Livin' It Up... Slide The City With The Urban Slide

I reached out to my best girl friends to see who would have an interest in joining me for The Urban Slide after being introduced to the upcoming event by a coworker. The Urban Slide is a 1000 foot slip and slide, which is the world's longest, sorry fellas.

A friend from my past who I lost touch with accepted my invite thru Facebook. The event was scheduled for a weekend in March but ended up cancelled and rescheduled due to severe thunderstorms. The rescheduled event was also cancelled and rescheduled due to severe weather conditions.

The weather finally cooperated last night with a two day "save the date" reminder given, although the day didn't start out promising with rain and excessive winds, but the event was still on!

(Pre Dinner and Urban Slide)

I met up with Samantha at the Empire Cafe, a spot I have not been to yet in one of my favorite areas downtown, Montrose, around 6 pm. I tried their Empire Turkey Club with a side salad with ranch and a Bloody Mary. I wasn't impressed with my selections but getting to try a slice of the Buffalo Chicken Pizza was amazing and probably the best I've ever had.

(I will never grow up! Giggles!!!)

After dinner we walked the area to check out the artwork on the buildings and peeked into some of the store windows. We walked past a coffee shop that smelled of patchouli and I was intrigued but we didn't have time at that moment to pop in since we needed to get to the event. The Urban Slide was only a 2-hour event from 8-10 pm.

We drove to the parking garage near Minute Maid Park and waited for the shuttle. Not being a public transportation person I was impressed with the limos they had for the event. We ended up on a party bus with champagne, leather seats, an LED firework backdrop, and 90's music, unfortunately no stripper pole. It was a quick drive up the road and we were dumped off at the Elysian Bridge.

(Define "appropriate behavior" and there were definitely cougars present.)

(Blow your own?!)

After presenting our tickets and signed waivers we were given our wristbands and inner tubes. For an event with an inflatable slide it was mind boggling that they were hand pumping these inner tubes. WTF?! Where is your air compressor?

As we were walking to the slide entrance the music was set to a deafening volume and at ear level. So far we were not impressed. We also noted that the slide was on the flat part of the bridge. What?!!! At the entrance you were able to pick one of two lanes, no difference. You were met with a blast of water for your running start. No joke, we ran hard landed on the tubes and only made it maybe 10 ft of the 1000. We had to pick up and slide numerous times but the few times you'd hit the perfect slick spot it was really enjoyable and we felt like little kids again. You get completely soaked on the first slide. Don't forget to wear waterproof mascara to avoid the crack whore look.

We purchased the most expensive tickets which were for the Glow-In-The-Dark Night Slider for 3 passes on the slide for $40. There was nothing glow-in-the-dark about the slide. No matter what time you went I'm assuming you'd be disappointed with one pass thru and I wouldn't recommend the event if that is your intention. P.S. - Not a spectator sport either because you can't see over the slide, but then again, I'm only 4'11" and a half.

After our wristbands were marked for our last slide we had to dump our inner tubes (we had to continue replacing them with newly pumped tubes because they kept deflating by the time you hit the bottom, a pain in the ass!).

Now it was time to catch the shuttles back. There was no direction on where the pickup was and they kept announcing the shuttles were about to shut down. We ended up finding one and as we were sitting there for over 10 minutes on a full bus we found out the driver was just in an accident and was in the process of filling out insurance paperwork. We jumped out and decided to hoof it the mile back to the parking garage to meet our ride. We walked the remainder of the Elysian Bridge barefoot because our wet flip flops were killing our feet.

Being that our designated driver just purchased a new truck with butt warmers they were worried about us being soaking wet and ruining the electrical system we had to figure out how to change into our dry clothing. The parking lot was empty so we opened the doors to somewhat shield ourselves. "Are you completely naked?" I asked Samantha. "Yay!" Following suit I stripped off my yoga capris which were glued to my skin and had no panties on. We were half naked in front of the courthouse and saw the light was about to turn green, we threw our clothes on over damp skin, UGH! But alas, we were dressed, sore, and ready for a warm treat. Lucky designated driver!

We drove back over to the restaurant where we left her vehicle and walked down the block to that patchouli scented coffee shop, Agora, around 11:30 pm. This place is a real gem with such a chill vibe, it beats the hell out of Starbucks. I tried their SpicedBrown Sugar Latte which came in a giant mug with a thick handle (my fave!!) served with sugar cubes (not a fan) and we got some sweet treats to share... baklava (okay), homemade oreo cookie (ick!), and a fluffernutter (oh em gee!! ah-amazing, well, the peanut butter cookie part minus the marshmallow). We enjoyed our coffees for about an hour before saying our goodbyes.

Even though the Urban Slide had it's inefficiencies I would go again next year if the City allows for the event and would definitely buy the $40 tickets to get the most out of it, day or night. The night was actually a lot of fun and filled with 3 completely new experiences.

Made it home around 2 am, slept like shit, and woke up sore. So worth it!!