Great Escape 2014: Oh Canada

It’s that time of the year again…. Great Escape Scavenger Hunt 2014.  Hands down, this is my favorite trip (and that’s a high bar because we’re lucky enough to get to do so many great adventures). I’ve been counting down the minutes and we are finally here, ready to start.

We arrived in Vancouver, Canada at 1:30AM this morning.  Check in for the start of the event is 4PM this afternoon. At that time, we’ll meet the other teams and go through the rules and regulations in detail with the event coordinators.

When we got up this morning (actually it was more like early afternoon), we went down to the water and ate at a Dutch restaurant on the bay.  Great views of the mountains and the sea planes landing and taking off. It’s a beautiful day here.  Not even too cold. We are all wound up and excited to get going.

Quick update on the competition rules for those of you reading this blog for the first time:

(     (a)       Over the next 3 weeks we will travel west around the world: from Vancouver to Chicago.  We’ll visit 12-14 countries but we have no idea where we are going.  The next destination is kept secret from us until 4 hours before we depart.

      (b) In each country we will receive a booklet of instructions, clues, riddles, puzzles and adventures that we have to do in that destination.  You receive points for every scavenge you do… some are easy (5-10 points), some are very hard and take multiple days to accomplish (300-450 points).  The trick is using the limited time we have in each country to amass the most points. 

(     (c)   Teams are made up of two people but multiple teams can work / scavenge together for part of every day.

Here is what we know already about the teams for this year:

Lawyers without Borders – Zoe and Rainey – 7^th time doing the event

Sister Act II – Rainey’s daughter and son: Emily and Rainey Jr. (otherwise known as “Ugs”). This is Emily’s third time on the trip but Ugs is a novice.  However he just went to Everest base camp with Rainey so he’s gotten his feet wet on South East Asia already.

Matzah Burrito – Zoe’s 14 year old son, Jordan (Matzah) with Emily’s boyfriend Angel (Burrito).  Second time on the trip for both of them.

Silver Surfers – Natasha (a lawyer who works with Zoe) and her husband David.  This is their third time on the trip but - because they have a 15 month old back home - they are only staying for the first 10 days this time.

Bear Necessities – Bettina (Zoe’s long time friend) and her 18 year old son Johnathan.  This is their first time traveling extensively outside of the US so everything is going to be new and exciting for them.

There are also several other teams that we know: 

Peter Wetherall (a Nevada lawyer and colleague as well as friend of Rainey and Zoe’s) with his wife Lucy;

April and Travis (you won’t be able to miss the photos with Travis in them, he’s a former NBA basketball player so his height is towering);

Erik Walker and Casey (Texas lawyer and partner, second time on the trip);

Kim and Marie (they were competitors last year and a joy to have along.  We’re excited to see them again);

The Oggopoggos (A Canadian father-son team and the winners from last year who are back to defend their title)….

And some new people we’re looking forward to meeting.