St. Augustine City Scramble

After one week together in Florida, Ky and I ventured down to America's oldest city/settlement, St. Augustine.  Our trip was motivated primarily by a race called "The City Scramble".  I learned about it through a "side deal" on the website "Groupon", for which I received daily emails about specials in the area for a variety of businesses. Most of the specials are for restaurants and other businesses in the service industry, but this particular deal was for half-off registration for a team of two to the St. Augustine stop on the City Scramble tour.  It seemed like the perfect opportunity to visit a new place in Florida while also getting a little bit of exercise.  (Who knew it would also turn out to be a test of our ability as a couple to work together and communicate under pressure! UPDATE: I think we passed! :)

When we arrived at 7:15 AM for an 8 o'clock start, we discovered that I hadn't actually registered for the race.  Apparently there was another link I was supposed to visit after purchasing the Groupon.  My mistake ended up being of no consequence since we were on the list and we just needed to fill out a waver and invent a team name.  So, a couple of signatures and a quick brainstorming session later, the "Half Boks" were ready for their next adventure.  Having received our race numbers, we set off in search of a bathroom and for a short exploration of the immediate area.  Since neither of us had ever been to St. Augustine, we thought it might help to get a feel for the lay of the land since we would be required to figure out clues about and take a self-photo in front of various landmarks throughout the race.

A little before 8, we meandered back to the starting location, which was situated on the front porch of a St. Augustine eating establishment.  On our number was written a name: "Warren Sapp".  Since we hadn't initially registered with a team name, I thought maybe we had someone else's race number who hadn't shown up.  Then, I overheard one of the race organizers saying that the name on the bib would be useful during the race.  So, I pulled out my trusty iPhone (the race rules allow you to use any kind of technology to help you with clues - even telephone calls to friends and family to ask them to find the answers for you!) to inquire about the identity of the aforementioned "Warren".  Wikipedia informed us that Mr. Sapp was born in Florida and played professional football for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  I also happened to notice that he was not that much older than Ky and me.  Less than 10 years.  This was a very useful observation since the start of the race required us to identify the decade in which the person indicated on our race number was born in order to receive the clues for the rest of the race.

We were the first group to correctly identify our celebrity as having been born in the 1970s.  However, we were not the first ones to finish the entire race.  There were 12 clues that led us to various challenges and landmarks throughout St. Augustine.  We ended up running about 5-6 miles to and from the locations and returned in about an hour and a half.  Although we were relatively strategic about how to proceed (since we weren't obligated to complete answers the clues in the order they were positioned on the sheet, we were able to figure out each of the locations and take our photos in front of them in an order that would allow us to be as efficient as possible.  However, not all the clues were as easily solvable as a simple trip to Wikipedia.)  We ended up answering two questions wrong which meant a penalty of 20 minutes for each mistake.  Even though we didn't win the 500 dollar prize for first place (I think we probably came in about 5th-8th out of around 20-something teams), we had a great time exploring St. Augustine.  We also came away with some fun pics.  Notice our fancy team uniform! :)

A photo montage of our scavenger hunt through the city of St. Augustine:

Oops! ;)

This one's for you mom!

Too slow!

Cannonball!