A New Kind of Golf

One of my passions in life has always been golf.  I come from a long line of golfers.  My grandad played and all my uncles played golf.  My dad played and my mom took lessons in the 50's and we became a golfing family.  All my brothers play golf.  Pam learned how to play when we were dating and we love to play golf.

Our kids learned how to play and do so sporadically.  Our son-in-law Jonathan plays golf and mentioned "Top Golf" a while back.  He and some buddies played for the first time near Atlanta.  Top Golf came to Virginia Beach a few months ago and his Anchor Church Men's Group booked an evening for about 25 of us.

I'm not much for gimmicky kind of things.  This is not really golf but it was a LOT of fun!  It basically is a three-tiered driving range

 where folks hit a GPS-enabled golf ball at a number of targets.  The points are immediately tabulated.  In some ways it reminded me of a bowling score card up on the screen.

After the group arrived, we got instructions how to get set up on the computer system/scoring board and learned about the different games we could try.  We all got some practise shots and quickly learned it was not as easy as it looked to hit those big targets!

We quickly divided up into groups of 5-6 people at each mat and the competition began.  For each game we got 20 golf balls and took 5 shots each.  They had men's and women's clubs to use and we just had to hit away!

 While folks were taking their turns, the rest of us hung around and chatted and got a chance to know each other.  That was the main idea of the event anyway--getting a group of guys together to hang out and to make new friends.

 In addition to the golf -- there was plenty of food included in the price.  It also included three hours of play.  Though it seemed a bit pricey at $58, I have spent more money on golf or recreation and it was worth every penny.  Everyone I saw was having a great time.  Both golfers and non-golfers.  We also found out you could rent a space for $25/hr for six people (without food), so that may be in our future.

Like the real sport though, it could be pretty frustrating getting that little white ball to go where you wanted it to go...

Here Bill and I are watching Sheldon take a few swings toward the end of the night.  It was a lot of fun, we met some nice young men, had some good clean fun and enjoyed ourselves.  It was a night to remember in Virginia Beach!

Have you ever tried Top Golf?

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

A Fantastic Day in San Francisco!

We were in the Bay Area over the weekend and spent Sunday in San Francisco with Kelly and Jon.  They flew out for Matt and Sierra's wedding on Saturday.  More on that on another post…

If you had only one day in San Francisco and had never been there, what would you see?  We have visited a few times and decided to take the Alcatraz Cruise over to the island.  We bought tickets online a few weeks ago.  We got the 10:30 ferry.

First was finding parking (A).  We found a lot near Pier 33, paid our $40 for all-day parking and walked over to the ferry.

We arrived right on time and had very little wait.  It was a pretty short ride on the ferry.

And it was a beautiful day to be out in the bay.

The spectacular Golden Gate Bridge poking through the fog

And to the east - the Oakland Bay Bridge

Once on Alcatraz, we heard a Park Ranger give a short overview of the history of the island and then walked up to the top to begin our individual audio tour.

The audio tour was fantastic.  Once you have the headsets, you can move along as directed from point to point on the grounds, or you can pause and take your time.  It was very well done.  Full of stories, history and anecdotes about the people who ran the place and those that lived there.

Originally the island had a lighthouse, then in 1868 became a military prison.  In 1933 it became a federal penitentiary and was closed as one in 1963 by then-Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. Over the years, infamous characters such as Al Capone, Robert Stroud (Birdman of Alcatraz), Machine Gun Kelly and Doc Barker were housed there.  Today it is a National Recreation Park and run by the National Park Service.  

The return trip on the ferry I may never forget!  We had to wait because they were running the last race of the day for the America's Cup.  Yes - THE America's Cup.  The ferry got underway after the last race between the Oracle (USA) and the New Zealand boat.  We learned what was going on and Kelly started following the events on Twitter to get a moment by moment update.  Sure enough, the USA boat won both races of the day and were finishing up. 

Meanwhile, we got some good photos -

And front row seats!  All the support and official boats were nearby after the race.  And as far as I could tell, we may have been the closest spectators.  We were stunned!  People pay big bucks and hope to see this up close and personal.  And it happened on our return ferry ride!

We made our way down the wharf and stopped for some lunch.  Mine was a chicken club sandwich on sourdough bread.  

Then we walked along the wharf and down Embarcadero Street to see what we could see.

After a while, we made our way back down to our car which was only a couple of blocks from the area where the America's Cup was set up.

It was getting late, so we made our way out of the city by way of Lombard Street and Chinatown.  Then we got into the traffic and made our way out to Redwood City.  We found a great Chinese Restaurant there - The Crouching Tiger.  I don't know if I have every had better Chinese food.

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco and one we will remember for a long time.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  And thanks for your comments ~ we always enjoy them.  Until next time.

Projects Around the House...

While we have been in Virginia Beach for the past 10 days, we have gotten involved with a few projects at Kelly and Jon's house.

The first one we got to do was a large shelf in the garage.  They wanted some fairly deep ones (like 12" deep) and wanted it to go from the floor to the ceiling.

First - a little planning and figuring out where it was going to go.  Took a few measurements.

Next - Off to Home Depot for materials.

 Then back to work and more measuring and ciphering...

And then, after leveling and securing the shelves to the wall and a few hours later - the finished product.

The next day we moved on to more shelving in the shed.

The house they moved into has a new shed that is great!  The shed is very well built, just no shelves.  So in the shed, we followed the same process:  planning, getting building materials, building and putting it together.

And we have more shelves to build.  We are just getting started. There will be more to follow on the shelving.

Next - we got to spend a few days in Washington DC.  We wanted to go see #1 son Adam on his birthday (Saturday).  While there, we stayed with some friends including Jeff and Tiffany.  We asked if we could do a project and she suggested a shelve where a medicine cabinet was located.

 We picked up some materials and had it done fairly quickly.

Except for the caulking and final painting.

Then, when we returned to Virginia Beach, we got back in time to help with the new brick walkway beside the shed.

The bricks were reused from lining around the flower beds.

We love projects and are about to head out to continue with shelving and painting.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Hope you have a great week.

Until next time...

Kelly and Jon's Wedding - After the Ceremony

Here are some pictures and thoughts of Kelly and Jon's wedding.

Amber took this one of us before we got ready to walk down the aisle.  It is one of my favorite.

In my last post, I showed some pictures of beginning and during the wedding.  Now for some after the ceremony:

The wedding party moved over to the garden for some pictures while everyone else was getting some food and drink.

And one of the Kelly's side of the family:

And Jon and his folks:

We were very happy to have all Kelly's uncles and aunts and some nephews and nieces there from the Warner side:

Reid and Amy, Adam, Heidi, Lesley and Ben with Ezra, Pam and me, Brad and Sue, Marty and Elena

It was a beautiful setting and thank God the we escaped the rain!

I had a few words and a toast

And the dancing started!

Something special about the Father-Daughter dance...

There was a lot of dancing going on with Brannon and the Big Mighty - they were great!

 It was fun to watch and listen

We had something to eat and tried to talk to everyone.  

And then the cake…

And they made their get away on bikes….

It was a glorious night and we have more pictures to share!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time...