Bryan in America: Caribbean Beach Club 2011

After finishing my first semester of junior year, it was time for my annual trip to the Caribbean Beach Club (CBC) down in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. I've been going to the CBC every winter since I was born, and once again I couldn't wait to see my extended family meet up, play games, and relax in the sun.

This year was different than previous years for two reasons. First, this was the first year my cousin Adam did not join us. Second, this year was the first time we got to see baby Maddox walking around.

The baby who needs no introduction

I think Maddox will fit right into the extended Cropper/Carbone family. I could tell the instant he got his hands on a deck of cards. This boy's already ready to play games!

Maddox shuffleboardin' and card playin' right off the bat

You could tell he really enjoyed walking around like he owned the place.

Maddox in his birthday suit

Maddox even enjoyed swimming, with the help of his seniors.

Wheee!

Caiqian and I even fed Maddox his very first rib, and he wasn't disappointed. Look at the smile on that face!

Maddox's first rib!

Celebrations

For week 52, there were a ridiculous amount of celebrations that went down. All in the same week, we celebrated Jon's 27th Birthday, Uncle Eric's 60th Birthday, Rick and Kat's First Anniversary, Christmas, and New Year's! I had more cake in that one week than I've had in the rest of the year.

Jon turns 27

Uncle Eric hits 60

Rick and Kat celebrate their first anniversary

Sky Lanterns

For Rick and Kat's first anniversary, we celebrated by releasing sky lanterns. Sky lanterns are like small paper hot air balloons where you light a candle at the bottom which heats up the air inside the lantern which allows the lanterns to fly away. Caiqian bought ten lanterns, so we had a lantern for every two people. It was amazing to see how far they went before they extinguished. Aunt Valerie said seeing the lanterns fly was like watching your soul float into the heavens.

Getting the lantern to actually fly has three stages. First you open the lantern, then you ignite the candle, and the finally you let the lantern go when it feels like it will fly.

The Three Stages of a Sky Lantern

It was really wondrous watching so many family members release the lanterns. It was also fun to see family members hold onto the lanterns, waiting to see when to release it.

Thomas and Lulu light their lantern

Unfortunately, out of the ten lanterns, two didn't achieve positive buoyancy! For the lanterns that were insufficiently hot, they just dropped into the water below. It added an element of risk to the whole event.

The Fourth Stage of a Sky Lantern (death)

Christmas

Christmas this year was quite like Christmas every year in Fort Myers: warm weather followed by a delicious potluck dinner.

Christmas Dinner in the Rec Room

Opening presents with my family was pretty awesome. Caiqian was really happy to get a pearl necklace that she had wanted for a while. My dad sent me some subtle hints when he bought me an Iron Gym Workout Kit and a music player to go with it (I've gained 30 pounds over the last year). And Nicholas and I celebrated when we got Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword from my mom and dad.

Nicholas and I opening Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

For my mom, Caiqian and I got her a board game she didn't already have in her large collection of board games: Pandemic. Jonathan introduced the game to us last year. We played the game a few times this year. The roles for the players in the game are randomly assigned, but somehow my dad got the Dispatcher role six out of six times, making him the ultimate dispatcher.

We got a new board game (Pandemic) for my parents

Games

In addition to Pandemic, there were other welcome game additions this year. Aunt Rosie brought Guesstures, which is like a really fast-paced charades game. After playing a couple games, we decided that it was the best charades game that we'd ever played.

Croppers & Carbones face off in Guesstures

A game that we got to introduce was Acquire. Acquire is a game of growing companies and investing in stocks. Normally people win with around $30,000, but Grandma Monsie blew everyone away by winning the game with over $47,000. Crazy!

The Croppers introducing Acquire to Jon and Tej

Of course it wouldn't be Caribbean Beach Club without playing some spades.

Holly dealing out a Spades game

It wasn't long before we had simultaneous Spades games going.

Simultaneous Spades Games

There was one time that I had to break away from my table because on the other table one team bid double nil and the other team bid 13. It almost looked like both teams were going to make it until Rick (one of the nil players) won the very last trick with a queen of hearts over the other team's jack of hearts. I've never seen a game like that before in my life.

Shelling

In a tradition almost as old as Spades itself, we also had an great time shelling.

Shelling!

I love shelling. But what made this year exceptionally great was that Thomas showed up, and he gave Caiqian and I the push to wake up really early and gather some killer shells. Plus, we had the pleasure to see Thomas work his magic gathering olive shells.

Thomas staring down an olive

In addition to the shells, we also found some remarkable starfish. Mom found a starfish small enough to fit on her wedding ring.

The Smallest Starfish

While Caiqian went the other way and found a huge nine-legged star fish the size of a car wheel!

The Largest Starfish

Other Activities

Besides the day to day stuff, what did we see in Fort Myers? Well one new addition to the CBC was the Aqua Zumba water exercise program. Every week there was a day when the instructor would blare her boombox next to the pool and proceeded to dance fairly quickly on land, causing the Aqua Zumbers to try to impossibly follow her lead in the water. It was fairly funny to watch, but I think for it to be successful the instructor will have to slow it down in the future.

A new addition this year: Aqua Zumba

As usual, we also saw our favorite egret, Hotdog, perusing the premises in search of food. How long can this bird possibly live? The longest recorded lifespan for an egret is 23 years, and I feel like Hotdog has been at it for at least 20. Only time will tell.

Hotdog

We also went to the "tourist trap," the Fort Meyers Beach Fishing Pier.

Croppers at the Fort Myers Beach Fishing Pier

While the Pier was interesting, I was more interested in what shops it had nearby, namely Kilwin's Chocolate Fudge & Ice Cream Shoppe.

Maddox enjoying Kilwin's on the plaza

One final thing that was really nice about the CBC is the beautiful beach sunsets. In fact, most days everyone in the entire complex went outside just to see the sun dip below the horizon and disappear into the ocean.