Played Any Games Lately?

My family always played games when I was a kid. Monopoly and Parcheesi were the board games of choice and later it was Clue, Scrabble and Risk. An offer to play cards was never turned down … canasta, cribbage, pitch, rummy. Whenever I visit Lin, it’s Speed Scrabble, cribbage and when we invite the guys to play, it’s pitch. With the little kids, it’s Candyland, Go Fish and Pig.

When David and I lived aboard Nine of Cups, we played one game or another almost every night. It might be rummy one night, Yahtzee, backgammon Speed Scrabble or cribbage another. David had a running score sheet of wins: 3826 (Marcie) to 3897 (David). David was ahead, but of course, he was the scorekeeper! Once in a while, Jelly the ship’s cat joined in.

While traveling in Blanche, we tend to play cards most nights. Board games require too much room, but it’s easy to stow a deck of cards and play on the bunk or picnic table. Sometimes, we play rummy and cribbage. A couple of years ago, friends taught us a new card game “3 to 13” which we now play quite frequently while traveling. David still keeps a running tally, but now it’s on his iPad.

At home, however, we play games infrequently. Why? Television and streaming services! For 18 years, we had no TV aboard. We had DVDs for movies, but most evenings, we played cards or read for entertainment. Many times we took turns reading aloud to each other. We still read the newspaper to each other every morning and do the word games (Wordle, Crossword, Spelling Bee … all the usual suspects), but other than a Phase 10 game night once, we hadn’t played cards or games since our last road trip. Until…

Speed Scrabble can be a bit stressful!

When we were in Alaska a few weeks ago, the AirBnB hosts had a bunch of games available, one of which was Yahtzee. We hadn’t played since we left Nine of Cups, but we decided to play a game or two one afternoon and shazam, we were hooked and played game after game while we were there. There was a TV, but other than watching the Super Bowl, we rarely turned it on. We were quite content to play Yahtzee or cards and enjoy each other’s company rather than passively watching the tube.

When we returned from Alaska, I dug the Yahtzee dice out of mothballs, found some score sheets and we’ve been playing every evening after dinner. We get wild and crazy sometimes … double Yahtzee or Triple Yahtzee. Once in a while, we can talk Mary or Paul into playing. It’s relaxing, engaging and entertaining. We like the change of pace.

Do you play cards or board games at all? Which ones? We’re always looking for suggestions.