What I Read On My Summer Vacation

It has been two weeks since that last Grandstander post hit the digital streets, so it is time to report in.  During that time, Mr. and Mrs. Grandstander spent a week, as we have done for the last 32 years, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, specifically, the town of Corolla in Currituck County.  We had beautiful weather, 

relaxed on the beach with cold beverages,

celebrated the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Jim and Judy,

and had a wonderful week spending time with various Moellenbrocks, Stoners, and Richards.

"Enough about all that" I can hear you all saying, "we want to know what did you read while lounging on the beach last week?"

Okay, I consumed two books while in Corolla.

This is a book by acclaimed golf writer Jim Dodson, and it is another one that I highly recommend to all golfers among you.

It is more of a memoir of Dodson's life as he sets out to accomplish the golf "bucket list", although that term was unknown at the time, that he set for himself as a young boy.  As reporter and magazine journalist, Dodson was in position to accomplish many of these goals (playing at St. Andrew's, make a hole in one, meet Arnold Palmer, to name a few), and he tells these stories in a folksy and very well written manner.  If I have any criticism, it is that at times Dodson elevates the game of golf and the playing of it to an existential level way beyond what it actually is.  I mean, I love golf and enjoy playing it, but at times I just wanted to say "C'MON MAN, your playing golf, not curing cancer or bringing peace to the Middle East."  But that's a minor quibble, and if you are a regular golfer, you will enjoy it.  A happy by-product of reading this is that I think it will prompt me to re-read Dodson's classic 1996 book, "Final Rounds", the story of his final father-son golf trip shortly before his father's death.  That is a book that is not just about golf.

Three and one-half stars from The Grandstander.

Looking for something that would be light, quick, and entertaining, I finally got around to reading a novel from Florida author Tim Dorsey.  Like my long time favorite Carl Hiaasen, Dorsey writes comic crime novels that feature the crazed and looney characters that only seem to populate the state of Florida. 

I won't even try to describe the plot of "Hammerhead Ranch Motel" other than to say that it is violent, scary in the casualness of the criminals described in it, and wildly funny.  (Marilyn accused me of making a total ass of myself on the beach one day because I was laughing so uncontrollably at one point.  Can you imagine such a thing?)  I couldn't believe that I had never read any of Dorsey's books before now, but on the bright side, I now know that there are over a dozen Tim Dorsey crime novels out there for me to read and enjoy.  Discovering that was like getting an early birthday present.

Three stars from The Grandstander.

OBX Time

It has been two weeks since we returned from the Annual Moellenbrock/Sproule/Stoner/Richards vacation in Corolla, NC, and I didn't want to let any further time pass without commenting on it.

Nothing new really happened for us at the Outer Banks this year, which is one of the charms of this annual trip (this was year #33 for this trip).  Familiar places and routines with people that you care about.

For the most part, we had good weather.  We got to the beach every day, although two of those days were shortened due to rain.  These conditions made for some pretty spectacular photos.

And we had our normal beachhead every day...

For the night that Marilyn and I were responsible for dinner, we had our annual "theme night".  This year, the theme was "Super Heroes"....

Everyone got into the spirit....

I, of course, had my own definition of a "super hero"....

It was, as I said, a good week.  Each year it gets more crowded and the traffic seems to get a little worse, but it is still a week that we cherish.

See you next year, Outer Banks....

Another OBX Vacation in the Books!

For what the 31st consecutive summer, we vacationed on North Carolina's Outer Banks, specifically, Corolla in Currituck County.  What can I say?  The fact that we return again and again tells you that we find this to be a magical and special place, and the 2015 trip was no exception.

I won't bore you all with a lot of stories, but here a few thoughts, impressions, and photos from OBX 2015.

Traffic arriving on any given Saturday is never easy or fun, but for whatever reason, we encountered Traffic Armageddon this year.  I will never be able to convey the true horror of the gridlock we experienced, but suffice to say, it took us over five hours to travel the final 14 miles into Corolla on Saturday.  Never experienced anything like it, nothing even close to it.  It was not one of our finest hours over the years, that's for sure.  However, everything was great once we finally got there!

This is what flew over the beaches on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday:

You never want to see the beach red-flagged, but if you saw the nature of the rip tides those days, you didn't want to go in much over your knees anyway.  All was well for the remainder of the week, though.  Calm and temperate waters, nice waves.  No sharks.  None that we saw, anyway.

As you may know, on our night to make dinner, Marilyn and I always make it a theme night.  This year it was "Beach Party".

Saw some interesting cloud formations one afternoon:

Enjoyed some pool time after coming up from the beach each day:

And continue to be amazed as the "third generation" continues to grow up:

When we first started making these trips, these kids' parents were younger than they are now, and, come to think of it, they actually represent the FOURTH generation of the Moellenbrock family who have made these annual treks.

And in keeping with another tradition, Nathan, Marilyn and I walked up to the beach on our last night to say good-bye for another year.

See you next year, Outer Banks, but, really, we have to figure out something to mitigate that incoming traffic next time around.

Outer Banks Vacation 2014

So, we are back from our annual Outer Banks vacation.  As always, it was great trip and a great time.  

I won't bore you with a lot of details and pictures, but here are a few highlights....

Our a annual "Theme Night", which Marilyn and I do (and who am I kidding, you all know that Marilyn does most of the work on this) was a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Beatles arrival in America.  The room was appropriately decorated:

Niece Cale Richards got into the spirit of the night:

And the cousins did their part by recreating an iconic Beatles image:

For the meal, we made fajitas, but I can assure you that they were British fajitas:

We celebrated the upcoming beginning of Zach's college career:

I received an ocean-themed pedicure from Cale:

I made a new friend at the beach...

...and we enjoyed typical beach fun:

And, of course, Marilyn and I dined at our favorite Corolla dining spot:

On a more serious note, we witnessed something we had never seen in our almost thirty years of visiting the OBX -  a lifeguard swimming our right in front of us to pull in two people who had gotten caught in a riptide and drifted just a bit too far out.  Now, THAT was an impressive, and a sobering, sight to see.

So we put another excellent trip to the Outer Banks beaches in the books, and I'll close with this sunset scene from the porch on the first night of our visit:

Spectacular, isn't it?

Outer Banks Vacation Thoughts

You may have noticed the absence of Grandstander posts in recent days, and this was due to the fact that we took our annual vacation to Corolla, NC and the wonderful beaches of Currituck County on North Carolina's Outer Banks.

What can I say?  It was another outstanding week.  Good weather - we made it to the beach every single day.  Very hot on most days, and the ocean was very swimmable on all days but one, when high winds made it pretty choppy to venture into.  In fact, the only glitch we encountered was our trip in on Saturday from Williamsburg, VA to Corolla.  Normally, this is about a two and one-half hour ride, but for some ungodly reason, it took us SIX HOURS to make the trip this time around.  Maddening, but by that first Sunday afternoon at the beach, or maybe it was after that first beer at lunch when finally did get to Corolla, all was forgotten, and we settled in for another great week at the OBX. 

I read a great book down there, "Bad Monkey", the latest from Carl Hiaasen.  You just cannot go wrong reading a Hiaasen novel!  Also started to read a book by Max Allen Collins called "Bye, Bye Baby".  More on that one when i finish it.

This was the vacation of connectivity.  When you added it all up, there were five iPads and two laptops in the house that had a WiFi connection.  Not sure how I feel about this, but we were able to keep up with email, Facebook, and, thanks to the terrific MLB at Bat app, the Pirates!  A good thing about all these gadgets is that the television was hardly on at all the entire time we were there.

And speaking of Facebook, I left the mark of perhaps THE best group page on all of Facebook:

And if you are wondering what the "theme" was the night that Marilyn and I hosted dinner, wonder no more....

Yes, we saluted Hollywood and the movies, with a red carpet and everything.  As you can see, Marilyn arrived by limousine:

And while we (or at least me) always think of bikini-clad babes when we think "beach", I thought I'd do a little something for the ladies out there, by presenting a little beefcake for your pleasure:

Yep, we really love the Outer Banks. There is just nothing like a beach vacation.

Gee, but It's Great To Be Back Home....

So, have you all noticed the absence of The Grandstander in recent days? Oh, you haven't.  

Well, anyway, we were away last week on our annual sojourn to the beautiful beaches of Currituck County on North Carolina's Outer Banks.  It was yet another great week down there, but a bit different for all of us due to the fact that circumstances prevented Jill, Ryan, Gavin, and Cale from joining us this year.  That was a definite bummer for us all, but for the eight of us who were there, we made the most of it and had a great week.

High winds, cooler weather, and red flagged beaches got the week off to less than rousing start, but on Tuesday morning, the red flags came down and the hot weather rolled in.  We didn't miss a day on the beach, and it was great to cool off in the pool at the house after the hot trudge home from the beach in late afternoon.

It was great to spend a week with Zach and Nate, in spite of the realization that not only are they no longer babies, nor even little kids any more, but young adults.  The skim board that Zach struggled with last year he now rides like a pro.  And one of Marilyn's and my big memories from this trip will be the rousing games of  Sequence that we played with the boys one night.

I did a lot of reading down there this year:

• Stolen Prey by John Sandford
• The Sixth Phase by Robert J. Randisi
• The First Rule by Robert Crais
• After Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger
• Lifeboat No. 8, An Untold Tale of Love, Loss and Surviving the Titanic by Elizabeth Kaye

I will write about the first three more fully in separate posts, but I will point out that the last two on the lists are Kindle Singles.  If you own a Kindle and haven't checked out the Singles, you really need to do so.  They are short (anywhere from 40 to 100 printed pages), cheap ($.99 to $2.99), and feature some very well known writers.  Perfect for reading on the beach or poolside, or just before going to bed.

We also took our iPad with us and were fortunate in that the house did have a wireless set-up.  Thus, were were able to keep up with the news here at home which included the terrific week experienced by the Pirates after they were swept by the Orioles right before we left.  As you can see from the photo accompanying this post, we did our best to spread Pirates fever along the OBX.

As has been the pattern in recent years, we left the beach house at 2:15 AM on Saturday and pulled into our driveway at home at 11:45, a mere nine and one-half hours later.  Of course, we were totally exhausted last night, but that early morning effort is well worth it.  You avoid all the heavy home bound traffic until you hit the PA Turnpike in Breezewood, and, by the way, that stretch on the PA Pike is still the worst part of the trip, coming and going.

I once had a boss at Highmark who said with great wisdom, I thought, that "some vacations are better than others, but there is no such thing as a bad one".  I concur whole heartedly, but I also concur with the words of the great Paul Simon that headline this particular post.