Family Vacation at the Lake, Part 1 of 2

For the last 5 years or so, my father's side of the family has started vacationing together again, like we did every other year when I was growing up. We've been renting houses at various lakes in Virginia and North Carolina for swimming, fishing, boating, cooking, doing puzzles, playing games, shooting off rockets, competing at miniature golf, and watching movies together. Here are some older posts: 2019 at Smith Mountain Lake, 2020 at Lake Anna, 2021 at Lake Anna.

We all stayed in this massive house with 7 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, a pool, a jacuzzi, and a double-decker boat dock. The fish weren't biting (except for the big one that got away the last night), but several of us kayaked and/or paddle-boarded for the first time. We completed 3 puzzles and watched 3 movies (Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2 and Blazing Saddles).

One of the nicer features of the house was a collection of hummingbird feeders off the back deck, so we could watch the birds flit around and feed. Unfortunately, I never could get a good picture of them.

There were engagement and housewarming gifts for NE and CC. And we celebrated C(LR)E's birthday with cupcakes and ice cream cake.

We played so many games: Code Names, Train Dominoes, Monopoly, Exploding Kittens, and Unstable Unicorns. We also did a "mystery box" that involved a series of logic puzzles to figure out who was committing murder on an island in the middle of a nor'easter! 

Stay tuned for Part 2.