We had a great time and a great weekend in Pacific Grove. Darryl arrived Friday afternoon and flew into the brand new terminal at Sacramento's Airport. The terminal is designed similar to Phoenix', in that they use both sides of the terminal building for entry and exit which makes the whole process easier and reduces the backlog at the passenger pick-up by half. We drove home and picked up Darla and were on our way to the Monterey Peninsula. Darryl was hungry so we stopped at the new Black Bear Diner in Sacramento and I had to think of Samantha. We'll have to bring her there when they visit. From there we were on the road for three hours and Darla sat in the back of the 300 and made Silpada calls while Darryl and I got caught up on work and home and family.
We arrived in Pacific Grove about 4:30 and checked into our hotel. The HoJo's is a converted condominium complex and has garages and about 2/3 of the suites are two bedrooms. Actually, to call it a suite was a stretch. It was two bedrooms with a bathroom, sink and microwave refrigerator, a small table and chairs and a small balcony overlooking the parking lot. The weather was amazing and we drove over to the market and picked up some Stella Artois beer and some peanuts and came back to the hotel and had drinks on the balcony before dinner.
Dinner was a gang of 33 meeting at the Fish Hopper in Cannery Row at 7:30 PM. We drove over about 7:10 and on the way there was a huge flash in the night sky followed by two more and then the lights went out. It turns out that three transformers blew in the Cannery Row grid and it was pitch black as we drove in eerie silence to the restaurant. We wanted to at least meet up with friends and then find an open restaurant. We used the flashlight option on Darryl's cellphone to navigate the streets from where we parked on the street to the restaurant. We hooked up with Neil and Lilly and decided to meet at Fisherman's Wharf where the Seafood Grotto could get us in at 9:00 PM. Dinner was excellent, but the owner was nice enough to give us a free seafood appetizer sampler after we had already ordered. Darryl and I ordered the Seafood sampler with shrimp, calamari, scallops and oysters. It was way too much food, but after snacking on the appetizer platter (we were starved by then), we could hardly put a dent into our dinners. The second problem was that the meal laid on our stomach like a lead weight when we tried to go to bed that night. I think all of us were suffering from being overstuffed. Darla got up about 2 in the morning and opened the windows and we felt better after that. We had talked about taking a walk when we got back to the condo, but didn't. We should have.
Saturday was golf at Pacific Grove (the Poor Man's Pebble Beach). It is a mundane front side followed by some of the world's best scenery on the back as the course winds along the 17 Mile Drive and the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Hole number 10 is right next to the Point Pinos Lighthouse, which I have pictured above. Look closely in the picture and you can see a ladder on it's side that they use to clean the windows surrounding the light dome. I guess they can't put it anywhere else, but funny that people come from around the world and see a maintenance ladder laying on it's side in the lighthouse windows.
Darryl hasn't played much golf this year, but he still hits the ball a mile and he had his memorable holes. There was a 295 yard par four on the front side that I almost drove. My ball came up about ten yards short of the green. Bob and Darryl both hit screamers to the left side of the green that hit the cart path and bounded out of bounds about 340 yards from the tee box. Darryl also hit a massive drive on the par 5 number 10 Sunday that put him in position to go for the green over water about 185 yards away. He hit a six iron to about fifteen feet and missed the eagle putt, but tapped in for birdie. It was impressive. I shot 42+42=84 and took second place for the day winning $33. Darryl got his $10 tournament fee back both days as he doesn't have a handicap and guests can't play for the prize money anyway. Bob shot 83, Boyd had 77 and Neil would have had 86, but got a little chippy on one hole and slapped his ball off the green without putting out and disqualified himself. Darryl shot 98.
Darla had the boys drive up from Cal Poly (about a two hour drive) and they had lunch together at the Fish Hopper with Rick's wife, Jan. They then went over to the Asilomar Conference grounds across the street and over to the beach and played football. Becky drove up from the Los Angeles area and drove up with them. They were waiting for us when we got home. We had dinner reservations at Vito's, an authentic Italian restaurant in Pacific Grove for 7 PM. They set us up in the banquet room and we had Neil and Lilly, Rick and Jan, Steve and Brenda and the six of us. Bob was going to join us but decided to drive home to San Jose and bunk there for the night. Vicky was out of town and I think he looked forward to the solitude at home.
Sunday was Poppy Hills and the beauty that is Pebble Beach. We had breakfast with Rick and Steve and then went and hit balls. I had a back spasm on the driving range and was afraid to hit the ball full out. I ended up weakly smothering it to the left and had that problem all day. I shot 45+45=90 on the much tougher course, but did manage to birdie number 2 which Steve quickly matched to keep me out of the money in skins. It was a theme all day as he had three birdies and some big numbers on his way to an 89 and fourth place in the tournament. Bob shot 85, Boyd had 83 and Darryl shot 101. We had a great time with good conversations, good food, fun golf on great courses and a lot of laughs along the way. I told Darryl that he has to plan to come up to Reno with us in May when Cheryl can come and enjoy the trip as well. I'll definitely rent a house up there and we can relax and enjoy the stay. Darryl, if you pay the flights out, I'll take care of the living arrangements. Monterey is GREAT, but we usually go in October and Cheryl runs the costume shop and Halloween store.
I was a little tired at work today, but got to leave a bit early as I had to run by the new office in Roseville and check out the ceiling tiles. True story, our owner didn't want to sign a lease until I confirmed that the ceiling tiles were clean and in good shape (they are). I took a picture of the 3 story building and it is the last one in the photos above. The picture of me in Darla's glasses was at breakfast Saturday morning in Pacific Grove when I forgot my glasses and my spare pair that usually resides in Darla's purse were left at the condo. The picture of Miss Samantha is from her trip to the Rain Forest Cafe in Vegas with Jennifer, Michael and Dad and Shirley. I haven't had a chance to talk to Dad since they got home, but will try to call him this week.
I leave for the Manager's meeting next Tuesday and tomorrow is our annual Insurance Conference at the Community Center in Sacramento. This year I'm going to go into the office for the morning hours and show up for lunch and work the booth in the afternoon.
Well, that was our busy weekend and I had a great time with my older brother and was happy for him to meet my friends and have a chance to play some golf. We will do it again. I had Steve and Rick approach me about maybe planning a trip to Colorado next year for a golf weekend and we may do that if the Inn is open. It would probably be me, Rick, Steve, Neil, Boyd and Bob. We'd fly in Friday morning and fly back Sunday night. I hope you are all well. Cheryl, thank you for the loan of your husband. You all be good to each other. Ciao.
No comments:
Post a Comment