April 04, 2009

Andrew's Scavenger Hunt and Ryan's Surprise Birthday

After having an amazing time at Andrew's 2nd Birthday Scavenger Hunt, I was totally stoked to attend Andrew's 3rd Annual Scavenger Hunt Birthday party! Wooooo!

Saturday, April 4th

andrew b — Last year's hunt was in Brooklyn. This year the entire hunt was in the EV/Lower East Side. Everyone met up at Houston and Chrystie...

jacquie — ...and Jacquie explained the rules the the huge group that showed up again! Soooo awesome.

amanda, me, scott ward — Here's our team of four: Meredith, Amanda, Scott and me!

meredith — I don't have the whole list of items, but in most of the photos I have, I think it's pretty evident. BMW parked in the LES! 5 ponts!

scott ward — We'd barely made it a block and we were already racking up the points!

No idea what this photo was about. Really expensive dried fruit?

The scavenger hunts are always designed really well. There are A TON of different things and they're spread all over the place and all worth different amounts of points. After consulting the list, we decided it would be best to head to Iggy's and see if PIRATE MIKE would let us do BODY SHOTS OFF OF HIM. Hahah. This guy's the best. No doubt, he was game!

amanda — Amanda went next! Pirate Mike awaits!

While we were there, we asked Pirate Mike if he would mind if one of us danced on the bar. He certainly didn't! BLAMO! 10 POINTS!

On the way out, Pirate Mike asked me to email him the pics and then handed me his awesome business card. Thanks again, Pirate Mike! (Go see him at Iggy's!)

me, scott ward — Haha. I think this is the photo we took in order to get 5 points for "SOMETHING GAY."

A Frank Sinatra record? Some of the items were about things Andrew likes.

Youth in Revolt movie poster! 10 POINTS!

Photo of meat that looks like an elephants leg? 5 POINTS!

I remember this one! Photo of a baby in a hat! 10 POINTS!

Photo of somebody wearing shorts! 10 POINTS!

Sammys Roumanian Style Restaurant, 5 POINTS!

The Williamsburg Bridge was a little bit out of the way...

Plus, on the way back, we got lucky and spotted another one worth a lot of points: PHOTO OF TOURISTS LOOKING AT A MAP!

Get a photo of a complete stranger giving you the finger (x3!).

Photo of somebody filming something! 10 POINTS!

We thought it was going to be hard to find this one...

...but we ended up seeing THREE different film crews while walking around! Here's the 2nd in Tompkins Park.

Not sure what this was about...someone who looks like an incognito celebrity? One of the tasks on the list that was worth a lot of points was to get a photo of four people...

amanda, me, meredith, scott ward — ...in the back of a cab! For those of you who don't live in NYC, this is pretty hard to pull off. The strategy usually consists of three people hailing a cab while a fourth person hangs back from the group. After the cab has pulled over, the group of three distract the driver while the fourth ducks down, and climbs in the back ninja style!

We got out of the cab on 3rd St and got ready to perform another difficult photo stunt...

...a photo of the Hell's Angels NYC Headquarters. It's not that this one is hard to *do,* it's just that if you're seen *doing it* by one of the members of the club, it's likely that you'll get your camera (and maybe something else) broken. We walked in a tight group across the street and a snapped a sneaky shot off from the hip.

amanda, jacquie, meredith — Meredith and Amanda took Jacquie through all of our photos and collected treasures and she tallied out team's score.

Oh, they also had mixed nuts. *Denise* brand mixed nuts. I don't know why, but the brand name "Denise" makes me giggle every single time. "Oh, deez nuts? They're Denise nuts!"

Happy Birthday, Andrew! We had an awesome time! A little after 8pm, we said farewell and walked across town...

...the the Tribeca Grand Hotel. Leigh had gotten a hotel room there and had planned a surprise birthday party for Ryan.

amanda, greg k, ilirjana — Guests lying in wait.

sean d — Here's me rehearsing "the moment of surprise" with Sean. Haha.

leigh, ryan m — The birthday boy and Leigh.

greg k, ilirjana, leigh, ryan m, scott m — Haha.

amanda, meredith, scott m — Freddie, Scoots, Mer and Amanda.

We were pretty exhausted from running around town all day on the scavenger hunt. I took this photo of the clock because it was so early. Haha.

On the way home, we called and ordered a pizza. It showed up like 3 minutes after we did. Perfect timing! Happy Birthday, Andrew and Ryan!

6 comments

bev chaseapril 6, 2011
umm - are you wearing a succasunna hoodie? 5000 POINTS!
- brian battjerapril 6, 2011
  Hi Bev! Why yes, that IS a Succasunna hoodie. Amy Albano had one made and
  loved it so much that she got two more made and gave them to Jen Hoche and
  me out of the blue as gifts! Incredible, right?
meredith t.april 7, 2011
So good! Speaking of tourists pointing at a map, I am going to be in NY in late May for my bachelorette party. Can you tell me what bars you frequent these days? I'm not trying to get you to make plans to meet up, just hoping to set it up so that if we ~happened to be in the same place I'd see you and your Meredith, et. al.
- brian battjerapril 13, 2011
  Hi Meredith. Bachelorette Party, eh? Nice! Haha. Strangely enough, I don't really frequent ANY bars these days. Between the winter, being happily married and having a tiny dog that loves to cuddle, we pretty much only hang out at our apartment or our friends' apartments these days. Getting old, growing up! If we do go out, it's usually to whatever bar is the emptiest/least noisy bar that's closest. We're actually going to be out of town the last couple weeks of May (weddings!) otherwise, I'd stop by your party. :( Sorry to be missing you. Hope you have a great party!
kmeghanapril 21, 2011
OH man, that reminds me of all the awesome scavenger hunts we did in college. In my tiny one Walmart town :) I bet NYC is way more fun!
kristrevermay 7, 2011
I'm thinking you should've gotten extra points for for the people flipping you both East Coast & West Coast birds.