Return From Camping

The family reunion went surprisingly well. We were one of the last to arrive Thursday night, so I wasn't planning on gaming since it was getting late. However I heard a voice coming from the campfire, "Hey! I have this great new game called Apples to Apples. Wanna play?" Of course the ones who know me better then replied, "Oh, you better get Steve over here - he loves games."

So we played with about 10 people until we could no longer read the cards by the dying campfire. Since this was a public campgrounds I'm afraid we were a little to...enthusiastic. No, we were just plain loud. I felt bad for those who came up for some peaceful, quite camping.

Next morning I was up early. I went down the the lake edge and watched the sun rise then took a hike for some exploring. I tried to come up with some pithy saying relating games and life but came up blank. So I headed back.

Everyone was still asleep. Lightweights. Being who I am, I pulled out my game case and the Book of Classic Board Games. I'm not much of an abstract fan, but this was a way to kill time. So I played a game of solitare and then some Go on the 9x9 board in the book. Go really facinates me. It's really the only abstract that does. I've never actually played a game with another person yet.

I was about halfway through when people starting waking up. When they saw me already up and playing by myself, there were a lot of rolling of the eyes and looks of "he's the strange one in the family". Hardly.

After breakfast, the family split. About half went down to the lake to play in the water and half went huckleberry picking. I convinced two of my brothers-in-law (not too hard to do) to hang back and get a game started. I pulled out Modern Art. I had played only once or twice before and had a hard time remembering the details of the game (it was the only set of rules that didn't get packed). But I explained the basics and we were off.

As we were nearing the end, something finally clicked in my brain. I had to not only worry about how much the painting was going to be worth, but how much I was paying to the others. Pretty basic strategy, I know, but it finally made sense to me. Gene was going for a landslide victory in the last round, but David and I had enough cards of another artist to kill Gene's profits. I managed to barely win. They both really enjoyed it and started a conversation on what they would do differently in the first few rounds now that they knew how to play. Ah...after game analysis! Is there anything better?

The huckleberry pickers came back and we all joined the rest down at the lake. Most of us went swimming (COLD!) or canoing while the grandparents sat on the shore and chatted. I started up a "How Deep Can I Dig a Hole In the Sand" and was quickly joined by all the little kids. We didn't get that deep (to me anyways) because we were so close to the water, but the kids enjoyed digging and then having one of them stand in it and burying them up to their waist.

Lunch rolled around and I began to wish I owned a hammock. Not having one, I propped myself up under a nearby tree and snoozed. I woke up a little bit later to the distinctive clatter of Can't Stop pieces. Does that make me even more a board game geek when game pieces can be identified by their sound? I wandered over to where a lot of the girls were gathered and listened to the smack-talk and watched the final throws. They offered to play again, but Can't Stop isn't really a favorite of mine so I offered to teach them a new game, Mamma Mia.

I really botched this one up. Instead of being intelligent and rereading the rules to refresh my memory, I started rattling things off. They picked up the basic idea quickly, so I thought everything was good. However, when it got down to scoring the pizzas it got confusing. We finished and they said it was all right but nothing great. I had to agree.

We sat around and visited with other family for a bit and then struck up another game, Quo Vadis. I got Gene and David to play again and my wife joined us this time. None of us had played before, so we were very hesitant for the first part and there wasn't much negotiation. It wasn't until near the very end that we realized the laurels were what was going to win the game. I was in absolutly no position to get anymore and we couldn't stop Gene from voting himself into the last spot in a few turns. I came in last and David won. We all liked it and would like to try it again now that we know what is going on.

We were called to dinner so we sat around and talked some more. As the light started to fade Apple to Apples came out again, this time with a lot more people wanting to play. I wasn't sure if I could handle a party game (everyone was looking pretty tired to begin with) so I nobly offered to put my three kids to bed so my wife could stay up and play. Everyone thought I was a great husband/father...don't you love family politics?

As we were packing up early next morning to go home, my wife told me how it went. Apparently she strongly dislikes the way they were playing. Everyone gets a card in, no speed, no competition, and (when it came to a few of her sisters) no rhyme or reason to the style of playing. For example: my wife's youngest sister (age 17) loves TV (side note: this is the girl who also brought a hair dryer, curling iron, makeup, etc.). The description on the card she read was "boring" and someone turned in the card "Television". Well, she picked that one just because she loves TV and doesn't think it is boring at all. Things like that really ruined it for my wife and probably others as well.

Looking back it was a pretty good weekend. I got to play more games than I expected. I probably would have brought less games in order to play some of them more times, but that might not have happened in any case. All in all, I'm happy with my family, happy with life, and happy I'm a board game geek!