What a great trip again this year. We have had such good weather over the last ten years of golf trips to the Monterey Bay area. We drove in Thursday night even though we had planned to drive in Friday morning. We are trying hard to get our budget in order and are committed to it, but getting up at 5 AM and driving all morning to Carmel only to jump out of the car and have to play 18 holes wasn't pretty. I took to the internet and Hotwire and found a three star hotel in Marina for $59. They wouldn't show us the name of the hotel. It was a chain hotel like Best Western, Rodeway Inn, Hilton Garden Inn or Ramada. We decided we could handle whatever it was for one night. It turned out to be the Best Western Dunes Inn in Marina. The guest comments were mixed, some claiming bed bugs, other claiming the hotel was old and moldy, others loved it. We drove in and were pleased to find a clean, well decorated room with a hot shower and a good hot breakfast. The bed was not a Westin bed like ours, but acceptable for one night.
We arose Friday morning to a cold, wet fog that enveloped the entire area. The forecast was for 66 degrees and sun later in the day, but it was COLD early on. The breakfast was excellent with eggs and waffles, cereal and fruit. We met the guys at Rancho Canada in the Carmel Valley at about 9:30. The fog had lifted, but the sun wasn't out when we got there. The wet fog was gone and the overcast actually left us with warmth and I was able to play without a jacket. It turns out Friday was my best round of golf with a 41+39=80. The course is fun and challenging with several holes that cross the creek that runs throughout the property. We had a great time together and everyone played pretty well, leaving us all thinking about great things to come for the weekend.
Friday night, we decided to meet at Steve and Brenda's hotel room in Pacific Grove for appetizers, adult libations and pizza. Darla and I were supposed to meet everyone at 5:30 and after my shower and some rest, we went rogue and headed over to the Fishwife restaurant for clam chowder and some alone time. We met up with the gang about six and Big John had stopped and picked up a bottle of Crown Royal, so we brought some diet soda for Darla and some Canada Dry Ginger Ale for me. Neil and Lilly showed up shortly after us and brought a bottle of Canadian Mist and a bottle of Canada Dry Ginger Ale. I had a glass of Crown and quickly moved over to the rye. Dad and Shirley, I never thought anyone could get Neil off of Cabo Wabo tequila and perhaps he's just added a new drink to his arsenal. We have ordered pizza from Dominick's the last two years and it is nice for visiting and the pizza is excellent.
We played Poppy Hills on Saturday and Bob Pando came in and joined us for breakfast at the course. I love the new design of Poppy Hills, but like I said last time, those are the WORST greens that I have played all year. The greens are all brand new and just haven't matured. They are both hard and fast and almost impossible to hit a ball onto and have it stop on the green. They are better than they were in May when we played it, but still dismal overall. I shot a 47+43=90 with a net of 75. To give you an idea of how hard the course was, my 75 was fifth best on the day for all players and there were 41 players. I also had a closest to the pin at 11 feet 8 inches. I don't know how I got that one to stop.
We had our annual Vito's dinner with 24 of us in the back room. We had a good time, but Darla and I have decided it is our last year of planning a big dinner there. People love to complain and there were complaints on service and food selections. We even had complaints that the server didn't bring wine glasses soon enough after we had Vito waive the corkage fee. Basically it was wine that they brought and the guy was whining that it took so long to bring the glasses so they could enjoy their own wine and not pay the restaurant anything. It was BS. Next year we will be back, but will make a reservation with a few of our friends.
Sunday was Pacific Grove and we woke to a beautiful morning sun and a temperature near 70 degrees at 7:30 in the morning. Morning sun is great anytime, but especially welcome at the coast in October. It was a hot day for the area with temperatures in the mid eighties. There was also a giant surf and there were surf advisories up in the area for waves upwards of 20 feet. The surfers showed up en mass and Pacific Grove golf course is along Ocean Avenue and we got to see the waves, the surfers and the huge crowds as we made our way around the back nine. I shot a 45+41=86 and had a chip in birdie on number 11. Unfortunately, in our frugal budget mindset, I decided to only play net skins and it was the number 16 handicap hole that I birdied. I was the only one to birdie it, but someone with a handicap of 16 or above parred it and tied me for net. Oh well.
Part of what is going on with the club is a changing of the guard with the board. Neil will be replaced next year and the guy coming in as the new Tournament Director has trouble working with the current Tournament Bookkeeper so they are looking to replace him as well. The problem is the person that the new TD wants to have as his bookkeeper is a person that has not been a member of the club for four years. The bye laws are a little fuzzy on appointed positions. We are clear on elected positions and you must have been a member of the club for the previous one year and have played in at least six club events. There is no bye law for appointed positions and we need to fix that. I had a meeting with our President and our VP (the incoming President) and gave them my opinion on the issues as I will be out of town (in Detroit) at the next board meeting. I asked the incoming President if he would listen to the board on making any decisions on bringing in a guy who is not a current member of the club after letting both of them know that I am in direct opposition to doing it. The VP said that he has the right to make his own decision on this. I told him that he was absolutely right, but that if the vote was 11-3 against bringing in a non member to the board that that is also the likely vote that would come if we decided to impeach him. I THINK he got my point, but it remains to be seen. I told him that he could do whatever he wants, but that I feel so strongly about this issue that I will resign my position if he pushes it through. He also let Neil know about his being replaced by e-mail and I told him he needs to sit down and have a conversation with Neil and give him the respect that he deserves after so many years of hard work and dedication to the board. The guy is in his mid thirties and we need the young blood on the board, but we also need to teach them about honor and respect.
Darla and I were supposed to go on to Solvang today and tomorrow, but unfortunately, the course that we were playing has an NCGA event going on and isn't available until Wednesday. I have some personnel issues going on at work and need to get back. Darla also has been offered a contract job with one of the social work agencies and she has an orientation meeting with them tomorrow morning and will likely get her cases then. We were up early today and I handled payroll remotely and then we drove down to the beach and saw the waves and then had breakfast at Toasties in Pacific Grove, one of our favorite breakfast restaurants. We drove back and got into town about 2 PM and I slept for 90 minutes before getting up and cleaning up the leaves and acorns in the front yard from a windstorm that apparently rolled in after we left. I know it was a windstorm because one of the umbrellas from our pool had lifted up and was laying on the side yard of our neighbor. I cleaned the leaves out of the pool and took down the umbrellas and took the lounges out of the pool for the year before taking care of the chemicals.
As we were driving back into town I pulled up at the stoplight behind a middle aged guy driving an Audi. The back window of his car was plastered with stickers about liberal issues, including two stickers saying that there is POISON in our drinking water. FLUORIDE. I just assumed he was another Obama Democrat with a skewed brain. That was confirmed when I pulled around him and saw him smoking a cigarette! Yep, look out for the silent killer Fluoride while you suck down your cancer sticks. What a moron!!
Well that is our weekend in a nutshell. I hope you are all well. I had planned to add to this last night, but Darla vetoed that idea. We had arrived back at our hotel about 9:30 after a late dinner with Rick and Jan and Neil and Lilly. Be well. Love the picture of my granddaughter. She is quite a beauty. Ciao.
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