Ah, the beach.

This year's beach vacation was a little more compact than usual, spanning from Sunday to Thursday with both of the aforementioned days being dedicated to the 6-7 hour drive.

However, we managed to do just about everything we do every year.

Unfortunately, Ben and I could not continue our two-year tradition of beating the Jurassic Park 2 machine at Duffer's Challenge. To our dismay, they had replaced the machine with a Jurrasic Park 3 machine. With heavy hearts, we started a new tradition, and discovered that JP3 is a much much shorter game.

Another tradition I was glad to uphold was the tradition of winning money in Atlantic City, particularly since my dad always fronts us the start-up funds. I've blown all my gambling karma - there's no way I'm ever gambling with my own money.

One of the less enjoyable aspects of the trip was staying in a different motel room every night. "The longer you wait, the more bargaining power you have," says Dad.

I think I'm going to get Dad an intermediate-level microeconomics textbook to go along with his copy of Emily Post on weddings.