Give me your best weekend-away-with-friends ideas!

A scavenger hunt. Make a list of things people have to find over the weekend. Apparently, it is fun. But make a note that http://ask.metafilter.com/206456/Trophy-hunting-for-lolz from the actual venue.

Too much food, especially too much sugar, can lead to crankiness and stultification. Mix in a walk or 2, and maybe a dance competition. Classic comedy is great - Life of Brian or any Monty Python, Ghost Busters, or classic action or horror - Terminator is excellent for drinking games. Indoor fire is cozy; outdoor fire is awesome. Find or bring firewood, long forks (I got mine at Goodwill) and cook marinated steak, kielbasa, white and/or sweet potato chunks (1/2 cook them 1st) over the fire. Find some http://www.americanfolklore.net/campfire.html ghost http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors/ss/Campfire-Tales.htm, tell them around the fire. I'd make chex mix for the car ride. Assign specific people to plan and prepare specific meals and snacks for variety.

Try all possible rice krispy treat combinations: get thosehttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001E6EDHA/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ of cereal, dark chocolate for melting, nuts of various sorts, and a few bags of marshmallows. (my favorite was cinnamon grahams)

Open fire? Roast marshmallows and make s'mores! During the winter - my mom would do "indoor picnics" where we spread a blanket on the living room floor,it a fire, made s'mores and drank hot cocoa from a thermos and pretended it was like a picnic with a basket and everything. It was always super fun - had some liquor to the cocoa or drink mulled wine and you have a comfy party.

We did cottage weekends as a big group a few times. Watched terrible movies, went skidooing (okay, cottaging in the dead of Canadian winter), set up a fire and sausages, and most importantly, played D&D. That is just our rather nerdy friend group, but board games and barbecue are great fun whenever we have a chance.

Assuming the weather cooperates, you can always do a few things outside like croquet, or bocce.

Chocolate fondue! Have on hand things that you would not normally dip in chocolate like grapes and crackers. It's fun to try different combinations. Have a goose egg un-hunt (totally making this up). Bring a large egg (craft store) and announce that the holder of the egg on the last day buys dinner for everyone. And then hide it in someone's room. That person must find it, without even knowing that they were the one chosen, and hide it in someone else's room, etc. This is great for a mildly competitive group.

If it were me I would make a baked French toast for the morning we woke up there. You could make it Friday during then day and then you let it soak in overnight. The next morning you pop it in the oven for about 50 minutes and nobody needs to cook. That and some fancy sausages on the stove and you have a yummy breakfast for one morning. Pancakes are a nice idea but it means someone is standing at the stove. People normally wake up at different times, so I would have all the makings for bagel sandwiches for the other morning. They are easy to make one at a time as each person gets up. A great fruit salad is also awesome to have. Mangoes, kiwis and raspberries. You could bring champagne and OJ for mimosas and/or fixings for bloody marys. After lots of drinking and game playing people may want some zoning out time in the afternoon with some good movies. Bring popcorn and a couple GREAT DVD's. Bring stuff for s'mores. I'd probably make a batch of peanut butter cookies and lemon bread cupcakes. It's nice to have something home made on the counter for everyone. For games we like the "classics"; trivia pursuit, charades and pictionary.

On the food end, maybe get the fixings for cookies? They'll make the whole place smell good. You could even get pre-made dough. If the weather is nice, you could also get the fixings for one or two fancy cocktails -- mojitos come immediately to mind. On the activities front, some suggestions: --My number one suggestion is http://derailedtelephonepictionary.wordpress.com/what-is-telephone-pictionary/. So simple, so fun. --If folks are on the creative end, maybe http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4550/1000-blank-white-cards or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game). --If you care to make a small purchase, I'd recommend party games like taboo, balderdash, or pictionary for that size group --There's also great card games, and I'd recommend http://www.pagat.com/exact/ohhell.html (this is also called a lot of other things) or the classics like bullshit or rummy. --You could also bring a frisbee or a soccer ball if that's your thing. You could pretty much do any of those activities either boozy or not. Have fun!