First row of spring, Thompson Boat Center, sculling in DC, Chadwicks of Georgetown
The water temp finally rose, the weather was good, and my buddy RP and I were able to get over to Georgetown today for the first row of the season.
I walked down to Thompson Boat Center, and saw my old High School team. We grabbed oars, boats, and got on the water. It was a beautiful day. Despite the good weather, the water probably wasn’t particularly warm, so we opted for a more stable scull.
I brought a waterproof camera out for the first time. Its a bit hard to keep upright, stay out of other boats’ way, and snap pictures, but I think I got some good ones. In the background just below, you can see the boat house, the Watergate hotel, and the Kennedy Center. Up above, you can see the Rosslyn skyline, the old port of Georgetown, the National Cathedral, Key Bridge, and some of Georgetown University. Just behind me further down in the photos, is Theodore Roosevelt Island. Next time I’ll try to get some better pics of the island, Roosevelt bridge, the three sisters, the Lincoln Memorial, etc.
My hands held up pretty well, except I think I might need to lose the wedding ring next time.
After sculling, we went to Chadwicks for half priced burgers and beers. We celebrated the first row of the season, and made plans for next week. Hope to see y’all out there.
For some more rowing posts, click here, and here.
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Easter Sunday, Balduccis, Sabering Champagne
On Easter Sunday, we waited until day of to go get some steak. We struck out at the first two butchers we went to. Fortunately, Balduccis had plenty, and a real butcher on duty to cut our ribeyes to order.
The steak and wine was a big hit. I sabered some champagne, which didn’t work out as well as it generally does. I’d like to blame it on the bottle, but perhaps I was a little over zealous. Regardless, its the only way to open champagne.
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Ballpark and top down weather
We headed to the ballpark today. I had a DMV. The D was a half smoke (2 actually), the M was crab dip, and the V was sliced ham. Pretty crazy.
Then we enjoyed the drive back with the top down and saw the sights. It was a great day for a game and a ride.
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Appalachian Accent
As you can see from my previous golf trip posts, I just got back from being around about 40 guys with West Virginian accents. Theses are guys my parents grew up with and around, so their accents are only so different from my parents’. My dad, and to a lesser extent, my mom, still have accents, but years of living near DC has toned them down considerably. I always enjoy seeing how much the accents come back when we go up to see relatives. My wife and I were born in the same hospital, and raised about 20 miles apart. However, she was raised by former New Yorkers, while I was raised by West Virginians. It was pretty wild to come back from the trip and notice how different her accent really is from mine, and how neither of us really have a neutral DC accent. While the DC area has a lot of out of towners that come and go, the native accent, at least to me, is pretty neutral. If you find someone who grew up in Northern Virginia or Southern Maryland, you won’t hear much of an accent at all. We also had a native Oklahoman and his son (also raised in Northern Virginia). The Oklahoma accent doesn’t sound wildly different given a cursory listen, but the argot is quite different (darlin’).
I have a suspicion that my mother-in-law did the Brooklyn part of this video:
It took me forever, but I finally found a few videos of the accent particular to the part of WV my parents are from. Its funny that its from a fire department as my parents once told me I couldn’t go see my grandparents until I learned to say, “fire truck” the correct way (F’AR truck).
I can’t be sure if either of those guys are native to Wayne County WV, but they sound about right. This one sounds about right as well:
I remember reading in, The Right Stuff, that the West Virginia drawl became popular with pilots because of Chuck Yeager. Yeager grew up about an hour from where my parents were raised.
I also found part of a documentary called Mountain Talk. It features North Carolinians, but reminded me of how my relatives always say, “mashed”, where I might say, “smashed”, or, “crushed.” For example, by accident one might mash his finger with a hammer, or get a finger mashed by the door. They also say, “pop”, where I say, “soda.”
I was inspired to write this post not only by my recent trip, but also the video below, that I found via the linked blog:
http://oldvirginiablog.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-brief-explanation-of-southern-accenty.html
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Myrtle Beach Golf Trip, Day 5
(This is a continuation of a 5 part post about my 2014 golf trip to Myrtle Beach. Please scroll down for the first post)
The last round on day 5 looked like it might get rained out. Some people left early. I decided to get started on the bourbon and cigars before teeing off, in case of a thunderstorm ending our round prematurely.
The rain held off, and we had a great round. I shot about as well as I did all week, and finished the round by sinking about a 15 foot putt off the fringe in front of the whole group.
On the last day of the trip, at the 18th green, a party starts as the first golfers finish, continue drinking, and start heckling the groups the come in after them. It builds and builds until the last golfers finish. Our group was the second to last to come in. By the time we arrived, the festivities were in full swing.
The partying continued in the parking lot outside the rooms. Some partied harder than others…
We went up to Gary and FJ’s room (where many a coke was exchanged) to figure out the final numbers, hand out winnings, and do some more drinking. As is apparent in some of the pictures, the party had still not ended.
Since it was the last night, we went to a steak house. I had a ribeye and a few more beers. We had a great meal, and it was a great way to end the trip. The next day we packed up, had one last IHOP breakfast, and headed home. I can’t thank Gary enough for planning such an awesome trip. I can’t thank my dad enough for including me, and my friends. It really is about the most fun group of guys you can imagine. It was a trip I’ll never forget, and I can’t wait ’til next year.
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Myrtle Beach Golf Trip, Day 4
On the forth day, we played The Wizard. As you can see below, Jay is celebrating the miracle that occurred that enabled him to be in playing shape that morning. Jason was not doing quite as well. The rest of us faired better than anticipated, given the previous evening.
We queued up, and watched the first drives over water.
Larry enjoyed a little impromptu driving range time into the water.
Jason pulled it together and teed off (above).
The rain wig was in effect, and some old crow in a shot glass my dad bought me helped with the weather.
The rain started slow, then really started coming down. It came and went, but didn’t ruin the round.
After the round, we all piled in our vehicles and headed down to the beach for dinner at Soho. After a great dinner, Gary added up our scores, and figured out the skins, longest drives, closest to the pins, and longest putts.
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Myrtle Beach Golf Trip, Day 3
On day 3 of the trip, I woke up, got a coffee, and watched players on Wizard approach and putt out on our screened porch. Then we headed to IHOP for breakfast, and then the Witch for our round. It was pretty hot out as we warmed up.
I never got a shot of the whole group at once, but this is about half of us. My dad, my second cousin Larry, Winn-Dixie, and his son C-Note teed off in the group before us. I rode with CW.
The Witch had a lot of wildlife on the course. Including a pretty fearless raccoon, and thankfully, some more disinterested gators.
It was my birthday, and we got paired up with some young guns. This was by far my worst round score-wise, but we had a great time. We played with one of these guys last year, and had a very similar experience. Hopefully, we’ll get to play together again next year.
Before the booze kicked in, we did have some pretty incredible shots. The young gun in the white shirt bent a ball around a huge tree to land on the green. It was incredible. He even called his shot.
It was hard enough to find errant balls without the oyster shells.
Larry told me that one year the course didn’t have its liquor license. He was feeling thirsty, and drove the cart across the (very busy) street, to buy some beers.
The course was beautiful, and despite worrying slightly about pace of play as some of my buddies started to feel the affects of intoxication, I had a great time. The group behind us was also from West Virginia, and the small talk with them prior to the round may have kept them from complaining. I hope we didn’t slow them down too much, but I imagine we may have. Hopefully they still enjoyed the round.
I happened to wear the exact same shirt as Taylor that round. He gets a little stressed about his golf game on occasion, but its nothing a few beers and some bourbon can’t fix. He might have gotten just a tad carried away, as he took a spill on the 18th green and made a bit of a knee divot. Larry got out his repair tool, and I have to say, its the first time I’ve seen a knee mark repaired on a green. Notice how Corey is still lining up a putt despite the chaos around him.
The young guns didn’t make it, but we had a pretty epic evening out. If you want details, you’ll have to ask me about it. Specifically, ask about how they climbed to the rafters, C-Note got tackled, Jason miraculously didn’t get us kicked out, the desperation line, and about CW’s G bucks. I had an awesome birthday. I couldn’t have had a better time. We finally dragged Jason out and got home around 2am.
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Myrtle Beach Golf Trip, Day 2
On Saturday, we got up early to get down to SC. We saw some familiar sights on the drive down. The trip is organized by Gary, my dad’s best friend growing up. Its about 40 guys, mostly from the Huntington area of WV. The majority of the guys about my dad’s age, but with a few guys just older and younger than me as well. We met up with everyone at the Man O War course. It was a beautiful day and an awesome course. I rode with Winn-Dixie, and we both played pretty well.
We started off with plenty of swing lube, but as you can see below, we had to make a run after the round.
That evening, we ate at Buffalo Wild Wings, and called it a night.
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Myrtle Beach Golf Trip, Day 1
My dad (and mom) grew up in a small town in West Virginia. A friend of his puts on a golf trip each year. Last year, my friend CW and I were lucky enough to get an invite. This year, we all went again, and invited a couple more friends. The base price of the trip is under $400 bucks, and includes 4 rounds of golf (carts included, coolers allowed), and 4 nights in Myrtle beach, as well as breakfast, and lunch, and an included steakhouse dinner. Its an unbelievable deal, but similar ones can be found via a quick google search. If you have a group of golf buddies, you’d be crazy not to check it out.
On Thursday, my dad and I drove down to our friends’ house in Fredericksburg to miss some traffic the following morning. We sat around and talked late into the evening, played a little piano, and told old stories. This was the view when I got up and had some coffee. Then we met up with my friend CW at the waffle house.
My friend C-Note’s Dad, Winn-Dixie, is a regular there, and his banter with the staff was as enjoyable as my biscuit and bacon. We headed down to Durham to play a round with one of Winn-Dixie’s former coworkers. He invited us to play at his country club, and even bought us lunch. Very generous. He lost an arm, but still plays golf. I can now say I’ve lost a round to a one armed man. We also played with a character who’s license plate is featured below. The weather and company was great, and the trip was just beginning.
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The Masters, Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons, hitting the range
I watched some of the range coverage at the Masters this afternoon, and tried to figure out why I seem to have a backswing/swing plane problem. I consulted an old favorite, Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf. Short of seeing an instructor and practice, reading the five lessons is about the best thing you can do for your golf game. I think this is especially true if you’re just starting out. After brushing up, I went to Oak Marr and hopefully made some progress.
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