We met up with a bunch of Macalester alums to hang out at a rented beachhouse on Topsail Island---there were about 13-14 of us at any given time although people came and went throughout the week depending upon their work/vacation schedules.
The most stressful decision to be made on any given day was which swimsuit to wear and if we would hang out on the deck overlooking the beach, sit down on the beach and read, or get in the beautifully warm and clear water. We had a game involving tossing golfballs attached to a rope, onto a rack where each rung had different points. I was very bad at it--as I am bad at most things that involve tossing/throwing with any degree of accuracy. Ian, on the other hand, was quite good at it.
What I did turn out to be good at was boogie-boarding(sp?). By the last day I finally got the hang of it and was able to catch waves to ride all the way into shore, and it was fantastic! Too bad I couldn't have figured it out earlier.
We had a great time. It was an interesting mix of personalities and they were all great company. I had never taken a vacation where I didn't feel the need to do anything and, while I don't feel a need to do it often, it was definitely relaxing. At the beginning of the week, we were thinking that we would probably borrow one of the cars and take a little day trip to explore the Outer Banks to our north but the week just sort of flowed by and we never really felt motivated enough to bother.
I must say that 13-14 people--at least half of them being young men in their mid-20s eat a lot! It seems that everyday someone would go to the grocery store to stock up on massive amounts of groceries and within 24 hours we would be down to just about nothing. One day Ian and I decided to cook for the group and we chose spaghetti and meatballs because we figured that would be about the easiest but still it is a lot of work to feed that many.
From here we fly to Atlanta, then Chicago where we pick up Ian's car, which is there because he had been working in Rockford, IL for the 2 weeks prior to our trip, and then we drive to Minneapolis and we should get in at about midnight. Poor Ian hasn't been home since July 7th and that was only for a couple days since just before that we were in Montana.