such fun..and a new find...

so - yesterday we played pacific dunes...an absolutely gorgeous track...ocean views on almost every hole - some right on the coast - some within sight...davey finally broke 80- i think he shot a 78 and i shot an 84...pretty good for some walking oldies...although our caddie jeff told us about a couple in their mid-eighties who played 36 a day and carried their bags...don't know if he was telling us this just to fire us up??..anyway...our bartender alex, pictured above, has given us some great touts...alloro being the first and then he told us it was worth the drive to the western-most part of the continental US - port orford, a town of 1150....  probably a 50 minute drive last night to a place called "redfish"...the view was spectacular and never comes across in photos!! - but the food!!! - we had the most delicous crabcakes prepared with watermelon radish and cucumber relish with chili ad garlic aioli, fantastic bread! - wonderful green salad with goat cheese and the most delectable shinook salmon, freshly caught from the rivers near by - can't find anything like it in indiana, i tell you what!!!...served on a bed of couscous...i couldn't have alot of wine since i had to drive home but they let us take it home with us so we could have a drink with alex.  today, it looked like rain so we ventured out to the par three, the preserve - a gorgeous 13 hole track where we carried our clubs in a pared down quiver bag...- greens super slow and davey was 2 over and i was 3 over - we probably would've both been under par except we could not get the ball to the hole!!!! - cancelled our afternoon round - looks too iffy - venturing back to bandon for lunch at the wheelhouse - relaxing and packing and home tomorrow - it's been grand!!! - almost back to the real world!!!

such a find....

what a nice time!!!! - we ventured out to bandon for dinner - thanks to alex, our bar tender, we went to a little italian place called alloro wine bar and restaurant.  and i am telling you....a great find!! - great people...we didn't have reserves..but they had a spot for us at the bar..we were joined by two wonderful gals - bets - who's known as elisa in her european tour business (www.tours-europe.com) and pat who is a masseuse here at the lodge...they were delightful and knew the place well...even shared their olives and almonds with us...the owner, lian schmidt, who's husband was trained in italy and is the chef...was also a delight!!  and the food!!!!! - unbelieveable!!!! - the ex-mayor was visiting and happened to be celebrating his 62nd birthday so of course we had to sing..i may have instigated it..i'm not sure... and of course we finished off the night at the cigar bar - learning more about the area from alex.  we have decided to venture off the reservation again tomorrow for dinner - this time to a restaurant called red fish in the town of port orford...westernmost point of the US...great food and great views! - we play pacific dunes tomorrow...alex says it's the best one...and it's not supposed to rain..so we'll see...

old mac donald

that's the name of the course we played today...and the day was gorgeous!! a bit chilly but no rain!!! the only things hurting tonight are my feeties...and as soon as i get into that hot whirlpool, i'm planning to let the jets have their way with them!! this is davey walking with our caddie jeff...tall lanky guy - very nice with lots of stories to tell...the course was beautiful with some of the hardest greens ever!  very fast and hard to read..even for jeff..tonight i think we're going to head into bandon for italian..stay tuned!!!

glorious morning!!

day has dawned....and it's going to be glorious!!!  lots of blue sky and no rain!!! - we have our golf stuff strewn all over our room - even our cash was sodden - there's a nice round circular fan thing sitting on the floor and now we know what it's for:  you can put all your gloves, etc over it and hold them there with a glass or a sleeve of balls and they can eventually dry...davey's wallet is hanging there as we speak...we plan  to head to the driving range today - we figured if we did it yesterday, we'd get so wet we'd give up the round of golf! we've enjoyed the food tremendously! and we found a nice little cigar bar where we head before and after dinner.  alex, the bartender is so knowledgeable about the area and the resort.  he told us about a place 30 miles away..port orford...the farthest western point of the united states.  we need to go to there!!! we're thinking maybe a little brunch and photo op tomorrow morning before we golf.  today we do the old macdonald course...a bit longer than ours at home so it may be a struggle...but a piece of cake compared with yesterday!!  i must say the sauna and whirlpool helped immensely!!!  ....stay tuned!!!

we did it!

i can't believe we actually played today... mid fifties, raining the whole day...wind chill felt like 30..but we came to play golf!! i started off bogie par and then i doubled and then i quit keeping score..as they advise you to do here!...i it got really dangerous when our hands were so wet and so numb that the club kept flying out of our hands! learned a lot about playing in the rain today...what you need to be prepared...most of which we didn't have! - guest services will dry our rain suits but for everything else we're on our own - right now our clubs are all leaning up against the wall..toweled off the grips as best we could..we're drinking a beer and heading to the sauna!! - hope it gets better tomorrow!

out of towners....

we're HERE!!!!!!!...a fourteen hour trip...with so many screw-ups..starting with my almost not getting our boarding passes..then davey wrenched his newly fixed shoulder getting my bag out of the car - then i was 4 pounds over at the airport...(never tell me to use the big suitcase...) then there weren't enough seats in the boarding area so we sat on the floor...quick flight to chicago..(no prob)..then a 4+ hour flight to portland and to have enough room, we went all the way to the back of the plane - a nice seat between us...didn't look like the plane would be full....when all of a sudden 22 screaming, shouting, giggling, ipod-wearing teen-age girls came streaming on the plane...several basketball teams from a chicago high school on their way to camp.......just when we thought we had it made!! and of course - the biggest one ended up sitting with us - we gave her the window - she kept turning around and kneeling - looming over me to chat with her buds...eventually she calmed down and fell asleep...finally made it and got our luggage with no problem - davey rented a car...the car from hell...we couldn't figure out how to work the seats, the key, the gear shift...it's sort of an automatic-shifting sort of thing...but the drive from portland to bandon was worth all the trouble!!!  absolutely awesome - especially the drive from route 5 over to the coast...we drove along the Umpqua river much of the time and the views were spectacular...the road was a joy to drive - nothing like the ones in indiana - anyway - we arrived safely and ended up having a very late meal - the portions are huge so we learned a lesson there.  the good news:  we got here just in time for a cold wave from alaska!!! - it's not pouring today but a steady drizzle but that is not stopping the folks from golfing. (check out the view from our window..those are actual unbrellas out there!) our tee time is 12:30 and we plan to play!!!  as we keep telling each other.."we're on an adventure!!"...i hope the sun comes out a little so i can take some good pix - i brought my watercolors because we'll have mornings to relax - since this is a walking only course, we'll get plenty of exercise...maybe we'll actually eat all our dinner tonight!!!

heading out

yesterday was BIG!!!!!  davey's last day in the ER...he's finally graduated!!!!!!..i had already planned to play in sally's guest day so i wasn't here when he got home....  had a minor meltdown before golf...but pulled myself together and did all right - we didn't win but we played with some lovely gals and enjoyed lunch afterwards..it was a two man best ball out of the foursome and we each bought 2 mulligans - i used one on a putt and one on a drive - hit one ball in the water - shot an 86 - but not really a true score! - packing up our clubs and heading out tomorrow.  they tell us we shouldn't even keep score at bandon - it will distract from the scenery - i'm taking my computer and plan to post some of the pics..i'm taking my watercolors and maybe i'll paint and maybe i won't but i sure hope i can!!!

home-made bread

12x12 oil on gallery wrap canvas

there was this lovely family next to me - they have a booth all summer and i highly recommend them! - i just wish i could remember their name...i hope they contact me so i can tell you later!  anyway - the children were so well behaved and pleasant ..very accomplished...josiah was about to head to indy and put on a tux in the dreadful heat to sing in a choir...the younger girls also sang and they all did daily chores on their farm as well as being home-schooled.  anyway - i bought two of their breads - the one was called a ladder bread with bacon and cheese - yum! and i can't remember the other! - i should have written it down and i should have taken a photo of the setup - i think it would be fun to do another painting with a dark background with the bread on a breadboard...anyway - it was a lovely day and i saw so many people i haven't seen in a while...and it was a good opportunity to paint - something that's been at a premium this summer.  getting ready to leave for indy on wednesday and then fly out for oregon early thursday morning.  i'm getting ready to review my golf lesson right now and then head to indy tomorrow for a guest day with my good friend sally.  can i get any busier??????  we did have a lovely father's day celebration here and the aftermath of our wing-dings is always huge! - since jen did all the cooking i wouldn't let her help in any of the cleanup...but it's always fun to reminisce as i work...so no worries...

red gerbers

6x6 oil on panel

so i set up at the downtown farmer's market saturday morning.  my plan was to purchase something from one of the vendors and then do a small painting.  i took some of my smaller things along and had a lot of nice compliments but no takers...maybe i should have mentioned that i take master card and visa?...anyway - this is the first painting i  did..a little batch of gerber daisies...lots of thick paint and it isn't dry yet! i did another which i'll try and post before i leave.

i'm excited

ok  - so i haven't been painting but i've been getting ready for golf - my lesson is kicking in and i'm ready for the dunes!! - just found out i will have a spot in our local farmer's market this saturday.  i plan to set up and paint!!!! maybe something i purchase from one of the vendors?...we'll see...but i have to take my stuff over to the Venue in bloomington tomorrow so all of a sudden life is getting very busy...all of a sudden??????

my bad....

i feel so bad - it's not that i haven't been painting..i have..a bit...i entered three paintings in the IHA exhibition..none of which got it..again...and i was very bummed for about 24 hours and then i decided to move on..it's summer and it's all about golf because in one week we head to bandon dunes in oregon to celebrate my hubby's "graduation" from the ER...and we need to practice!!! - i will make every effort to post SOMETHING here in the next week..but i guess i'm not much of a summer painter...life is too short, what with golf, grand kids' sporting events, lake visits, dog walks, and, of course, golf........(p.s....just for fun i posted one of my favs...a mary cassatt...and i do love it!)