-Templeton (from Charlotte's Web)
Duck Beach is a very different place after the weekend. The crowds thin out as people have to get back to work. Houses are consolidated (along with their food supplies). Parties are smaller. New friends are made and deeper conversations had, as there aren't so many people around.
While we still played some volleyball and bocce and played in the ocean a little, our activities shifted a little from the weekend. We did more of these...
chilling by the pool and ingesting carbonated beverages,
celebrating birthdays (above: Charity and R. Scott),
and even played some Family Feud (girls vs. guys, of course). Side note: I think we can all agree that Brent was the best non-professional host that we've ever seen. If John O'Hurley decides to leave the show, then Brent could be an immediate fill-in.
Leaving Duck Beach was a bittersweet occasion. It's a fun place and you meet so many great people and make great memories, but eventually you just want to get really, truly clean and sleep in your own comfy bed. Thanks for an excellent Memorial Day beach vacation, everybody!
Once again, games ruled the beach. Bocce, volleyball, skimboarding, soccer, football, whiffleball, etc, dominated. And some of my friends decided that it was an opportunity to demonstrate their dancing, jumping, and dancing/jumping skills. For example:
Plus additional reunions with friends from the past, such as this trio from Condo Row at BYU.
Now I'm not an accomplished, graceful or, umm, talented dancer. I took the introductory social dance class in college and I paid attention. Obscene amounts of practice with patient dance partners helped me feel good about my abilities by the end of the semester and pass the class, to boot. But every so often, I get the urge to try something new and stretch those dance skills, and Ade helped me by allowing me to practice a little ballet (beach-style). Maybe I'll have to look into some grown-up ballet classes. I wonder how much a cod-piece costs... hahaha
After a full day on the beach with a little too much sun, we gathered at our beachhouse and had all the New York houses come over for a farewell BBQ. Seeing how many people I'd met in the last couple days was an interesting revelation and made me feel good about reaching out and meeting new people. Pretty much I feel like I'll never have to pay for hotel stay in New York.
The post-party evening included more socializing, some swimming and hot-tubbing (I'd be happy to join you for a little 
After everyone had eaten their fill, the games began. Cards, Settlers of Cataan, and Boggle were crowd favorites, and of course general discussions abounded in and out of the games.
I, on the other hand, had a date with destiny. Matt Fischer (our Bocce guru) arranged for some bocce friends to join up at the beach for some Sunday afternoon matches. Last year at the Labor Day version of Duck Beach, Camille and I showed that we are a force to be reckoned with, and we intended to carry on that dominant tradition. Let's just say we didn't disappoint. Soon the rallying cry of all the opposing teams was:
But you can't stop red. Not when these two bocce warriors are carrying the colors of blood and rampage and passion for the game of bocce. We even had one match where we had the winning throws in four consecutive rounds, which means we had 12 points and the nearest possible score was 4. To the undisputed champions, Camille and Aaron!!
Dominating opponents is tough work, and we all left the beach pretty hungry and ready for relaxation. I headed back to the beach house and grabbed some dinner, and then our whole house went to work preparing for the Guitar Acoustic Night which we were hosting in a few short hours. We hid our drink supplies and tied the cupboards shut (unfortunate, albeit necessary, tasks learned from the other New York house's vanishing-food-supplies experience during the previous night's party), moved all the furniture around to make room for the coming hordes of people, and set up the sound system for the guitar enthusiasts to show their skills. Below are a few of the talented artists who performed, including:
Jane Gardiner and Autumn Jones
Dustin "Smooth as" Currie
Sara Borg (co-emcee) with 
Lindsay Ashby and
In the evening, we cleaned up and relaxed at our beautiful beach home for a couple hours, and then stopped by another New York house that was having a huge party. Frankly, though, it was a little too much for me, and I wasn't feeling the club scene dancing, so I didn't stay too long. Back at our place, we socialized and did a little late-night swimming and hot-tubbing before hitting the sack. Phew, we'd had a jam-packed first day!
The Patriotic Potomac Pacers made a name for themselves in this race. We were known for our team spirit/patriotism, awesome wrist bands and headbands, sweet tattoos, and epic teammate handoff routine.
Though we ran hard, we also took time to have fun. Or maybe I should say that though we had fun, we also took time to run hard. haha Here's a little frolicking in the fields, indicative of the level of fun we brought to the table.
The game was fairly tame, with hits and nice catches here and there, but mostly it was a pitcher's duel. Not awesome sword-fight dueling, mind you, as in 
