July 2012 - 4th Week

Here we go... the official account of the fifth week of summer vacation 2012:

Sailing:

The fifth week of the sailing program provided challenging conditions. The sailors had to deal with too much wind, not enough wind, perfect wind and biting flies, depending on the day. Four  consecutive days of high wind and/or threats of thunder storms have delayed the  launching of the Hobie. 


When we do launch the boat, we'll have a spinnaker to play with! The spinnaker arrived from the previous owner only a day or two before Hurricane Irene last year and I never had the opportunity to install it. 


The kids really enjoy dragging behind the Hobie. They jump into the water while underway and grab onto a rope that is trailing behind. They take great delight in this activity. They are so looking forward to doing it again. 


On Tuesday, Geoffrey's Sunfish II class was instructed to rig three of the club's Lasers. There were only three students that day. Geoffrey sailed away in Laser #4. He never wanted to sail a Laser. He still doesn't! In his first experience at skippering the speedy craft, he capsized three times and for good measure, he was hit in the head by the boom. 


The town is building a new marina so we had to pull the motor boat out of the water for a few weeks. That's OK as it gives me some time to make a few minor adjustments to the console. They called to say they are refunding one-half of the slip rental. That's nice!

Activities:

Our gang participated in an SCYC sponsored trip to the Eagleswood Amusement Park (just down the road from home). They had a great time as you can see in the accompanying pics.

First time behind the wheel!

Driving the big carts

The Big Slide

Mini Golf

Traffic Jam

The Hurricane

Bungee Jump Tricks

The Big Slide

Bungee Jump Tricks

Mini Golf

In the Cage

Flying High

Treasure Hunting and Crafting:

In an effort to keep everybody engaged in summer activities, I introduced the kids to Treasure Hunting (aka Geocaching). We reviewed the concept and discussed information found at geocaching.com. On Wednesday, we set off to find our first treasure. This first effort was a boys only affair as the girls went to make a craft at A. C. Moore. 


We needed to put the truck in 4 wheel drive mode to negotiate the deep puddles on the dirt road that led to the area where the cache was located. We found the location rather easily, but the treasure was not to be found. We looked around, but we weren't sure what we were supposed to find. After one-half hour, we decided to go home to see if we could get more information. The cache was less than three miles from home so we made it back in a few minutes. 


The girls were waiting for us. They crafted Olympic medals and were eager to show them off. They did a really nice job.


We told the girls about the treasure hunt. They wanted to participate too. We got a bit more information off the computer and went back to the site. Before we left, the kids selected items they could leave in place of the treasures they would find. We had a limited amount of time because Geoffrey's Mom had already arrived. She's taking him on an outing. His friend called to invite him to the Pinelands Festival. We only had one-half hour to look for the treasure. With five kids, I thought it was "in the bag." Which kid would find the cache? They looked and looked but once again, we were foiled. We had to leave without finding it.


They weren't deterred. We looked up five other caches that are within a five mile drive. We'll do another one in a day or two!  


After Claire returned home from her Thursday morning sailing class, we all hoped into the truck armed with information for three local geocache sites. The first cache ("A Place to Clear Your Head") was located in a very public place. We know exactly where the cache should have been, but alas, it wasn't there.

The gang proudly displays the ammo container that holds their first ever geocache!

With spirits still high, we set of on the second treasure hunt of the day. The gang struck it rich  at the "Treasure at the Forge" site. It was a team effort and the cache was loaded with lots of goodies. Prizes were exchanged and after a quick cooling off dip in the cedar stream, we were off to find the third cache ("Green Acres"). This too was in a very public place. Just like the first one of the day, we found exactly where the cache was supposed to be. Once again, we found nothing. The kids weren't disappointed since the only thing we expected to find was the log book. 


When we got home, they excitedly told Granny about their expeditions. They want to go out again tomorrow (Friday)! Matt and Sandi took them to the "Green Acres" cache site that we checked out yesterday. This time they found the treasure!

Happy Birthday Claire:

We celebrated Claire's 10th birthday with cheese cake and ice cream. Shelley makes the absolute best cheese cake on the planet! The ice cream was superfluous.

Happy Birthday!

Swimming:

Swimming or should I say playing in the water is one of our favorite summertime activities. We have enjoyed several locations on the bay and in the near fresh water of West Creek where the cedar water stream dumps into the tidal water of Little Egg Harbor Bay. We even got to go wading in cedar water while geocaching  in Stafford Forge.

Action on the Hibachi Court:

Early in the week, Claire and I played a game of Bocce Ball on the Hibachi Court. We had a great game with each player making some nifty shots. I'm very happy with how the court plays. So far, the only maintenance it needs is a weekly grooming.

On Thursday, Geoffrey and Madi played Josh and Rose. It was an exciting game. There were several lead changes and some magnificent shots. With Geoffrey and Madi holding a slim one point lead (6-5) Josh and Rose came storming back by scoring two points to secure a 7-6 win on the final tosses of the game.