Never having been to a rubber duck race, we were not sure what to expect...but organizers assured us that we would not be disappointed by the sight of 30,000 rubber ducks being dumped off a drawbridge and "raced" down the Chicago River.
So we sought out the best photo location (to put the ducks in their best light) and joined the throngs awaiting this annual charity fundraiser. We were not uninterested bystanders, having "adopted" a half a dozen of the little fellahs we were convinced we could combine a great family photo outing with that dream vacation they were giving away.
When the moment arrived the crowd cheerfully counted down and as you can see the ducks were fairly unceremoniously dumped off their truck and into the barely flowing river. Unlike the feathered ducks with which I'm more familiar, these didn't seem to have any particular motivation or even means of propulsion. The no doubt flustered organizers had to resort to a water canon to push the ducks along.
Much like herding cats, herding ducks turns out to be harder than it looks. the canon operator didn't push enough of the ducks forward to fill up the finishing chute and all seemed lost. After much backing and forthing and tooing and froing with the boat and gerrymandering of the race course finally one lucky duck came within reach of the net of the official race judge at the finish line.
We still don't know if it was one of our adopted ducks and whether we won the vacation, the TV or merely a warm feeling for having donated to the Special Olympics, but we do know we had a great afternoon at the Duck Races!