I've been totally silent on the blog for weeks... Truthfully, it's more like months. It's been crazy busy here with the holidays, kids' school activities, Lindsey's work (& travel) schedule, our trip to Germany/Denmark, the resulting jet-lags, & .... well, the rounds of a common cold.
I'll post about all that later. For now, I'll just talk about our latest adventure:
Abu Dhabi is a stop on the European golf tour! Lindsey loves to play, I like to drive the cart, & the girls are currently in lessons. It seemed like a no-brainer to treat ourselves to a day at the tour.
I've never been to one of these big events in person & they look really serious on TV, so we really didn't know what to expect. But kids got in free... Friday was "Ladies Day" (I was free!).... & Lindsey's ticket was only 50 AED ($13.60). That's crazy!!! Can you imagine getting 5 people into a PGA tour for under $15 total?!
Yeah, this was DEFINITELY on our to-do list!
We arrived about 12:30 pm after a rather long (but free) shuttle bus ride from the parking lot (a sandy field way out in the middle of nowhere!) The daily event guide told us we'd just missed the tee-off for Rory McIlroy by about half an hour.
We figured if we timed it right, we could pick him up at the 9th hole. So, we wandered & took in the sights of the tour.
There was a surprisingly large amount of stuff to do with kids & without. We didn't have VIP tickets, but it turns out you didn't really need them. VIP got you access to better seats in the stands & access to the covered bar/food, but not much else, that we could tell.
So, to kill time until Rory made it back round to us, we saw the Falcons & camels...
... Watched some families try their hand at everything from putt-putt to tennis to rugby...
And all the time, we were slowly making our way to the Clubhouse...
The atmosphere was a bit more serious around the clubhouse area. Huge TVs & Leader Boards were showing the stats & updates on the players in realtime. We had talked to the kids about "golf etiquette", but it still took a few reminders before they caught on to the nuisances.
We stood along the boundary line of the 9th hole & practiced "the golf clap" while a group hit their approach shots.
We decided to walk toward the 9th tee box. It was mostly luck that we arrived in time to watch Rory finish his putt on the 8th hole & then hit his tee shot on the 9th.
Oh my gosh! There is no way to describe the sound a golf ball being hit by a pro. My best description is this:
It's a pure tone... followed by the buzz & sizzle of the ball slicing through the air.
.... & that is truly inadequate as far as a description goes.
It gives you chills. And I don't even play golf. All I can say is it must be a near religious experience for golf fans.
We followed Rory for a few more swings, but in the end, the kids just weren't up for that much walking while being silent.
By this point, it had been 3 hours, Rory had hit a hole-in-one (which we didn't see... dang it!)... & the kids were hungry.
We started back towards the shuttle bus, but paused to eat a hotdog while watching some of the players practice their chip shots & drives. The area is setup so you can talk with the players & get autographs, but we just watched. It was fascinating.
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