Thanksgiving '09: Part 3, The Activities

I can pretty much break down this entire Thanksgiving break into 5 activities:

1. Driving
Duh and... who cares?


2. Eating
You already heard all about this.


3. Studying Economics

That's right. This Thanksgiving break I had the distinct pleasure of playing Monopoly, the greatest board game ever made* in it's birthplace: Atlantic City:

View Monopoly in Atlantic City in a larger map

That's right. I played Monopoly between the Boardwalk and Pacific Ave. Heck, we even parked our car on Atlantic Ave. I must owe someone money... Or maybe I'm on Water Works?

Did you notice that * where I called Monopoly the greatest board game ever? Here is where you get to find out why... We were driving along discussing our favorite board games when Kyle remembered one he played a while ago. He couldn't remember the name so he googled "top 10 best board games ever" where he found this list. At the top of the list, #1 in the greatest games of all time list, The Settlers of Catan!

We needed it! Perfect! Black Friday would begin in mere hours...

4. Shopping

Holy Jesus! 12:01 at the Hamilton Commons Shopping Mall was the most ridiculous scene I have ever seen. We could not even find a parking spot. The mall was entirely, utterly packed. Pushing, shoving, the likes! We went to a toy store. No Catan,

We went to Toys 'R' Us. There was a line around the block just to get into the store. I called because I didn't want to wait in line and the woman told me she couldn't get an available employee to check whether or not they had it because all employees were busy with crowd control... No matter, we entered the exit. The line to buy stuff zig zagged through every aisle in the store! I had to turn my body sideways to squeeze through the aisles. It was a madhouse!

Wow.

5. Settling

Toys 'R' Us in the end didn't even have the game. How could the worlds greatest game be so hard to find? Well, eventually we did find it in a Nerd Shop. Here is what he had to say about the Settlers of Catan:

Risk? That's what kids in Europe play when they're in 5th and 6th grade. Settlers of Catan? Now that's what they play when they start to play real games.

Damn Ted. From Friday at about 2:00PM until Monday morning at about 2AM, I Settled straight. No showers. Hardly any sleep. Maybe a couple hours off so I COULD DRIVE BACK TO BOSTON. But that is it, non stop Settlement. The greatest board game of all time.