TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars - Finale

A very belated congratulations to Eric and Danielle for winning the Amazing Race and $1 million dollars after being "Yielded" twice, surviving an elimination penalty, and basically tolerating each other. The editors made their relationship look less stable than maybe it really is. I did not think they would survive so long in the race. In the end, Eric's memory of Danielle's opinions of the other teams may have made the difference. In other words, he did "listen to the woman."

The final challenge was a inventive one. Based an answers to questions about the other team, one team member generated a 4-digit code to lock the sort of safe you would see in a hotel. Then the other team member would enter the room and hope to arrive at the same answers to unlock the safe.

It was an interesting final leg. It did not look like the teams left 12 hours after they arrived like they normally do. It may have been more like 24 hours. The teams had to fly from Guam to Hawaii and for a while it looked like Charla and Mirna had once again found a better flight than other teams to gain a 20 minute lead. The first challenge did not seem very difficult or take long to do. The order did not change as each team finished as the next team arrived at that first challenge. The next challenge was a little more difficult as the teams had to paddle a kayak in rough waters to reach the next clue. [Memories of my second to last shoulder dislocation came haunted me when I saw the Beauty Queens capsize.] Charla and Mirna fell deep into last place and I thought it would spell the end for them.

However, the next clue told teams to go to San Francisco but they had to book flights into Oakland International Airport. The smaller number of flights to choose from allowed the teams to be tied again. This brought them to the final challenge mentioned above. The teams left for the final pit stop just a few minutes apart (1st were Eric and Danielle, then the Beauty Queens, and Charla and Mirna) but I guess the traffic in San Francisco and random taxi drivers did not allow for any lead changes.

Funny that last week I talked about flying from San Francisco to Manila via Hawaii and Guam. Travel has changed quite a bit since then. The teams had to go to Tokyo (Narita) first to get to Honolulu.

I have visited most of the Hawaiian Islands except for Lanai. Although I have lived practically my whole life in San Francisco, I have never been inside the Old Mint or the Botanical Gardens. I would still need Google Maps to figure out the fastest way between those two points as well. I only rode the cable cars for the first time a few years ago. But I guess it is typical for people to visit the tourist attractions closest to them last. I will be spending a bit more time in San Francisco next week for Oracle OpenWorld. Maybe I will hit a few more tourist spots then. Yosemite is still on my list of places to visit.

Next Episode: The First Leg of Season 12 and a chance to see some hopefully interesting brand new teams.