{"id":457,"date":"2014-11-15T12:22:31","date_gmt":"2014-11-15T16:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andysrandomstuff.com\/blog\/?p=457"},"modified":"2014-11-15T12:22:31","modified_gmt":"2014-11-15T16:22:31","slug":"yurt-alert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andysrandomstuff.com\/blog\/?p=457","title":{"rendered":"Yurt Alert!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello everyone!<\/p>\n

A lot has happened since I last updated. First of all, I would like to extend my gratitude for all the appreciation I received on Veterans Day. Gwen and I had a great day on Tuesday; we went to Applebee’s for lunch, an then we finally got around to seeing the USS ALBACORE<\/a> museum. This was a very interesting trip, especially for someone like me who is a student of warship construction and evolution. Walking through that small ship, it was easy to spot advancements that were the antecedents of later designs, like the 688 SSNs I’ve served on. I definitely recommend a visit to anyone passing through Portsmouth!<\/p>\n

Two weekends ago, Gwen and I finally made our trip out to the Harmony Hill Retreat Center<\/a>, located in up-state New York. We had won a weekend get-away there back in the spring at the Norfolk Dolphin Scholarship auction<\/a>, and we just finally got around to using it! The retreat center was about 5 hours from Portsmouth, just past Schenectady, NY. The area is very rural indeed, much more so than what I am used to where I grew up in Indiana; most of the roads in the immediate area were gravel, so we were off the beaten path a bit! We wound up staying in a type of shelter called a Yurt<\/a>, hence the post title. Perhaps “shelter” is a bit of an understatement; as you can see from the pictures below, this was practically a fully-fledged house, only a bit less solid. We passed a very enjoyable weekend exploring the grounds, which included a couple of trails and a brick “labyrinth.” We also played a couple of rounds of Ticket to Ride,<\/a> one of those rare boardgames that we both enjoy! In particular, we were experimenting with the dice expansion<\/a> on the India <\/a>map. We both liked the addition of the dice; it tended to make the game move a little faster, and it removed the “Train Card Cold War” issue that we’ve seen crop up in the game, where multiple players are both trying to hoard cards of a particular color. All in all, we were sad to see the weekend end.<\/p>\n

Other than that, I’ve been busily working away on the ship, but I have had some time to do some reading and some gaming. I’ll save those topics for another post, though. Until next time!<\/p>\n