Okay, maybe only five of the Seven. Two years ago, five of us met up in Indianapolis for Gen Con, and last year four of us were at Casa del Becher in Florida. This year, my new(ish) house was the destination. Since travel is all weird this year, Bech, Derek, and Dirk piled into a rental van and drove from St. Louis to Montana. Twenty-six hours on the road, with a stop in Omaha to pick up Aron. Oof.
Once they were here, though, we had a grand time. We mostly played board games, with breaks to go out on the lake or shoot some pool or just talk and laugh about our thirty-plus-year history together.
Derek enjoyed relaxing in the cool lake water. He decided paddleboarding wasn’t for him, so instead he just floated behind his board for about an hour.
Aron worked on standing on his paddleboard and eventually managed it. Then he decided to strike a yoga pose; this is some odd form of warrior:
We learned some new games, including Rising Sun, which turned out to be fairly complicated and not worth the effort.
The perennial favorite Power Grid probably saw half a dozen plays, which was great because it’s one I really enjoy. Also, I win that one a lot.
We learned Endeavor and after a few games, had the strategy down.
Let’s not forget Terraforming Mars, which is pretty high on the complexity scale but definitely popular with this group.
Grilling burgers and steaks, commenting on the hot summer weather (and lack of air conditioning in the house), sitting around in the courtyard until 2am… it was really awesome to hang out with these yahoos from my childhood.
Where will we meet up next year? It’s not clear yet, but since this is the third year in a row, it’s now officially an annual tradition. Maybe one of these times we’ll actually get all seven of the Magnificent Seven together…