Minnesota twins take swings in California

What trip wouldn't be complete without towing your golf bag stuffed with a week's worth of clothes through airport security?  Matt and I where able to play two rounds in the eight days he was here.  Round one was played at the Reserve at Spanos Park in Stockton, CA.  Matt over came a slow start to beat me by 8 (77 - 85).  The match was a lot closer before I hit two of the most cliche golf shots (the bladed bunker shot into the water hazard) on the last holes.

The second round was staged at Dark Horse Golf Club in Auburn, CA (course tour).  This course was amazing! Rated the 7th best public course in CA.  It played incredibly tough with long grass, bunkers and wildlife everywhere.  We saw (almost close enough to pet); deer, coyotes, turkeys, lizards and turkey vultures.

Matt tees off on the 17th hole. Nice balanced finish!

Hard to say what was more impressive; the picture or the swing

Matt's 5 iron second shot into the par 5 18th hole, rolls ten feet from the hole.

I was unable to close the 8 stroke gap and Matt wins the two round outing. 

Matt 77,82 159

Josh 85, 88 173

I think it's safe to say that we had a great time.  Who would have thought we would be playing golf in CA?  I look forward to a few more rounds before Janelle and I leave...Pebble Beach?

 

Welcome to California

We welcomed our first guests, Brie and Matt, on the 15th. Saturday we went up to Tahoe and had some lunch. We asked the waiter where some cool places were and he suggested this cove. Zephyr Cove was beautiful. There were tons of people out enjoying the lake and the shoreline had these huge rocks to climb on.

During the week, we took it easy while Josh was at work. We just read, watched TV and went to the pool.

After calling into Friday Night Party we realized we only had one more day, so we went out to Napa Valley to check out the wineries. We just stopped at one, Sterling, near Calistoga. They had a gondola to ride up to the building. Here we were able to sample 5 wines and do our own self-guided tour.

Before heading over to Santa Rosa we had to stop at Tubbs Lane. It was worth the extra five miles to take tons of pictures.

Before dropping Matt and Brie off at the airport, we tried to watch the sunset at the beach, but the fog had rolled in. It was still fun...this beach is on an old military base. It's very secluded because you have to drive through a one-way tunnel to get out there. It was kind of creepy and we felt like we were in a scary movie!

We had a great week and can't wait to host again.

Hi Sierra!

Saturday morning Janelle and I decided (on a whim) to drive to Lake Tahoe. We drove a scenic 300 mile loop of two lane highways through the High Sierra. Pull out your atlas and follow our trip...

The first overlook of the day! (highway 88: 3,000 - 4,000 ft above sea level, For reference...Sacramento is 25 ft)

Mountain lake on highway 88, the air is cool and smells like wood chips (4,000 - 5,000 ft)


I finally got to use my lay back move learned at REI with Matt & Andy.

This was kinda dangerous, but a great display of balance. The scenery has now changed from lush forests to a rocky landscape. (still on 88 but getting closer to Tahoe, 6,000 - 7,000 ft)

8,000 ft above sea level!

Kit Carson, CA (highway 88, 8,000 ft)

I have lost count of what scenic overlook this is, we were stopping almost every mile on the 100 mile trip to Tahoe. Off in the distance a waterfall.

We made it to Tahoe! The lake is beautiful and incredibly blue.

How are we going to get over/around this? (highway 50 on the way back to Sacramento)

9 hours later we made it back to Sacramento and down to sea level. Janelle and I had a day of amazing views and dozens of eardrum pops.

81 shots & an 8 mile walk

Yesterday my coworker/friend Ben and I played Lockeford Springs golf course just outside of Lodi. The course was really nice and was surrounded by vineyards and in the distance the foothills. I shot 81 (41, 40), Ben didn't fare as well but had fun anyway. On the third hole (par 3, 145yrd) my tee shot hit the pin, thus denying me of my first hole-in-one.

Amazing Alameda

Today we decided to take a little trip to the flea market in Alameda (near Oakland). We hadn't been south of Lodi on the freeway yet, so we took that route. We went south on 5, then west on 205 and 580 to Oakland. While we crossed over the hills, it was amazing to see all the windmills. They were spinning so fast and there were hundreds!

The entire flea market was on a runway. We parked in row Y, like "why" do we have to walk that many rows to the gate. Off in the distance you can see downtown San Fran and the Bay Bridge. It was 60º and a nice change of pace from the 96º that we've been getting used to.


After we paid the $5 each to get in, we made our way down the rows. Each row was labeled with a letter and in each row were 40 vendors. We only made it down to X before we turned back, but there were probably 6 rows that we didn't check out.


We came back with this wood block type. It was set out in trays. The large ones were $2 and small $1.