On our way to SLC

Our final full day in GP was another lazy one until Scott and Lucy returned from work - it was then party time - presents!!!! It was supposed be a pre-birthday party for Cade, but, of course, Braeden couldn't get left behind. Jo and I bought Cade some of his WWF stuff - here's Scott assembling the grand entrance:

Here's the boys with the new ring we bought for Cade - but Braeden doesn't quite seem to understand the difference - "what's Cade's is ours":

We also bought one of the ride-on pool boats that has a motor and a squirty mechanism - Kelly bought one for Cade a few years ago and it was hugely popular, although eventually it was over-used. Scott and Lucy made sure they bought one for Braeden too so he didn't feel left out - the boys had great fun in them - and everyone got a soaking.

We finished with yet another family photo in front of the house. I must put up a montage of all of them some time so we can observe the changes over the years. See how proudly Bailey is sitting?:

And soon we're off to Medford airport for our flight to Salt Lake City. Lucy will pick us up and take us to Portland next week.

Tiger Lesina

Dang - he did it again! Scott beat me for the 3rd time yesterday - and he broke 100 gross for the first time ever (99 to be exact). With his assumed handicap of 28, Scott scored 37 points (1 better than handicap) and I scored just 28 points (8 worse than my handicap).

We went to the Centennial golf course in Medford yesterday - a new complex that I had played 9 holes on 2 years ago. It has matured beautifully and was in excellent condition. The greens are massive, sloping and very fast in comparison with anything that Scott has played on before. He struggled at first - a nervous "Ladies" off the first tee - but recovered well and was soon crunching his driver off the tee, and he even got the hang of the greens after a 4 putt at the 2nd hole.

What can I say? Nothing really - other than to adjust his handicap a little next time I play him!

After golf we picked up my new glasses and also went to Toys R Us to get some presents for Cade's early birthday party tonight (we're gone by the time of his real birthday). Scott and I went to McGrath's Fish House in Medford for dinner, whilst Lucy, Jo and the boys went Thai in Grants Pass - after picking up a Happy Meal at McDonald's for Braeden, who doesn't like Thai food!

So the rest of the day is going to be lazy - book reading, swim, sun, snooze - plus checking in for our flights to Salt Lake tomorrow - need to pack as well. The Lesinas are heading off in the trailer to Redding for a long weekend, taking in the Water Park there (which Kelly will remember well). Cade's football conditioning starts next week - 5 nights of torture in the baking sun! We never quite got our holiday plans co-ordinated this year - we had initially hoped that they would be joining us in Utah next week, but it wasn't to be. Next year we'll do better, I promise - although there may be the added complication of Oz to consider!

Tuesday

No photos and nothing much to say yet - but Scott is due home from work soon - taking a half day off - and he and I are going to Medford to play golf - and pick up my new glasses - back to varifocals, in case you were wondering. Check them out at Nike.com - model 6032 (shiny chrome).



Monday was quiet - I went to Walmart to get some groceries, but that was all really, until Scott and Lucy got home and Scott barbequed some buffalo steaks for us - they were great - not as fatty as convential beef steaks, but very tasty - in fact you couldn't have told the difference on a blind tasting.

Sunday

I always seem to enjoy watching the Open when I'm here on the West Coast. I get up early, full of anticipation, looking forward to 5 hours of solid golf on TV (albeit interspersed with many adverts). It's (normally) all over by about 10:30 am local time, so there's still the whole day in front of us. This time it was a little longer because of the play-off, but we still had plenty of time to do whatever we wanted - in this case, there were no plans so Scott and I headed off to Dutcher Creek for a round of golf.

To keep things interesting (and slightly competitive) I've been keeping our scores this year on a stableford basis - now I know that's double Dutch to most of you, but what it means is that if I give Scott the maximum handicap of 28 and I play off my real handicap (9), we each score points at each hole depending on our respective handicaps. I did this last Saturday at Myrtle Creek and Scott beat me by one point overall. Yesterday, after 9 holes I was miles ahead, but Scott had a terrific back nine (actually holes 1-9) and beat me again overall. In fact, even forgetting handicap, his gross score of 41 for the last 9 holes was pretty good. We tried to go to the Laughing Clam for a quick beer afterwards, but it was shut so we nipped down to Wild River brewery and Scott showed off his card:

We decided to go out for dinner to Summer Jo's. They weren't quite ready for us when we got there so we had a wander round their garden. The Lesinas posed for Jo for a family photo:

Back at Delsie Drive, I hadn't previously noticed that one of my old Partick Thistle strips had been hung up by Cade on his bedroom wall:

Today I was planning to head to Medford early on to pick up a new set of glasses I ordered last Wednesday, but Scott has just phoned to suggest leaving it until tomorrow as he can get the afternoon off and we can go and play golf down Medford way and pick up the glasses whilst we're down there. I guess we'll just have another lazy day at home today then - that would please the boys anyway.

Friday night in Banchory

As I said in my previous posting, my birthday ale was on in the Douglas - here's the new pump clip:



Of course, my pals were there to sample it on my behalf and sent me the photos - Colin's behind the bar with Steve, the owner of the Douglas, and Gary Grant, John McWhinnie, Ian Sharp and Dave Williamson are the others grinning at the camera:

Scolty Ale/Nechtan

It's now been released to the public - in the Douglas Arms and the Legion in Banchory but also a number of other pubs in the North East - including Archibald Simpson's (Wetherspoon's). I've still to taste my birthday ale in cask form myself, but I got reports from my buddies last night at the Douglas Arms.

The next task is to design a label for the bottled versions. I want to call it Scolty Ale as that was going to be the name of our first ale when we were planning to start a brewery a decade or so ago, so I've been looking for online photos and all I've come up with so far is:

Note the latter one has the golf course in it as well - and it's the 3rd hole, where I had a hole in one and won a Sunday Post putter - whoo-oo!!! - so my sympathies are tending towards it - what do you think?

Saturday update

Didn't quite make triple digits today but, it was still plenty hot. Yesterday we had lunch at the new Tap Rock restuarant, finally re-built 2-3 years after the original building burnt down. It sits on top of the river and is right next to where you get on the Hellgate boats - Kelly and Craig will remember. We sat outside to get a nice view, but it was very hot - the thermometer at the bank next door read 101 F just as we finished lunch - and it would get hotter yet. There's a nice little walkway back to the car park with streams, waterfalls and bears (not real):



Today, as Jo described in her blog, we got everyone up and out pretty early and headed north to the lake, after a quick pit-stop for breakfast. Out in the boat, Jo was finally persuaded to get in to the water, although she found it hard to move around with her life-jacket on:




Cade was initially very reluctant to let his Dad pull him on the Bonsai and wailed a bit (see short video at the end), but later on, he plucked up the courage and had a whale of a time, albeit with his Mum riding shotgun:

Here's his first attempt: