HI faithful readers,
I had a big readership for last night’s “Suit Up” blog, so thank you, thank you, thank you.
Today was our last day in Scotland; the last day the bros are on vacation, as they fly back to the States tomorrow. We’re currently on the plane from Edinburgh to Heathrow, where we will all be waiting on Mrs. Blogger to arrive from the States to start part two of this long, crazy journey. We’re all looking forward to it.
I have to begin today by mentioning (cough cough) last night’s euchre game. After I finished the blog, which they thought was waaaaaaaaay too long (😂), we had a rematch of the butt-kicking of the night before – RR and I against Db and B (aka “the bros”). Again we got trounced in the first game, but we made a noise about being head momentarily at 4-3 (I think the final was 10-4. The second game started poorly, but then we started setting them, B kept making it and Db kept complaining, and then a sweep of them all, and we won without doing the cow ears from 8…so 1-1. The last game was not as competitive as Db complained about the cards changing and RR taking advantage and we won easily, maybe 10-6. And the crowd went wild 😀 B called it the greatest comeback ever. No hyperbole. :)
We had brekkie at the course; I show you the salmon and scrambled eggs bc it was the good stuff.
We were at Gullane Golf Club today, playing #1 of their 3 courses. It is a much touted championship course, it turns out appropriately famous for its “climb to the summit.” This pic gives you an idea – you can see most of East Lothian (the county) from the top.
But first the club: it is old. They talk about a course there since the 16th century and the one we played dates from 1882. We pulled into the modern clubhouse building and parked (the orange van went into a van lot), only to find out that was the clubhouse for 2 and 3 and the clubhouse for one was the colonial building – the white one on the left in this pic.
We were guided to park around back and couldn’t get in the back entrance (🤷♂️) so walked around where Eleanor sat at the front deak. She found out we were the Hicks party at 1104 and sent us back to the car for our clubs and she would meet us to let us in the back door.
We got in without her (RR was in the glass porch and let me in and I let the other two) and I went to the locker room and changed shoes and put in my contacts. There was much discussion what to wear for gear on a day with wet, heavy wind and maybe 16 degrees (I’ll let you do the math, Sean 😁) RR ended up in 4 layers and I wore 3, never getting the 4th out of the bag. OC the top layer was my short sleeved rain slicker – which blocks the wind, too.
We climbed the hill fairly gradually up the first three holes with the wind in our face. It was about 15-20 mph (again my face is wind burned). Nae fun. (you know they say in Scotland “if there’s nae wind, there’s nae golf” 😁 crazy buggers).
The view from the top of 3 was amazing – you can see the whole course below you and the Firth and the ubiquitous safety ship that was sitting within site at Muirfield yesterday too (maybe I have a picture).
Then you played down, turned right with the wind now off your left, then right again on five and six, back up the hill, wind at our back. The view from the top of 7 is world class. You can see Muirfield in the near distance, and Renaissance (where they are playing the Scottish Open till 2030). To the west you could see the high buildings of Edinburgh and Arthur’s Seat (easily), which is the dominant physical feature of the city.
I did NOT fall over anyone’s bag today, though Db told EVERYONE he met the story (as he had to have a trolley for his bag so the caddie to drag it 😂)
We played in almost exactly 4 hours, giving us plenty of time to make our plane. We had a pint -- ok, maybe some had two -- and I had a ploughman's sandwich that was so big I had to share it 3 ways. 😂
We had arranged to drop our clubs "near the airport" at a DHL store. Or the Ship Sticks app thought it was a DHL store. We pulled in where Google told us to, which was a series of store fronts. None said "DHL." ): The one was a post office and grocery and Db went in to ask. The woman at the till said that this was it. The guy behind the counter came out to the car to look at things and we packed up. It took a few minutes. I was the first one in and he pulled up an app on his phone and scanned the code on the tag (it's got a name; I had to search all over to find one) and said okay. But we all left the clubs in the aisle of the bodega -- clearly they were not used to handling golf clubs. We wondered out loud on the drive to the airport if we'd ever see our clubs again and then RR got a text from DHL saying his clubs were checked in, then we all did, and we were all satisfied that at least the driver on Monday would be wondering where they were. :)
And now we're in London. We have plans. Saturday we're going to the footie at Wembley; Sunday we have tickets to the Globe; Tuesday we have reservations for high tea. We're also supposed to find some tanks for RR...rumor has it there are several places here with him. He loves tanks. :)
And there we are. Hang on for the next edition; who knows what might happen.
Till then...
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