A Unique Portland Bachelor Party

Jai was provided with complimentary bottles of Sobieski Vodka and Camus Cognac to take along to his brother’s bachelor party, which took place on the same night as the bachelorette party. Here’s what happened next…

This was not your typical Bachelor Party. When I brought out the Sobieski Vodka and Camus Cognac everyone looked very impressed and it was well received. However, I was there at the party early to learn the “secret plan” and, as it turned out, alcohol didn’t really come in to play until later in the evening.

A Unique Portland Bachelor Party: "Man Scouts"

We left the vodka and Cognac at home and made our way to Kelley Point Park in North West Portland where we were given sashes and “Merit badges”. We learned that the Groom was blindfolded and being driven to the park to meet up with us soon. The theme of the party was the “Man Scouts”; Based on the boy scouts but with a manly twist. We basically pretended that the Man Scouts were a secret society and that we and all belonged to for many years, and finally felt that the groom (who happens to be my little brother) was ready to become a candidate. When the groom finally arrived we brought him down to the banks of the Willamette river where he had to swim out to a pylon to get his sash. This was the first test that had to be passed to become a member of the Man Scouts.

Once this sash was retrieved, there were many events and tests that he had to complete to earn the requisite merit badges. The first event was Water Polo in the Willamette river with a greased watermelon. Fortunately the water was warmer than I had expected! I have to say that this is not as easy as it sounds. The watermelon is slippery and not very buoyant! Trying to take the melon by force didn’t work well. Most points were earned by trickery. One person held the watermelon between his knees and casually floated to the goal line while pretending to not know where the watermelon was. Once this event was finished the next display of manliness was for the groom to break the watermelon with his bare hands. The rest of us then scooped out a handful of watermelon and ate it like real men!

Next, the groom had to earn his weapon mastery merit badge by breaking three water-filled “Balloons” using three weapons. The first was to be broken by a slingshot, the second by a blow gun, and the third with his fist. This sort of thing went for several hours with various events… fire making, raft building, sewing, tracking, cooking, just to name a few off the top of my head. We had a great deal of fun just acting like kids for an afternoon.

Each of these events earned our groom-to-be a new merit badge to add to his collection and around the time the sun was getting low in the sky, all the merit badges had been earned. Just as we were about to leave, the final, unexpected event was getting to see an enormous flock of pelicans fly over. It was quite a spectacular show.

We made our way back to the house where the bachelorette party was just winding down. Being able to just mingle and relax with the Sobieski Vodka and Camus Cognac after a long and fun day was the perfect ending.