My US Open

I can't really call it my US Open when 1) I don't finish 18 holes, and 2) I play like garbage. Nonetheless, I played Torrey Pines on Friday and have some pictures that go with. I ended up shooting 20 over through 15 holes, which is terrible but I still had a great time. Here are some pics.

Just Beautiful. $29 for this!!!


Opening hole


Hole 3 - this course would be nice if there was a view :(


John-John's tree - he had a great view about half way up until the cops made him get down


That's what I call ROUGH!!!!


Hole 5 - Johns on TV (see the circle and arrow lower right) - thanks for the pic Linda - Trav and I are right on the ropes probably right behind the golfer. We're there.


Hole 7 - sudden death hole - Tiger shot par, I shot par, too.


Hole 3 across the canyon


Hole 10 - playing on the green carpet...very nice!!!


Hole 10 - I stuck it close here


Hole 12 at sundown


Hole 13 - 615 yards (WAYYYYYYYYYYYY BACK!!!!)


Hole 14

Noah Pics

Del Mar Fair pics

Here are some pics from the Fair.

Sucky Bee Ride






Rope Ladder.



Elastic bands to maneuver through.



The wobbly bridge. Note the slide in front.



Pettin' a cow. That's how us Farmers do it.

More on my Week (and weekend)

So today was my first FULL day back at work. Not a whole lot of fun but mostly I just talked to my boss (who's retiring in 47 calendar days) and my co-worker Shannon. I did have to drive around and run some errands but all in all, not a very productive day.

Tomorrow, I am working from 9am-2pm, then going to Torrey Pines to play a round of golf at 4pm. I'm soooooo excited. I called the pro shop today to ask about how the course is. The guy said they still had the black tee markers (the very back tees that the pros play) and he said the rough is still brutal. He said it is basically like the conditions when the US Open was played last week. All this for about $25 (Romero, you have to get the resident card).

Also, I forgot to mention that I did get to spend a little bit of time with Rachel and Caleb last Friday. It is so cool to watch those little guys play together. Ryan even taught Caleb how to make Rocket go faster by patting his knees. I didn't get to hang out too long since I was on my lunch break. Later that evening Ryan and Caleb played some more. Caleb bumped his head 5 times in about an hour. I swear his head is proportionately too large for his body so he can't help but hit his head on things. I'm surprised Ryan doesn't hit his cheeks on everything. After dinner, my brother and his wife met up with me to go to the Brad Paisley concert.

Linda, I had a great time visiting with you, John, Travis and John John. It was great to see you guys and I'm looking forward to August in Lawrence Welk (at least until we all start driving each other crazy).

On Wednesday, we went to Del Mar Fair (they call it the San Diego County Fair now, but it will always be the Del Mar Fair to me). We were supposed to go on Tuesday, but by the time I got home from work, and after getting everything together, it was too late. Every year, I get dragged to the fair, but this year I was actually looking forward to it. Ryan is at a great age where he can actually enjoy a lot of stuff at the fair.

We went to the infield area where there were a lot of carnival rides. The second Ryan saw them, he couldn't stop pointing at them. I had to drop $10 on 14 tickets. Each ride costs 3 tickets and I figured every ride would charge me too since I had to ride with Ryan. Fortunately, I got through most of the rides only giving 3 tickets. The bee ride sucked but Ryan kind-of liked it after the power shut off to it and the bees started coasting around in a circle. Initially, he started whining but he flashed a smile as we got going.

The next ride was the carousel. He always likes the carousels. Once I put him up on the bear (the horses are boring) he looked deathly afraid. I calmed him down and once we got going, he was having a blast.

The next "ride" was actually an obstacle course. It looked a bit daunting for Ryan but he was all about it, mainly because it ends with a long slide through a tube. It started with some bags that you have to maneuver through, which he handled well. Then you have to wrap around and climb a rope ladder (kind of like a military course). He never has done this but he was moving up it pretty quickly. Then at the top, you have to duck through some elastic ropes and go to the inflatable slide. We barely fit through it together but got down just fine. Then onto the wobbly bridge. We had to cross two of them to get to our final destination, the tube slide. Ryan jumped in my lap and we flew down. He was cracking up at the bottom.

The final ride was the Goliath Slide!!!! I had to buy one more ticket since they charged me too. We got to the top and Ryan had no problem jumping in my lap. The slide was about 30 feet tall so it was no slouch. We were the only ones to clear the bottom part of the slide and end up on the pavement. Ryan seemed fine but not as excited about is as the obstacle course.

Later on, we went to go check out the animals and Ryan had a great time petting some goats and a cow.

The whole time we were at the fair, Noah did great, too. He was hanging out in the stroller and seemed to be fairly happy. I feel bad that I haven't mentioned him much, but he is still getting adjusted to this whole life outside the womb and there is not much he does that is different. His days are usually highlighted by a good feeding or low lighted by a poor feeding. Once he starts sitting up, making facial expressions, and getting more of a personality, there will be plenty to talk about him.

Before we left, we stopped by one of the booths and I found a great toy I will have to eventually get (for me, Ryan, and Noah). It's called the Wiggle Racer. Look it up. It seems really cool.

That's it for today. There will be pictures posted on Megan's blog in the near future. She doesn't have a whole heck of a lot of time to post on a blog so be patient.

Great Weekend!!!!

This past weekend (at least up to this point) has been great. On Friday, I went to the Brad Paisley concert. The show was great and I think he has convinced me he is one of the most entertaining musicians out there. Jewel was also playing and she sounded great, just not my style, but she ended her set with a yodeling session. Yes, yodeling!!! Quite a weird end.

On Saturday, we went to the 3rd round of the US Open. What an amazing day. We set up on holes 1, 4, and 14. We saw many more bogeys than birdies...tough course. As we were walking over to the practice range, we were walking behind Barry Bonds. It was quite amusing that only about 3 people recognized him. I noticed that he was wearing a white MLB hat, so I had to follow him until he turned around. It was a San Francisco hat and it looked like he used a Bedazzler to put on some diamonds along the SF of the hat. We only saw Tiger play two holes, and he bogeyed both of the holes. We didn't get to see his birdie chip-in on 17, or his eagle on 18 but we got to see him nonetheless. As we were sitting in the bleachers on hole 14, some drunk 19-year olds were keeping us entertained. They were a bunch of spoiled white kids that go to USC but pretty hilarious. I also met a golf pro from North Carolina who said he'd "take care of my if I came to his course." He was talking about how he is friends with pros Oliver Wilson and Stuart Appleby. I thought he was probably full of crap but he knew quite a bit about both of them, including pointing out Oliver Wilson's girlfriend and talking about where they lived in North Carolina. After I went home on Saturday, I looked up "his" course in North Carolina and sure enough, he is who he says he is. I saw him on Sunday, too and made sure to say hi (got to keep that connection). I told Travis that one of my goals in life is to get free golf across the US.

On Sunday, I was a heathen and missed church to go watch the Open again. Since we were a little sore and a little done with trying to fight through crowds to get a good position along the ropes, we decided to go straight to hole 14 and sit in the bleachers to watch the players "go for it" on the short par 4. There were a lot of birdies and pars, but there were some BAD shots. We saw someone hit his ball into the bunker off the tee, then the next shot went in the canyon. A couple of people hit the bleachers off the tee. Only a few players hit the green off the tee (Jesper Parnevik was the only one we saw score an eagle). We waited until Phil Mickelson came through. He shot a birdie on 14, then we watched him tee of on 15 (where he birdied). We then went to watch Tiger. We went down to hole 5 and set up on a hill above the fairway to get a decent view and to rest a bit. We were about an hour ahead of Tiger so it was still easy to get a good front rope view. We saw some great players come through. As Tiger was approaching, the crowds got so ridiculous that you couldn't see any grass all the way up the hill. After Tiger came through, we went over to the merchandise tent so John could get some stuff for all his family. Then we went back to 14 to try to get a bleacher seat...no such luck. We found a little hill right behind the tee box for hole 15 where we could also see players hit their tee shot on hole 14. We waited for the masses to arrive and knew Tiger was coming through. By this time, Tiger was tied for the lead. He made a par on hole 14 when all the others made birdie. The last shot we saw was Tiger hit his drive on hole 15 more right than I'd ever hit. We thought the tournament was over. After we got back to the car, we turned on the radio and heard he was putting for a tie on hole 18. Of course, he made it.

On Monday, I watched most of the playoff round before going to lunch with my sister-in-law and grandma, along with Megan and the kids. Then I had to leave to go pick up John and head off to Sycuan to go play some free golf. I didn't play great, but the price was just right.

Today (Tuesday), we were supposed to go to the fair but I didn't get back from work until a little after 12 noon. We decided I'd take another day off from work and we'd go to the fair tomorrow.

So that's pretty much it until now. We'll see how the rest of the week goes. Shoot, maybe I'll even throw another post up about it.