2007
By Karen A. Feldeisen
Well the day started out with snow falling and half way down
to Sea Crest in
The club baskets were laid out all along the walls in the raffle/vendor room. It was laid out nicely and everything was easily accessible. Our basket went up in no time and thank god someone had an electronic pump so that the inflatable pieces we had were able to blow up in no time. Jane and Kevin were already there and brought there items to add to the basket. When complete we took some pictures and moved on to registering into our room.
We registered with the convention and got our goodies bags and t-shirts. We also received a souvenir picture taken of us at the Tiki bar. We settled into our room which was lovely with the ocean right outside our door. We unpacked, hung decorations and talked with our neighbor Beth, the president of New Hampshire Parrotheads, and other NH club members.
Then we decided to go to the raffle room and check things out. We ran into Scott and Barbara and chit-chatted for a little bit. We tried out the Margaritaville coconut shrimp, shrimp jerky and their new Jumbolaya. We checked out the vendors and bought our raffle tickets. Time was running out so we had to go to the President’s meeting.
The meeting went very well and typical discussion on all kinds of club related items. As of the beginning of the meeting on Friday there were 494 paid registrations. There was much discussion about tickets for the shows at Gillette especially due to the parking situation. They are looking into the possibility of keeping all the clubs in one area if possible. The ticket level will be Level 2 ($97.50). Jen needs numbers of tickets requested by 3/10/07 and the money is due to her by 4/15/07. So there is not much time.
Since many clubs do not participate in the skit contest
because of the way it’s done, they did it differently. They did an Improv, where each club got a bag
of props and a song and they had a maximum of 10 people allowed in the
skit. Since we only had 4 members to do
the skit we combined with
Then there was dancing and singing and just merriment till later in the evening. Some people crawled back to their rooms and well others just ended up eating cheeseburgers and fries….which were awesome by the way.
Saturday started out with a wonderful buffet breakfast overlooking the ocean. Then the whale auction and the skit practice and contest. We were almost forgotten but as always they saved the best for last, which of course ended up being us. Since it was very hot on the stage and the weather which had been so bad the day before was gorgeous. The sun was shining and the seas were calm. So being the crazy person that I am, I went into the ocean for a nice swim to cool off. Everyone standing on the boardwalk could not believe that I didn’t even have goose bumps. I guess they just don’t know how warm the ocean actually was.
From there we went back to the shopping mall bought some little things, then off to Buffett Bingo, which was actually much more fun than Jeopardy because many more people can plan and many more people can win. It really was quite fun with little sandels, coins, and stars that were used to cover the cards. While Barbara and I watched Scott and Richard’s cards they went and got food and drink for us. We didn’t win anything at the bingo but Richard won beer and wine after the game when they were doing trivia to get rid of the rest of the prizes.
Then it was off to the whale races which unfortunately none of the whales that the guys bet on won, maybe next year. Then onto the pool party, where the pool water was too warm for my liking, so I went to the room to shower and take a quick nap. Well that didn’t last long because everyone was outside watching the beautiful sunset, which we did get some pictures of.
So it was get ready for dinner and head on out to the Nantucket Sound ballroom. Dinner was excellent and the company at the table was quite funny. Several engineers including Scott and I, who would of thought we would talk business. Richard did get his chocolate mousse so he was very happy. We were entertained by what looked like to be high school kids in a steel band, but they were very good.
After dinner it was visiting with folks, chit-chatting and enjoying the fruit man. Then back to the ballroom for the band to do dancing and for the 50/50 raffle drawing and club baskets. Scott and Barbara won the Vermont Frozen Fins club basket. Our basket was won by a woman, Janet, from Eastern Mass Parrothead Club. Then the printed pages of the winners was passed out to everyone and Scott and Barbara won something, Kevin and Jane won the free convention next year, and Richard and I won 3 prizes (box of golf balls which will go to our son, Norman Rockwell thermometer which will go to Richard’s sister, and 4 passes to the Battleship Cove, which we will enjoy). The next morning at the leftover raffle, Scott and Barbara won another prize. So overall the weekend was profitable for everyone.
We went and helped break down our basket and then off to party with other parrotheads. Of course, there was the midnight dip into the ocean by Rick from Eastern Mass who collected donations earlier from everyone to do it, with the money going to the Jimmy Fund. Last count I heard he had raised over $500, but there could have been more. After late night celebrating it was waking up late (9 am) on Sunday and packing the car before heading out for another wonderful breakfast.
Along the way we stopped and registered for next year’s
convention in RI and hooked up with Roger from
Before leaving the Sea Crest and heading home on a bright sunny day, we gathered our banner and said our thank you and good-bye to Maureen and Skippy for a wonderful weekend. In our discussion, the preliminary count of money raised was over $32,000.
So it was really a fun weekend and we hope that more of our
club members can make it for next year.
Going back to
Till we meet again, may your phins float freely…….