms to judge all the pictures and videos while the rest of us hung out, talking about the random stuff we had done and the people we had met. The cool thing is that all of us were pretty impressed by how helpful people were. Most of them were amused, and others seemed pretty impressed by the whole event and thought it was a great idea. At the end of the day, all of my team's antics didn't help us much - we came in dead last, but it was still a really fun way to spend the day. I was completely exhausted, so I showered, changed, and relaxed in the hotel room and read a few more chapters of my book until we had to leave for dinner.

Saturday night's dinner was at Landmarc in the Time Warner building. Tammi and I were late since we stopped at Crumbs Bakery to buy a bunch of cupcakes (can there really ever be enough dessert?). When we got there, a few more folks (Tim, Jen A, Baxter) had joined the group that had met for dinner on Friday. Most of us got the NY strip steak, but I was rather disappointed, to be honest, at how tough it was. I'd had much better steaks in Chicago and even Omaha, of all places. Still, it was good company and a pretty good meal overall (the wine was delicious, and if I hadn't had so much of it that I can't remember what it was called, I would try to look for it at home). Chris got to show off his new Thomas Pink shirt and Steelers cufflinks, so I think he was pretty content. After dinner, I headed back to the hotel to drop off the cupcakes then headed to the club where everyone else had gone to. I had botched the address so I had a bit of a hike to get there but eventually found it. The top floor club area was packed and hot, but we still had a good time dancing (it helps me a lot when the beverages are flowing). We left the club around 4AM and got back to the hotel, exhausted. There were 4 girls in my room, and we stayed up a bit longer, chatting and diving into the cupcakes. I learned this morning that apparently our giggling and chatting had kept the boys up in the room across the hall - oops! Guess that's what happens when you put 4 girls and a box of sweets together - we get teleported back to 5th grade and act like little kids again. It was probably around 4:45 or 5 when we finally went to bed, at the end of yet another amazing day in the Big Apple.