Queen City Quest

Kaley and Julia (the team we were matched up with), tired after running
across the People Purple Bridge

For Michael's birthday, we thought we'd show him a good time...Amazing Race style- through Cincinnati. We signed the family up to compete in the Queen City Quest, sponsored by Blackbook. We gathered at Eden Park at 1:00 where we found out what team we were a part of, Cookies and Cream. Our teammates were another couple with her child and an individual lady who was taking part in the Quest as part of a class (her instructor was one of the organizers). We were given our first destination, which turned out to be Newport on the Levee and jumped in our cars (we followed them being as they were natives). Once there, we had to find the fish market, where we were given our second destination. For this,we had to answer questions about the attractions at Newport on the Levee and then cross over the Purple People Bridge to the Ohio side and find a fun destination, well, we were too fast jamming across the bridge and we beat the next envelope holder, so we did not know to go only as far as the other side of the bridge . Once across, we split up and 1/2 of our team went to the playground (a fun destination) while the other half went to the water fountains (another fun destination). This group circled back to the bridge after not finding the envelope holder and then found her standing at the foot of the bridge- oh well. We got our first puzzle piece and next destination- Findlay Market. There, we had to sample gelato and belgium waffles (a bit of a delay for our team and we had a tough time getting the kids away from the waffles) and answer more questions about the history of the market. Our next destination was Fountain Square, we had a set of questions which helped us learn about Graeter's icecream (endorsed by Oprah and Sarah Jessica Parker)...more samples and another puzzle piece! From here, we were sent to the Red's Stadium where Michael took the physical challenge (he had to throw a strike) and we had to answer questions about the Cinc, Reds. Two throws later and our final envelope and Michael had us back on the road, where we ended up at none other than the...Cincinnati Ballet. There we went running into the room, only to find out that we were 2nd to last to arrive with our puzzle pieces....but, we had a good time!!! We plugged our puzzle pieces into the big puzzle and waited for the last team, and food to arrive. I think this is one birthday Michael won't forget. We missed the Spatz family and look forward to doing more crazy things like this with them!!