Sunday, July 10, 2016

OBX 2016

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It was winter and cold and we were all sitting around Mom Mom's when someone mentioned the beach. Immediately, Allen, Katherine and Mom Mom started looking at rental houses that would accommodate all nine of us (Katherine & Lee, Sharon & Don, and John, Allen, Owen, Nora and myself) in comfort. They promptly found one, booked it and everyone forgot about it. 

Except, Katherine -- she started plotting. See, Katherine believes fun is at it's best when it's organized and that competitions involving points and trophies, are the best kind of fun to be had. So while the rest of us hunkered down for the winter, Katherine started making color coordinated tally boards and contemplating scoring mechanisms to optimize our fun at the outer banks.

We arrived (we arrived last, despite leaving first) to the beautiful Pelican's Perch on Sunday and after unpacking and enjoying a delicious meal of Pasta Bolognese, headed to the beach for an inaugural game of Bocce (5 points, Grandpa Don). We awoke on July 4th to a beautiful sunrise and headed to the beach for swimming/boogie boarding/reading/and a little imbibing before a night of burgers, board games (Taboo - 1 point per team member), Bocce (5 points Uncle L) and some fireworks.

For the rest of the week we alternated between beach time, pool time and game time. There was a side trip to play miniature golf (5 points Grandpa Don), Duck Donuts (no points, but come on, donuts!), a magic show, ladderball (1 point Nora), Pool Pong (1 point Uncle L), kite flying, Pass the Pig (1 point Mom Mom), boogie boarding, Head Bands (3 points Elaine), swimming, and a sundry of chores (1 point Grandpa Fawcett). At some point there was a coup and Owen & Nora declared themselves game masters, but this was strongly contested by Katherine so it was never clear at the end who was in charge.

But most importantly, there was Corn Hole (1 point per participant with a tournament at the end). Mom Mom and Grandpa Fawcett started off strong early on, but after a bad draw for Uncle L (he got partnered with Elaine) and perhaps heat exhaustion from the matriarch and patriarch, Owen, the young upstart, was able to come in under the radar, rise above a technical loss in an early round (no one bothered to tell him he needed to miss the surface in order to beat Mom Mom and Grandpa Don), Owen managed to make the game winning throw to win the tournament and secure for himself the Pelican's Cup.

It was the best beach vacation ever (nary a sick child anywhere) and we can't wait to get back. Though with more clarification about scoring early on...

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 (Click here for all the pictures)

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