Written on 10-12-15.
I am on United Flight 1968, flying back to Denver after surprising Guy for his 50th birthday. It was a swell visit, a real blast! We surprised him on Friday night when we first arrived at their home. Annmarie ended up being the one who picked us up. He appeared underwhelmed, but hey, that’s Guy for you. He said he thought something was amiss when Annmarie went out at night to get a compress for her eye. She has a stye, poor thing, but Guy said she never goes out at night, so that was weird. Also, she was doing quite a bit of house cleaning before the weekend, and she asked him to take off Monday, too.
I am going to stop for a minute because the drink cart is here. I want to avoid any spills if I can.
Okay, drink break is over. So, he wasn’t really surprised, but Guy is not overly dramatic in any way either, so I hope he was at least mildly surprised. On Saturday, Annmarie sent us off on...
the brewery tour. I was the one mostly in charge; I used my teacher voice often. We stopped at three different breweries before heading back to Tavern 64, coming full circle. It was easy to keep track of everyone. We had thirteen men on the tour, and that’s how many seats were in the limo/van we rode in. The tour consisted of many flights of assorted beers (of course), Pass the Pigs, the corn hole game, laughs, salty snacks, manly conversations (as manly as men can have in this century), more corn hole, Jenga, appetizers, lunch, more beer flights, more laughs, etc.
When we had had enough at one stop, I gathered everyone up and we went to the next place. We really had lots of laughs, and I made sure to take pictures, although Annmarie said their neighbor Dave was in charge of taking pictures.
Nobody, thankfully, threw up. It would have been a $500.00 charge if anyone had, so that’s a good thing. After the tour, Guy was surprised once more with a special dinner at Tavern 64, a fine restaurant at the Reston Town Center. Many friends and more family joined us there. The slideshow I had worked on was continually cycling through on a large screen TV, and Annmarie stopped everyone to give her ten minute speech reading all of the reasons we love Guy, but it took her closer to a half-hour to get it all read. When she practiced before we arrived, she wasn’t interrupted at all. The real speech took longer with frequent interruptions. Many laughed, and a few got teary-eyed. It was a great tribute for a great “Guy.” Sorry, but I had to use that at least once.
On Sunday, we played 18 holes of golf at Westfields, a fancy golf course where Guy usually plays for Fathers’ Day. It was a group of 12. Garth, Anne, Annmarie, and ShyShay were the lead group, but we could never catch them. Too much searching for lost golf balls. We had Guy, Duncan, Steve, Bev and I in our group. Bev just drove around in a cart by herself, happy as can be to enjoy the scenery, the company, and a day with no stress from either working or trying to play golf well. The group behind had some of Guy’s other friends, but Michael and Patrick bailed from that group after nine holes, too tired and too frustrated to continue after running some ten or 12 mile run earlier that morning.
Duncan came up with a game for our group to play. I played the first six holes with Duncan as a partner. Steve and I partnered for the middle six holes, and I finished with Guy for the final six. Then we counted up how many holes each individual had won when it was all over with our best ball scores. Duncan won nine, I won eight, Guy won seven, and poor Steve won only five, but Steve wasn’t as avid a golfer as the three of us and it showed. Thankfully, his mellow temperament was greater than his golf skills. He was happy to have a day with his buddy Guy out on a beautiful golf course on an incredibly gorgeous fall day. I don’t want to speak for everyone, but I believe we all felt that way, although Guy is Bev’s and my brother, not necessarily our buddy.
I played okay. Once again, a new golf course added ten strokes to my average score, just like Glacier; I shot a 95 again. I only took one handicap seven this time, though, and I certainly lost fewer golf balls than at Glacier. I shot the lowest score of everyone there, but that was little consolation; I still felt frustrated that my best golf game will not translate as well to a new course again.
I won the longest drive competition, but I only had to outdrive ShyShay and Duncan to do that. Duncan blasted one well past the mark that ShyShay had earned, so I had to protect my niece, of course, and swing my drive farther than his. I was going to give her the prize, whatever it was, but it ended up being four bottles of a fancy beer, so that didn’t work out.
Anyway, it was so fun! It ended way too quickly again. I’m so glad I made this trip. I know Guy appreciated it, and all went smoothly. And now it’s over, and I’m heading back home again. The next time we get together will be in December when we celebrate Dad’s 80th birthday, the new Star Wars movie, and Christmas together. That will be a very exciting and special time, because James will also be bringing his girl Nicola from New Zealand.
Until next time…
I am on United Flight 1968, flying back to Denver after surprising Guy for his 50th birthday. It was a swell visit, a real blast! We surprised him on Friday night when we first arrived at their home. Annmarie ended up being the one who picked us up. He appeared underwhelmed, but hey, that’s Guy for you. He said he thought something was amiss when Annmarie went out at night to get a compress for her eye. She has a stye, poor thing, but Guy said she never goes out at night, so that was weird. Also, she was doing quite a bit of house cleaning before the weekend, and she asked him to take off Monday, too.
I am going to stop for a minute because the drink cart is here. I want to avoid any spills if I can.
Okay, drink break is over. So, he wasn’t really surprised, but Guy is not overly dramatic in any way either, so I hope he was at least mildly surprised. On Saturday, Annmarie sent us off on...
the brewery tour. I was the one mostly in charge; I used my teacher voice often. We stopped at three different breweries before heading back to Tavern 64, coming full circle. It was easy to keep track of everyone. We had thirteen men on the tour, and that’s how many seats were in the limo/van we rode in. The tour consisted of many flights of assorted beers (of course), Pass the Pigs, the corn hole game, laughs, salty snacks, manly conversations (as manly as men can have in this century), more corn hole, Jenga, appetizers, lunch, more beer flights, more laughs, etc.
When we had had enough at one stop, I gathered everyone up and we went to the next place. We really had lots of laughs, and I made sure to take pictures, although Annmarie said their neighbor Dave was in charge of taking pictures.
Nobody, thankfully, threw up. It would have been a $500.00 charge if anyone had, so that’s a good thing. After the tour, Guy was surprised once more with a special dinner at Tavern 64, a fine restaurant at the Reston Town Center. Many friends and more family joined us there. The slideshow I had worked on was continually cycling through on a large screen TV, and Annmarie stopped everyone to give her ten minute speech reading all of the reasons we love Guy, but it took her closer to a half-hour to get it all read. When she practiced before we arrived, she wasn’t interrupted at all. The real speech took longer with frequent interruptions. Many laughed, and a few got teary-eyed. It was a great tribute for a great “Guy.” Sorry, but I had to use that at least once.
On Sunday, we played 18 holes of golf at Westfields, a fancy golf course where Guy usually plays for Fathers’ Day. It was a group of 12. Garth, Anne, Annmarie, and ShyShay were the lead group, but we could never catch them. Too much searching for lost golf balls. We had Guy, Duncan, Steve, Bev and I in our group. Bev just drove around in a cart by herself, happy as can be to enjoy the scenery, the company, and a day with no stress from either working or trying to play golf well. The group behind had some of Guy’s other friends, but Michael and Patrick bailed from that group after nine holes, too tired and too frustrated to continue after running some ten or 12 mile run earlier that morning.
Duncan came up with a game for our group to play. I played the first six holes with Duncan as a partner. Steve and I partnered for the middle six holes, and I finished with Guy for the final six. Then we counted up how many holes each individual had won when it was all over with our best ball scores. Duncan won nine, I won eight, Guy won seven, and poor Steve won only five, but Steve wasn’t as avid a golfer as the three of us and it showed. Thankfully, his mellow temperament was greater than his golf skills. He was happy to have a day with his buddy Guy out on a beautiful golf course on an incredibly gorgeous fall day. I don’t want to speak for everyone, but I believe we all felt that way, although Guy is Bev’s and my brother, not necessarily our buddy.
I played okay. Once again, a new golf course added ten strokes to my average score, just like Glacier; I shot a 95 again. I only took one handicap seven this time, though, and I certainly lost fewer golf balls than at Glacier. I shot the lowest score of everyone there, but that was little consolation; I still felt frustrated that my best golf game will not translate as well to a new course again.
I won the longest drive competition, but I only had to outdrive ShyShay and Duncan to do that. Duncan blasted one well past the mark that ShyShay had earned, so I had to protect my niece, of course, and swing my drive farther than his. I was going to give her the prize, whatever it was, but it ended up being four bottles of a fancy beer, so that didn’t work out.
Anyway, it was so fun! It ended way too quickly again. I’m so glad I made this trip. I know Guy appreciated it, and all went smoothly. And now it’s over, and I’m heading back home again. The next time we get together will be in December when we celebrate Dad’s 80th birthday, the new Star Wars movie, and Christmas together. That will be a very exciting and special time, because James will also be bringing his girl Nicola from New Zealand.
Until next time…
No comments:
Post a Comment