Challenge accepted.

Saturday was quite a day.  James, Emma, and I had all signed up to participate in the L.A. Challenge, an urban scavenger hunt put on by Challenge Nation.  We really had no idea what we were getting into until we got started, so I'm going to allow you to have the same experience by figuring out what this whole shindig was as you read the post...

After registering and deciding on our team name, "The Wild Westsiders," Emma purchased matching team t-shirts and we read the website and gleaned that we would be wandering around Downtown LA solving clues.  Before the challenge, 5 hints to the 12 clues we would get the next day were posted on Facebook:

Yeah... this gave us no advantage at all...

So after trekking downtown on Saturday morning, we went to check in for the race/hunt/adventure thing at a delightful restaurant/bar called "Big Wang's" (really?) and got our bibs before we grabbed lunch.

When we returned to BW's we gathered 'round with the other 163 teams to receive our clues.  I stood in a circle as team captain and was handed an envelope that I had to hold out in front of me until every team had an envelope and the organizers had counted down from 10.  Then everyone ripped open the clues and ran for the teams.  Naturally, I had lost Emma and James, but fortunately they found me and we got to work on our clues:

I realize you can't read this... don't worry

We were greeted by 12 clues, 11 of which needed to be completed to finish the challenge.  All needed picture evidence to prove that we had accomplished the task.  After trying to quickly and strategically figure out the areas of Downtown that we needed to go to and what order was best, we RAN to the Staples Center.

**Disclaimer: I apologize for my extremely stupid face in ALL of the pictures.  I was trying to say in character with the clues.  In hindsight, I look really tired, sweaty, and dumb.  Enjoy!


CLUE #5: Find the ten coded digits on your [bib] and ring them up to hear your next challenge (it told us to find the Oscar de la Hoya statue and take a picture posing like he was)

CLUE #2: We're happy to see that all the pro sports have settled their various labor issues, ensuring that the millionaires and billionaires will co-exist peacefully moving forward. To celebrate, find any stranger (non-challenger, that is) wearing any professional sports gear from any team in any league EXCEPT any California teams.  BUT: you can't throw a hat on someone in a sports store, this CANNOT take place in Big Wang's, and this person CANNOT fulfill any other clue's goal. Snap a photo with them mimicking a play from the sport they're rocking.

Da' Bears. (Even though James though it was a Cubs jacket...)

CLUE #6: Maybe these enormous shoes belong to giant horses that perform in the Staples Center and Convention Center, because between them is where you'll find them, tucked away in the bushes, hiding in plain sight. Once you find Outerbride's work, pick your team's favorite post (red for Clipper fans, blue for Lakers fans) and spell out C-A (two person teams) or L-A-X (three or more) in the photo!

We should have been in front of the blue post
if we were gonna spell like this...

CLUE #10: Choices, choices, choices: take a photo with any ONE of the following: any out-of-state license plate that contains a letter in the alphabet including and after "W", a (live) horse, a Segway transporter, a Cigar Store Indian, or shaking hands with a dog on a leash

Yep.  Poor puppy was so confused.

CLUE #9: This park's name sure makes it sound pretty uplifting, right? You can find it just across from a branch of the entity that Mr. Bernake oversees. Once inside, you'll complete the signature Challenge Nation pose- the human pyramid. Fid the grass berm where the permanent coyotes roam- make sure to get the full L.A. skyline in the backdrop for a great photo.

Clearly not concerned about the skyline in
Hope Park across from the Federal Reserve

CLUE #7: In As You Like It, the Bard says that "all the world's a stage." Well, you'll get a chance to prove him right. Find a friendly stranger who hails from a state that was one of the original 13 colonies OR one of the five states that entered the union in the 20th century. Have them prove it by taking the picture with them and the top of their drivers license and then all of you should act our your favorite scene from stage or screen.

We panicked.  Charlie's Angles?  Also, homeslice is from OK.

Before we left the park, we had a pow-wow as there were still two clues that we had no idea where to find.  At this point, we felt confident that we had knocked out everything on this side of downtown possible and set off jogging towards the 101 and the other side of downtown, hoping the answers to our unknown clues would magically appear on our way...

 CLUE #12: Who Am I? I have 236 blacks and 52 whites and there are ELEVEN of me spread out all over downtown, courtesy of a partnership between the Los Angeles Camber Orchestra and a traveling art project that makes it possible. They have only been around since Thursday, and we're told that all eleven are in place, but we know for sure there's one at this "stagecoach bank HQ." When you find one, give us your best impression of Goose from Top Gun in the photo.

Rocking out at Wells Fargo.
I wanted to act like I was hanging dead from a parachute...

 CLUE #8: The 'water court" is quite the tremendous downtown feature, to be sure. But our favorite bit is actually not part of the main attraction- head just southwest of this institution that's a homophone for a Starbucks treat to be enveloped in a curtin of water. Take your triumphant photo as close as you dare- you won't get wet!

Yeah... we took our picture by three things cause we weren't sure.
The photo check guy said we got the right one.  We still aren't
sure which one that is...

 CLUE #1: The first of these original 450 bells that were installed beginning in 1906 to mark an old famous Californian route can be found at Olvera Street- but you don't have to go that far to find a couple closer examples of the 555 replicas that exist today-- find ANY one of the bells and take a photo with your team "ringing" it.

Even I can't reach...

CLUE #4: Fill in the blanks: by almost any statistical measure, Los Angeles is the _2nd_ most populated in the country. And last month's March equinox heralded the technical arrival of _Spring_, even if it's hard to tell in this part of the country. At the corner of those to blanks, you'll find a series of photos adorning a wall- they rotate often. Take a fitting photo with a #5 that's probably the region's most famous 2012 addition.

What up Pujos.

And now we were faced with the two clues that we had yet to figure out.  And this is were everything went downhill... as they had NOT magically appeared on our way.  A "Legends of the Hidden Temple" themed team that we had been running into all day didn't know who Albert was, so I helped them out.  They in turn, helped us solve the last two clues by telling us that the space ship replica was by USC (super far) and the drum set was in the Grammy Museum, back at LA Live, across from the Staples Center (far, but not as far as USC.)  And we ran across the entirety of downtown for the second time that day...

CLUE #11: Until this week, this exact spot held Janis Joplin's snazzy 1965 Porsche for more than tow years- but they replaced it this week with Fred Coury's instrument that dates to 1990- no glass slipper in included, alas. We have gotten permission for you to go inside they lobby and ROCK OUT with the target in the background.

I'm so mad and sweaty in this picture...

After snapping this gem of a shot, we hauled ass back to Big Wang's were we crossed the finish line with a time of 1:52:19, putting us in 19th place.  Not bad, but frustrating considering we had a huge setback with the drums...  However, we did earn a spot at Nationals.  Yep, there is a Nationals for urban scavenger hunting and it's in New Orleans in December this year.  We are actually considering going, but first, we need to make a few adjustments to ensure victory...

LESSONS LEARNED

1. There is no need for a satchel.  You will notice that in the earlier pictures, we have a purple bag.  It's mine, and I brought it to carry our things or possibly collect items if that was a required part of the challenge.  The satchel was a mistake.  It was annoying, it slowed us down, and it was a bit itchy too.  Next time, take only the essentials or perhaps, obtain a fanny pack...
2. Phone a friend. Yeah, apparently you can call people to help you solve the clues.  For Nationals, it would be ideal if we had a support person positioned at the sponsor bar with an iPad to help work on clues while we are on the move.
3. Slow and steady wins the race. Ok, that's not quite true, but we were definitively more "hare" than "turtle" and it totally came back to bite us in the end.  We should have really put sometime into the clues, it would have saved us in the end.  We might have not missed the Grammy Museum OR I could have figured out we were TWO BLOCKS away from the Challenger replica when we were kicking it with AP. (We were looking for the wrong spaceship, I was reading the clue wrong. I went to Space Camp, this was totally my fault). And lastly...
4. Don't participate in Challenge Nation when you have recently finished reading "The Hunger Games Trilogy."  Seriously.  I had some SUPER freaky dreams that combined the two...