Ahoy Mateys!

So ... remember the ship? Well take a look at the final product:

Isnt' it the coolest?!

Sunday morning we were going to breakfast with my mom-in-law, Vicky, and her brother, Bob who was visiting from El Paso. I asked Kev to drive us by the 'ship house' so we could see the progress. As you can see, they added a TON of stuff since the last set of pictures! First of all, they stained the natural wood to a darker finish. But the biggest additions are INside the ship. We parked the car and got out to take a closer look and, when we did, we happened to see the homeowners outside getting ready to begin work on their project for the day. We struck up a conversation about the ship and asked a lot of questions. For instance, there is a door in the side of the ship...

and I asked the homeowner if that's where the Trick-or-Treaters would come in to walk up to the door. She said that it actually led to the 'Treasure Chest'. She invited us in to take a look. DARN IT! I didn't have the camera with me - of course! But it was SO COOL! They had it all set up ala Pirates of the Caribbean. with lots of glistening treasures and skeletons of the unlucky souls who tried to hoist the sunken treasure. It was so much fun! We were all so impressed with the Treasure Chest that she invited us over to the other side of the ship's interior where the 'Voodoo Hut' was located. Amazing! It contained all sorts of bones and bats and shrunken heads - and a stone fireplace that looked pretty darn close to the real thing. We asked what it was made of and she said styrofoam! They have a styrofoam cutter that sort of melts the edges of the styrofoam to make whatever you're creating look more like 'the real thing'. Here's an example of the cut styrofoam (the ship's railing, not the skull):

After our tour, I asked her about how many Trick-or-Treaters they were expecting. She said that they've been doing this for 23 years and they're now up to about 1,000 Trick-or-Treaters! They have goodie bags for the smaller children, mardi gras beads for the teenagers, and candy for everyone. They will have family and friends dressed up as pirates on the ship handing out the loot. How fun is that?

You just gotta love the kids that never grow up ;o)