a weekend at Fire Island National Seashore

Fire Island National Seashore did not disappoint, although I didn't see many of the historic sites in the parkland as I was carousing and Ascending most of the time. In case it rained all weekend, we brought plenty of reading material:

But the weather was as glorious as the hosting thanks to our beach house mom and dad so everyone was spared from going through Keep on the Shadowfell at 3rd level.

On Saturday evening we hiked on a deathmarch through the Meat Rack to Cherry Grove for Summer Snaxx. Our ranger/necromancer guide took point and navigated us through the dunes after making a successful Direction Sense check through the wilderness, but due to his bonus 10' of movement left me far behind. On the way back I failed my Endurance check and fell further behind, but the ranger set up a travois of two poles linked together by some Bear's discarded tee-shirt. The bear grease soaked in the cloth kept the mosquitoes at bay, which was a nice touch. While I detected some of the animus between Cherry Grove and Pines residents through various Gather Information checks, I otherwise had a good time.

Saturday's Ascension party was a lot of fun, but there wasn't a whole lot of shade for the extremely white people. Several layers of sunscreen were applied and we didn't fry too badly. The music was fantastic and there was even a delightful mashup of Nasty Girl vs. Let Me Think About It and I went berserk. Here's the beach house gurls in full sunlight, a painful experience for most of them as they're creatures of darkness:

Here Skwurl and Chad demonstrate open "fubbing," a way of salutation among Bears:

Some NYC bears look down upon the masses from the VIP area, appropriately ascended above the unwashed common folk.

I coulda used one more day to rehydrate and see more sights, but we had to pack up and leave after some delay - I was frequently, pleasantly occupied:

It's a shame summer is ending so soon, as it went by so fast.