Ocean City vacation plan
Vocabulary in CONTEXT.md. People and tastes in docs/people.md. Decision history in grill.md and GitHub issue #1. Checklists: packing-list.md, purchase-list.md.
Schedule
| Dates | Who | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sat Sep 19 to Sat Oct 10 | Mark, Melodee | Whole vacation. Already at the rental. |
| Fri Sep 25 night to Sun Sep 27 | Jacob, Melissa | Weekend stay with Melodee only (Mark away): three players. Ra Friday, Tigris and Euphrates Saturday, So Clover! and Blue Lagoon around them. Imperial 2030 and Undaunted wait for the long stay. |
| Thu Oct 1 to Mon Oct 5 | Kurt, Rosi, Harper, Hallie, Harlee | Kurt's weekend. Only window with 11 players. |
| Fri Oct 2 night or Sat Oct 3 to Sat Oct 10 | Jacob, Melissa | Long stay. Jacob off work Oct 5 to 9. |
| Sat Oct 10, 5:30 pm | Jacob, Melissa | Robyn and Matt's wedding. Drive home to Philadelphia after. |
Greg and Marian, Sarah and Caleb: dates not pinned; both couples are expected during the long stay.
Deadlines
- Tue Sep 23: GameNerdz order in (1 to 3 days processing plus 2 to 5 days transit from Texas, worst case Oct 1).
- Tue Sep 23: Zappos order for the Tuahine (likely by Fri Sep 25).
- By Sat Sep 27: Faherty Walnut St visit for the shirt, or order online (arrives Sep 25 to Oct 1).
- By Wed Sep 30: everything else in hand.
- By Thu Oct 1: thereish player cap raised to 12 (thereish#161).
- By Fri Oct 2: wedding gift sent via the registry link.
- Fri Oct 2: Reading Terminal Market for a fresh turkey before driving down.
Games
Evening cascade
| Slot | Players | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| First game | 9 to 11 with Harper | Wavelength, Green Team Wins, thereish (once it seats 12), Codenames at 10. Monikers and Reverse Charades only if Melodee is fine with acting that night. |
| Second game | about 8 | Hot Streak (Harper can play), That's Not a Hat, Wilmot's Warehouse, Decrypto, Cockroach Poker, Mysterium, Just One at 7. |
| Late game | 5 to 6 | Container (new), Antike II, Imperial 2030, Cosmic Encounter, El Grande, Senji, Tribune. All within Mark's Tigris and Euphrates ceiling. |
| Day game | 2 to 4 | Undaunted: Normandy with Mark. Sky Team, So Clover!, Hanabi, The Crew: Mission Deep Sea with Melissa. Whale Riders and Ra with Melodee. Race for the Galaxy and Blue Moon Legends with Greg. Dominion with Sarah and Melissa. SCOUT and Pandemic with On the Brink with Caleb. Poker with the chip set for whoever's in. |
| Beach | 2 to 4 | Hive Pocket, Melodee's Qwirkle, a deck of cards. |
| Kids | Harper, Hallie | Loopin' Louie, First Orchard, Animal Upon Animal, Guess Who?, Memory with a deck. Taco Cat is Kurt's to bring. |
Buy list
Final as of Sep 25 (issue #10). Every candidate, by player count, with status and price, is in docs/games-considered.md. Buying: Undaunted: Normandy (ordered), Race for the Galaxy, Whale Riders, Dominion, Wilmot's Warehouse, Just One (GameNerdz, shipped to the rental), Container, Hot Streak, The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, That's Not a Hat, Paku Paku, Skull (TDG Philly). Skipped: Knarr, The Quest for El Dorado, Civilization.
Role play
Optional D&D one-shot with Greg as DM (he is building SessionKeeper). Bring the Starter Set box and dice; ask Greg before the trip.
Rainy-day epic
Civilization (1982) is at the parents' house, not at the beach. Skipped for this trip.
Games others bring
Melodee: Life, Mancala, Trouble, Qwirkle. Sarah and Caleb: possibly Catan and Mexican Train.
Cooking
Full kitchen. Cooks are Melodee, Sarah, and Jacob; other nights are takeout or eating out.
- Sat Oct 3: roast turkey for the full house. Fresh turkey from Reading Terminal Market on Fri Oct 2, cooked within two days.
- Wed Oct 7: Kenji's porchetta with roasted potatoes. Pork belly bought locally midweek (ShopRite in Marmora or Somers Point, or an Ocean City butcher).
- Both are among Jacob's last uncooked Food Lab recipes. The two lamb dishes wait for Philadelphia.
- Caleb brings the coffee setup.
Drinks
Ocean City is dry. Bring from home: Irish whiskey, the rye to finish, vodka, tequila. No store stop needed.
Books
All four sci-fi books are in hand or ordered, plus Jesus of Nazareth: Baptism to the Transfiguration for daily prayer. Two tones represented: reflective (Klara and the Sun, Exhalation) and comedic (Service Model, All Systems Red). Mass on Sundays at the Catholic church near the rental; half an hour of prayer daily.
Wedding, Sat Oct 10
- Ceremony 5:30 to 6:15 pm, Buttonwood Hill Campsite, Wharton State Forest, 1100 County Road 542, Egg Harbor City NJ. Park at Batsto Visitor Center, 31 Batsto Road, Hammonton, and take the shuttle.
- Reception 7 to 11 pm, White Horse Winery, 106 Hall Street, Hammonton.
- Suit and tie. Attire travels with the vacation packing in a garment bag.
- Afternoon between rental checkout and 5:30: Melodee has a plan; confirm checkout time with her.
- Registry: cash gift at https://minted.sendbirdie.com/r/robynandmatt. Site: https://robynandmatt.minted.us.
- Drive home to Philadelphia after the reception (about 50 minutes).
App: vacation.stephens.page
- Markdown files in
docs/are the content. The app renders them with checkboxes and stores only check state in SQLite. - Spring Boot 3, Thymeleaf, SQLite over JDBC, Java 21 (already on the server). One fat jar under systemd behind an Apache reverse proxy, the same pattern as dashboard.stephens.page. DNS already resolves via the wildcard; needs a vhost and a certificate.
- Public read; one shared family passphrase cookie to edit.
- Pages: schedule, packing list, purchase list, games (kept games by player count plus the cascade), books.
- Code lives in this repo under
app/.
Related issues
- JacobStephens2/vacation#1: grilling resume point.
- JacobStephens2/keeplore#58: Agent API expansion so agents never need SSH.
- JacobStephens2/keeplore#59: track items in other people's collections.
- JacobStephens2/thereish#161: raise the player cap to 12.