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Amazing Race Canada


AuntCloud

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Has anyone caught this last night? in my defence, I was trying to finish my quota of hand-piecing for the day (next quilt is in the works after finally finishing a beast last week) and half-watched it.

... watching the double amputee walk on the beam over the canyon was terrifying and uncomfortable.

... the hippie couple made me think of Lauren - and then they won tickets to Australia!

... loved the gay cowboys and not just because they're from my province.

... couldn't stand the guy from the doctor pair. I'd rather operate on myself with a grapefruit spoon than have him treat me, what a snoot.

... felt bad for the twins who came last.

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Haven't watched it yet, but it looks like I'll have to at least see the pilot because it's based in Kelowna, where I live! To think that a TV series is filming in the places I have spent time in since childhood. I guess for people from major cities this is old hat, but it's been a major source of excitement here. AuntCloud, I bike those canyons a few times a year!

Unfortunately, they'll probably have a nicer portrayal of the locals than any real Kelowna resident can tell you about. (NOTE: Don't ever move there unless you're prepared for massive bitchiness.)

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I am seriously tempted to hop in my car and pay you a visit!

I'll bring my bike, that canyon looked wonderful (and half the bike paths in Calgary are closed now anyways).

Bummer about the bitchiness - a friend of mine moved to AB for a different reason, she lived in Kelowna for a year and 9 months out of that year were cloudy and gloomy.

So go and watch the show, I'm curious about your comments!

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AuntCloud, if you want to make a trip to Kelowna I am totally willing to meet up!

Insider Observations (long and barely coherent, but snarky):

Hi, Jon Montgomery! You're still adorable.

Out of the contestants, I also like the gay cowboys. Father and son seem good. Is "best friends" a euphemism for partner? I hate to assume that, because it seems highly old-fashioned of me, but then CTV could be the highly old-fashioned ones. I'm just going to assume they're besties for now. The BC couple are totally home-province hippies. Hi guys! What do you want to bet they have a waterproof pouch full of weed in that kayak? The married doctors seem excessively bitchy. Ahh, it's the Body Break couple! Had no idea they were Canucks. Welcome back, 1993!

I think I'm either Team Hippie or Team Gay Cowboy at the moment. Let's go.

Soooo they spend approximately five minutes in Ontario before heading off to my exotic (by Ontario standards) hometown. I find it interesting that only the gay cowboys seem to know that they're going somewhere more specific than "BC", including the couple who are actually from BC. GUYS, stop looking so happy, Kelowna is not the pretty coast you see on all the postcards, it's like Arizona's unloved mutated clone. (I can say this, I'm from there.) "Everybody loves a gay cowboy!" "My cousin has been you for Halloween many a year." Ouch.

Seeing them walking through Pearson is like having a strange flashback. I even know which gate they're probably going to. Okay, so is it bad of me to say that the most arduous part of the journey has to be the Pearson-Kelowna trip? Having flown it approximately a dozen times in various configurations, my heart is with you, contestants. Stay strong through the bad service and bumpy weather. And choose the Bits N' Bites, not cookies.

There's my airport, and they're off. I drive by half this stuff on the way to work! Eek. I can tell which cross-streets they're on, and which shortcuts they're missing. Whenever they get lost I'm like, "Go over there! No, turn, you moron!" Heh. YEAH, the hippies got there first! The Blue Bear, by the way, is either loathed or loved by the locals. And I can tell you that that door at the airport is always screwed up - you get stuck behind it whenever you're in a hurry, of course. So a bunch of guys are stuck in the airport and a couple of teams are lost. However, they all (eventually) get there and have to rent personal watercrafts. Aaand they get to stay at the Kelowna Yacht Club - on a houseboat. I'm pretty sure that's the same houseboat where a teacher of mine had his 60th birthday. YOU GUYS THIS IS WEIRD. Bitching, forming alliances - par for the course on any reality show. Now they're running through City Park. If the hippies don't get distracted by the potheads who constantly occupy it, things should proceed as usual.

Okay, so they join the thousands of Sea-Doos on the lake and go to a platform, diving through Lake Okanagan (an extremely deep lake) for treasure - an Ogopogo statue with clues on it. Considering the barbarous nature of reality show producers, we're lucky they didn't stick it on the real Ogopogo. He exists, don't worry about that.

Guys they Sea-Doo right past my childhood summer camp! WHAT IS HAPPENING. Okay, we're off to Myra Canyon, a popular biking trail which is known for being on fire. (It burned all the historic railway trestles about ten years ago and a lot of people were sadder about that than all the folks made homeless in the same fire. Classy.) Seriously, though, it's great terrain which can make twenty-three kilometres feel like twenty-three metres.

They name a bunch more streets I go by on a regular basis. CFK continues to freak out. Okay, so they're bungee-jumping off the trestle. I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THAT. They are sent off to Quails' Gate Winery (I've had many meals there and got hired there once), which is located near Mount Boucherie, an extinct volcano. EEEEK. Myra Canyon to Quails' Gate is quite a schlep, so these guys are really going to have to compete. Considering that a few teams are still at the lake (almost as far from the canyons as the winery - you have to cross the lake to get to QG), it might not be such an issue. The gay cowboys and the twins are dead last.

Somehow they need to work in teams to find one of the Okanagan's biggest tourist attractions. Guys, it's not that freaking hard. There are signs that say "Quail's Gate" pretty much everywhere. I should point out here that the winery is in WEST Kelowna, not Kelowna, which is an entirely different city. Boo. Okay, I really like the hippies and am glad they won this round. As AC suggested, they could totes meet up with Lauren (or Hellatrix and Currydong) on their trip. Significantly less pleased that the bitchy doctors are in second. (PS: Among the houses on that hill behind them is the place where I studied voice for years!)

I didn't like the twins at first (their matchy-matchy stuff was kind of grating), but felt bad for them when they lost. It was sweet how the cowboys tried to comfort them. Yup, definitely a Canadian show. Well, that was an exercise in insanity.

TL;DR: Kelowna girl freaks out over constant hometown references, offers some tips about the city for interested viewers. Show itself is pretty good, I guess.

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I like it so far. I'm curious it they'll go north or just west to east - also want to see if they visit my hometown (Halifax) :)

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