Bodega Bay 2015

Our Bodega Bay condo and Darla waving hello.

Pimp Daddy Charlie and Frieda

Frieda and Ken

 

Lee Janzen

Tom Watson

 

The Senior US Open came to town last week and it was a big deal for Sacramento. Not because of the fact that it was a major event (It was sort of), but more so for the money that it poured into our local economy. There were over 7000 additional car rentals over the course of the week and  an additional 25,000 hotel room bookings and all told the boost to the local economy was about $16.7 million. Not too shabby.

 

I took one of my agents out to the event at Del Paso CC on Wednesday. The advantage of going before the event starts is smaller crowds and interaction with the players. If I was an autograph guy (and I'm not) I could have had a flag of the Del Paso CC completely covered in autographs. They also allow cameras. We went over about noon and I have several impressions. I've been to three PGA Open Championships and the prices were outrageous, like $8 for a bottle of water and $17 for a steak sandwich. Here the cost was $2.50 for water and $7 for  hamburger or chicken sandwich. The agent I took is a friend from church as well as one of our mid level agents. He insisted on buying me a souvenir and you can see the Sr. US Open hat that I'm wearing in the golf pictures above. The practice rounds allow each player 15 minutes on the green. They can chip and putt and  hit sand shots and calculate break. The caddies are busy with their notebooks and the players stroke putts from around the green. The course was in amazing shape, unlike many of the golfers.

 

We had a heat wave roll in last week and hit 106 degrees two days and it was brutal. I was astounded by how some of the golfers are so out of shape. Scott Simpson, who played for years at the AT&T Pebble Beach event with Bill Murray must be pushing three hundred pounds. Craig Stadler, whose nickname of the Walrus is apropos, his face was beet red and he was really laboring. We hung out at the 13th tee which is shaded and watched the groups come through. They would each hit drives, approach shots and putt on each hole to record a score and then chip and putt to try to learn the greens. When Tom Watson came through he was being shadowed by one of my buddies, Pamas, who is an FBI agent. Their office here in Sacramento was lending security to the more high profile golfers in the field. What they should have done is provide a medical person for each of the fat, out of shape golfers. One or two withdrew because of the heat, but most of them stayed the course.

 

It was a good time hanging out at the course and I ran into a lot of friends while we wandered around. I had no interest in watching the regular tournament and besides, we had reservations in Bodega Bay with their 68 degree high temperatures and sweater weather in the mornings and evenings.

 

I worked a half day Friday with the goal of heading to Windsor early afternoon. The 104 degree weather said otherwise and Darla and I stayed in the pool until about 4:30, when we saddled up and headed west. We got to Windsor, a small town near Santa Rosa, about 6:15 and checked into our motel in Rohnert Park. Neil and Lilly wanted to meet us for a "drink", but had already had dinner. Darla and I went to the Black Bear Diner near the motel and they came over and drank coffee while we ate our dinner. We visited for awhile and then they scooted back to their hotel in Santa Rosa and we packed it in for the night.

 

Saturday we met all of the ladies up at the golf course in Windsor and they piled into my 300 and headed off to buy up the town.  I played golf and made a hash of the whole weekend. I shot a 99 at Windsor and got into every sand trap and hazard on the course. It was quite remarkable to be so consistently bad for an extended period of time. The ladies had headed over to Bodega Bay to check into the three bedroom condo and I drove over to Bodega with Neil after the tournament.

 

We got cleaned up and looked halfway presentable and all six piled into the 300 (not easy when you take into account that I have two large bucket seats in the front). We stopped at John and Camille's condo one the other side of the golf course. Ours is on the first hole and they were near the 16th green. Our backyard faced the 1st fairway and the front faced the 9th green. Anyhow they were fixing chicken on the barbecue and tried to get us to stay. We were all in the mood for clam chowder and seafood so begged off.  We had eaten at the Tides restaurant on our visit last Fall, so decided to go to Lucas Wharf Seafood restaurant. Charlie is not a seafood fan and had a nice New York steak. Darla and I split an order of Fish and Chips and a big bowl of clam chowder. That and copious amounts of sourdough bread made for a nice evening. John had invited us back to their condo for a drink afterward, but we were all pretty deep into a food coma and begged off. Charlie snuck off to bed at nine o'clock and the rest of us turned in by ten thirty. Quite the party crowd.

 

We awoke Sunday to a heavy marine layer that left a misting rain on everything in it's path. Our tee time was 10:18 and it had mostly moved out by then and we had scattered clouds. I got a sunburn on my face and I can't remember a time when the sun was out in full. Sometimes the cloudy skies can fool you. I continued my poor play at Bodega and shot a 95, including three lost balls. I was pretty cranky and when one of our foursome had to go back twice to re-tee on a par five I almost lost it. I was short of the green in two and took a seven. I like playing with golfers who are much better than me as I find myself playing either up or down to my competition. I was pretty vocal after the par five and said, "imagine that it takes us forty minutes to play a hole and I get a double bogey"! Tim the player in question came up after the round and apologized and I in turn told him that I apologized for my outburst and he didn't deserve that. He did deserve the 12 he took on the hole, but not my attitude. I regretted it as soon as it poured out of my mouth. Funny thing is the course is so difficult that I took 7th place with my net 77.

 

Now about the condo. It is owned by the local motel. They have three condos on the golf course  and the one we stayed in is the biggest and nicest. For $350 a night we got a three bedroom two bath 2500 square foot home. The upstairs consists of a master suite with a sitting room and views of the golf course from every angle. Neil and Lilly got the suite this time. I'd like to get a group together again in the Fall to come out for three days and stay at the course. it was fabulous. The kitchen was not overly large. It is a galley style kitchen with a closed end. There is a two car garage and all of the bedrooms had queen beds in each room with large pillow top mattresses. The rooms each had walk in closets and views of the golf course. The condo was great. The carpets could use a good cleaning and the outside is in need of a fresh coat of paint. The wet and foggy conditions are hard on the exterior of the homes, especially ones with wood siding.

 

The reason that Darla and I came down early was a big NASCAR race at Sears Point, the Save Mart 350. It was Jeff Gordon's last race there as he is retiring and he'd won the race six times. and won the pole position 4 times. We decided that we would have dinner with the gang on Sunday before driving back. Darla had a gig at the hospital in Sac today and a party tonight, hence the reason I am sitting at my desk at 7:05 in the evening working on the blog. We rested after golf, got cleaned up, packed up the car and headed out to De Nucci's Italian, a place highly praised by Ron, my twilight partner (more on that in a minute). We drove up to a completely empty parking lot. It turns out that Mr. DeNucci had died and they closed the restaurant to prepare for the funeral. Funny, because it was open on Saturday night because Ron ate there. Maybe he died that day or the night before. We are in the sticks in Bodega and had driven up to Valley Ford for dinner. I told Charlie he was up for the next place and he drove for twenty minutes and finally pulled over. He found a nice place in Cotati and it was highly recommended. We drove another ten minutes and pulled into a strip mall that was mostly deserted Charlie swore the place was there, but the number of vacant stores said elsewhere. He went back to his yelp and I walked over to a heavily tattooed guy outs9ide the tattoo shop (must have been a good restaurant with neighbors like a tattoo parlor, eh?). He suggested Art's Place in Rohnert Park and we took off for there, not sure of what to expect. Darla said it had to be good with Art's name on the restaurant.

 

I was very pleased with the service, the food and the ambiance. We initially saw seating in a family style, but got a table for six. Art is from a little town in Italy and emigrated to the United States in 1960 and began working for restaurant owners. He opened his own restaurant in Petaluma in 1968 and moved to Rohnert Park in 1995. He has home made gnocchi which had me ready to eat before we even walked in. All of the food was good, from the Caesar salad to the wedge salad to the tri tip dips and spaghetti and meatballs. A great find and I have a tattoo shop employee to thank. Nice guy. He told me exactly how to get there and we had no issues.

 

The NASCAR race had ended at 2 PM and we thought we were safe leaving late for home. Think again. The drive back to Sacramento was a nightmare as Highway 37 had a one hour backlog and it is one of those two lanes that split, one to Sonoma and the other to Vallejo. The Sonoma side has nearly no one on it except drivers that are trying to force their way into the right lane and the traffic was at a crawl. It was pretty tense and the delay was exactly an hour until we got to the split. Not a lot of fun at ten at night when all you want to do is get home. All of those rednecks and married first cousins that live for NASCAR were making my night a pure slice of heaven. We made it home at 11:30.

 

I went to sub for Ron last week in the golf league. They are about 1/2 way through their schedule and Ron's partner quit on him. I agreed to step in and now have a Thursday night commitment. I can use the practice on my game, but man it was HOT last Thursday. Brutal to play in 108 degrees at 4:30 in the afternoon. Tomorrow and Wednesday are supposed to be 111, so Darla better not kick me out of the house again. I'll just go skinny dipping in the pool. That 'll show them. Or maybe not.

 

That's it for this week. Be good to each other and say thank you to our LORD and Savior for the blessings we all often take for granted. Ciao.