Day's 3 & 4: Some Cold Days In The Sun

Friday the 14^th

Today gave many new experiences, but first, we need to wake up. The coming morning was not easy to embrace, but we sluggishly welcomed the daylight and awoke for a new day in California. Our morning routines were all sorts of screwed up because there was a time difference for all of us. So the day started with Dan making coffee and Dwylin started blogging and Jon and Matt switching between watching golf on TV and playing ping pong.

It took a bit of time for us to decide on how we wanted to proceed with our day. We already had bought tickets for a baseball game that evening between the San Francisco Giants and the Milwaukee Brewers. So we headed north to San Francisco, and to see a couple of sights while we were there.

So we drove north for a little over an hour. Some good discussions were had as well listening to good music on our drive. When we left San Jose, it was sunny and around 75 degrees outside. When we arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge, however, it was overcast with blustery conditions and just plain cold. With the weather being uncooperative, it made the bridge look decidedly less impressive than we had anticipated. One of the funnier parts of the stop at Golden Gate was a sign that warned us against “Frequent Thefts”.

With the view being underwhelming and the frigid winds bouncing off the bay, we made the decision to go back into San Francisco. We were headed to find an early supper before the baseball game started. We settled on eating at Pete’s Tavern, which happened to be right across the street from Oracle Park. The food was by consensus, lackluster, and overpriced.

Afterward, we still had about 2 hours to burn before they would allow people inside the ballpark. So we walked out along one of the local piers and took pictures and admired the ocean vessels.

It didn’t take long until one or two in our group started desiring a pleasant treat called, “ice cream”. We ended up finding a place just about 7 or 8 blocks from the ballpark. So probably 15 minutes later we waltzed into a Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop. There was so much chocolate and they even gave free samples. The shop definitely had its own feel to it. It was a mixture of a high-class establishment and a Steak and Shake. Most of us got some ice cream and all thought it was pretty good as well.

Then it was time to head back towards the ballpark for game time. We got up to the gate and we were first in line to get into the stadium. When you go to a Major League Baseball game early and are willing to explore, some perks come with it. You can walk down into the lower levels and watch the visiting team take batting practice.

Our group had seats in the upper deck for the 7:05 first pitch. We got up to our seats and it was frigidly cold. The temperature was 55 degrees at the beginning of the game. As the game kept moving on, we found ourselves standing up most of the time as well as moving closer to the top of the stadium. As it got colder, we kept getting louder. We sang along with the music, and by the way, it was Beatles night. The Oakland A’s were also playing a game that night and we were seeing their stadium fireworks show right from across the bay.

As soon as the game was over, we were out of there. We took the stairwell, ran all the way down to the bottom floor, and in less than five minutes we went from our upper deck seats to outside the stadium and were now closing in on our rental van. We crossed the bay towards Oakland and saw the fireworks show going on inside the stadium that we just left. As we were driving, we suddenly realized that our van was running on empty. We immediately got off the highway and found a gas station to fill up and in drives a Ferrari. Then Jon noticed the license plate and not only that but also its county number was for Kalispell, MT. We got back on the road and headed back south toward San Jose. We kept driving and drove by the Oakland Colosseum and the Oracle Arena. We got back to the house and went to bed because our next day could hold any outcome.

Saturday the 15^th

Once again our day started with people waking up at random times to get coffee and welcome a new day. We also found some inventive ways of watching golf this morning. It took a while to decide what to do on this day. It was an entire day with which we could do what we wanted so we decided to see if there was a good beach in this part of California. We spent some time searching and we settled on Santa Cruz. Roughly a forty-five minute to an hour drive depending traffic.

So we headed out for the beach. Hoping beyond all hope that it would be warm this time. We wanted to eat before we got too close to the beach so we stopped at a sub sandwich shop called “TOGO’S Sandwiches.” It was a pricey but tasty treat that would hold us over for a while.

We headed out once again towards our ultimate goal, which was the beach. Heading through the mountains on Highway 17 we kept finding out that motorcyclists are very brave in California. It was not uncommon to be beside a car and out of nowhere have a bike pass in between you. Once again, California gives good drivers a bad name. Onward we would go inching closer and closer to the beach, but now something we didn’t consider. Where can we park? After driving around in stop and go traffic for what may have been a half-hour, we finally found our parking spot at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It seems like it was a pretty big deal. They have rides and everything and we heard screams so you know they were good rides.

We left our vehicle and proceeded to cross the bridge over to the beach. We were there to throw Frisbee and to let the girls bake in the sun. This just also happened to be the very day of Jon and Heidi’s first wedding anniversary. They proceeded to recruit Dwylin to take pictures of them with his new phone.

Once the pictures were done and the whole group was back together again. A duel of words started spewing between the boys. Trying to figure NBA scenarios and who is the better player between Kemba Walker and Kyrie Irving. These arguments lasted the whole way until we got to supper that night back in San Jose.

First off we went to Red Lobster but we didn’t feel like waiting 30 minutes to an hour to wait to be seated. So we found another restaurant close by called The Kickin’ Crab. This place was strange and full of people wearing bibs and loud music. After we figured out how to order, we split into two different groups. We then waited for our food and were all very interested in how this would go. Our food inevitably did arrive and all of us were decently surprised at what we saw. We had two different orders and we were giving two bags with all our food in it. It was up to us to separate our food from the rest. This was an incredibly tasty and insanely messy. It was a meal that required oodles of napkins and multiple trips to the restroom as well as quite a few wet wipes.

Overall, the day was enjoyable and our day was only made better with us all back at the house watching the movie Happy Gilmore right before bed.

Day 2: A Cloudy Day On The Links

5 AM rolled around awfully fast this morning. All of us friends either had bright eyes, ready for the day or heavy eyes and not fully looking forward to this 12-hour experience. Don’t worry, I promise that for the most part, the girls had a good time. We all piled in our rented van and headed south for the Monterey Peninsula. We made it down a few towns and decided that we needed to stop for breakfast. So Denny’s it was… we walked inside, sat down and ordered and Dan went back to the restrooms. He came back very promptly, saying “wow, I can not go in something like that.” The entire ensemble got a variety of foods, ranging from biscuits and gravy all the way to pancakes and bacon. Most of the time that we didn’t spend eating, was spent wondering which of these polo wearing patrons was going to spend their day at Pebble Beach as well.

We rolled out of there and just followed the cars, all the way to the public parking zone. It was a massive lot that was beside what we assumed were old military barracks. There were a slew of different vehicles and a ton of buses awaiting passengers. These buses were, of
course, the shuttles, by which we were taking to the US “Flippin” Open.  

We had a half-hour bus ride to the legendary golf course, and you could cut our excitement with a knife (that means it was tangible, figuratively speaking). We drove down “17-mile drive”, a legendary stretch of road with multiple famous golf courses and numerous multi-million dollar houses. We all were full of excitement and ready to see everything that we could get our eyes on.

We walked into the complex, about a quarter mile or so, to the first tee box. We walked into pebble beach golf links with awe in our eyes. Immediately we saw some great names in the game around for us to gawk at and be giddy about. The first group we saw had Rickie Fowler and Jason Day in it and we took pictures and just hoped they noticed us, but they never did. However, we did manage to get the attention of Justin Thomas, a joyless golfer with a snarl on his face. JT teed off from the 14^th tee box and Landon yelled, at the top of his lungs, GO JT! With the look of a thousand knives and malice in his heart, He looked directly at Dan and persisted to slay him with his mind. Sorry, Dan!

We took a bunch of pictures of golfers as well as the course itself. As we walked around, we were amazed at how accurate everyone was. Every pro golfer seemed to be so good out of the bunkers as well as the rough.   

(Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm)

(Brooks Koepka, Bubba Watson, JB Holmes)

We made our way over to the World Famous Par 3, #7. We found a spot in the massive grandstands, and it got cold fast. We were looking straight into the ocean and the wind was blowing right into our faces. This brings out one of the most unexpected situations from our whole trip. The day before when Dwylin and Landon left the airport in Oakland, the temperature was in the mid to upper 80s. Now roughly 110 miles south and we were experiencing weather in the 60s. This did not feel like California, but it seemed like we were in Seattle or something.  

(The 5th)

(The 12th)

Now, you need to know some etiquette rules for golf. When someone is putting on a green, it is proper for everyone to stay quiet so that the golfers can have maximum concentration. There was a golfer on the green on #7. He was all lined up, and he pulled back the putter, now ready to strike. Out of nowhere, a lady right behind us said a long drawn out “Wow”. Dan and I immediately started laughing at this embarrassing turn of events for this lady.

(The 7th)

When you go to a sports event, you get an opportunity to yell and be heard by a microphone. So we tried to think of something funny and yet easy to pick out. We settled on the dutch phrase… “Cum Buutz Meh!” (forgive the spelling from this unwritten language) For those of you that don’t know what this could possibly mean. It means “Come Wipe Me”, and we kept trying to say it throughout the day. Unfortunately, all this was in vain, because even with two different days of trying, we never really found a clear clip of us yelling the phrase. Although we did see Jon and Matt when they went over the 1^st green to see Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth, and Tiger Woods.

(Jordan Spieth, Tiger Woods)

(Matt and Jon are circled in the corner)

We spent most of our day sitting at two different par 3s, the 5^th and 12^th. We sat there watching all the golfers that we could, and a few of them multiple times. One golfer rose to the top of our interest and we’ll never forget his bright smile. It was a Norwegian amateur golfer by the name of Viktor Hovland. Why was he considered an amateur? He was still attending Oklahoma State University, and this means that he cannot have any sponsorship money as well as not win any prize money. This did not seem to dampen his spirits in the slightest.

(Viktor Hovland)

We left the property between 5 and 6 that night, and head out on the buses back to our van. The girls were understandably worn out and had lost interest in the event by around noon. We headed from the grounds to find food because of game 6 of the NBA Finals were on TV. A game between injury-plagued and the two time defending champion Golden State Warriors versus the Toronto Raptors with their superstar Kawhi Leonard. The Raptors were up 3 games to 2 games, and if they could find a way to win tonight, they’d win the NBA Finals. The only problem for us would be finding a place to eat because technically we’re in the Bay Area. Which just happens to be where the Warriors are from. The game is also being played in Oakland across the bay from us.  

  

We found our way to another Buffalo Wild Wings. Since this is such a big event for the Bay Area, we waited a half hour to be seated and finally decided to leave. We settled for an awesome alternative called Fish & Chips in Salinas, CA. We watched it until the end of the game and enjoyed the very tasty food. The Raptors won the game and the NBA Championship as well. The food and service were so good that all of us would highly recommend it.

Needless to say, once we finally got back to the Air BnB. It didn’t take us very long at all to find our beds and sleep late into the next morning… What else could possibly be waiting for us?

Day 1: Three ways to San Jose

Dwylin & Landon

The evening of June 11^th brought forth many emotions. Anticipation, worry, sweat, laughter, panic, and air pressure, but enough about Dwylin’s car. The appointed time for packing was quickly coming to an abrupt end. Its 4 o'clock on Tuesday night and Dwylin’s car, the one we are taking to the airport in the morning, needs air in one of the back tires. It also appears that a couple of starlings have set their sights on the back windshield of Dwylin's car. At least six of them left some departing gifts in my rearview mirror all covered in white.

From dealing with this situation, Landon picked up Dwylin to go play in a church league softball game (Woodlawn vs Fairhaven). They played two games and both teams won a game. We then headed back to Landon’s house and spent a bit of time trying to figure out how to hit our max of 40 lbs in our shared checked bag. It didn’t take long for sleep to come to either of them, because they had an early start and a long day ahead of them.

The alarms were going off that morning at 3:45 AM precisely. Landon made some coffee and we were off. Middlebury, IN at 4 in the morning is comparable to the movie, Mad Max: Fury Road! RV workers can be a reckless and aggressive group of individuals. We did end up getting through town, without a scratch. A few more hours and we’ll be in Chicago, but the restroom came a calling.

We pulled off the highway in Portage hoping to help ourselves out, in more ways than one… if you know what I mean… but McDonald’s wasn’t feeling the same way. We got out of the car for a stretch and headed inside. BANG! Was the sound of the door as Dwylin, unsuccessfully, tried to open a simple door. It was locked, and we had forgotten about the time change. The restrooms in this establishment was very much closed. Our salvation was found across the street in the restroom of the gas station.

We eventually made it to Chicago and found our airline and made our flight. It was off to Las Vegas, and a 3-hour flight to come. We landed in Vegas with one good hour plus to burn in the airport with oodles and oodles of slot machines. After one gate change and many tempting looks at devices claiming a $25,000.00 prize if you play pull a lever. We found our salvation, from our temptation, with a little help from the spirit in the sky, which just so happened to be our airline for the trip as well. For an hour and seventeen minutes we sat in the airplane anticipating our arrival in Oakland and the official start of our quote “VACATION”.

We arrived a little after 1:15 PST and we found our checked bag and started looking for our ride. We could not find a vehicle with familiar faces, anywhere...

Matt & Linda

The long drive began on Thursday, June 6^th to Plains, MT. Matt and Linda were heading west from Missouri because they’re helping one of Dan’s brothers. That, however, is another story for another time, and back to this trip. They headed west and the first stop was Mount Rushmore. They loved the experience and had a blast seeing the four Presidents in the rock.

They pulled into Plains in the afternoon of the following day. They greeted some old friends and had a burger or two at “The Butchers Nook” restaurant. All in all, they were in Montana from Friday till Tuesday morning. They were off, in their car, driving down to meet everyone for our weekend in San Jose.

They drove all day and ended up at Multnomah Falls in Oregon. The same Multnomah Falls we visited on our Alaska trip four years ago. From the falls they headed west to Corvallis, OR to walk on the football field of the Oregon State Beavers. Their day of travel ended on the coast of Oregon, off Highway 1, and watched a sunset. Awaiting the coming day in California, and all the adventures to follow.

Matt and Linda had a 7ish hour drive into California to Oakland, so that they could pick up Dwylin and Landon from the airport. First, they went to pick up our rented vehicle, from “Turo”, basically an “Air BnB” for cars. Since they went to pick up this van first, and we flew in around 1 o’clock, the traffic wasn’t great so they pulled up about 20 minutes late, only to see the bright-eyed face and big smile of Landon Miller. Landon was so excited that he forgot how to work a van trunk door for a minute, but Dwylin explained that it may be the year 2019, but it is also only the year 2019. Dwylin then preceded to open the van trunk like its always been done for the past 40 some odd years.

Then immediately we were off again, and south we went, down to San Jose Airport. We dropped Linda off with their own car and she headed for the rental property, and the guys headed to the airport. We pulled up on time for Jon, Heidi, and Dan’s arrival, but there was no one around to be seen...

Jon, Heidi & Dan

“The Big Three” left Plains, Montana Wednesday morning with sights of California in their eyes. The warm environment and the welcome adventure of time off was enticing, but first, breakfast at the new Butchers Nook. They just opened for business one week before taking off for a vacation. They all ate breakfast and headed out for Spokane, WA.

They headed out of Spokane at 10:30 a.m. and were on there way to Salt Lake City, Utah. They landed around 1:30 pm, and just sat around, in the land of Mormons, waiting for their flight to San Jose. Their flight left about a half-hour late, but in all reality, they could do nothing about this. Their flight landed about a half-hour late because of this and then they met up with the rest of the crew.

Many Happy Meeting

Now all the people were back together again and headed to San Jose, our temporary home. Now since we are in the Pacific time zone, this meant that it was 8 o’clock EST. Which wouldn’t normally be an issue but we had our eyes set on going to Buffalo Wild Wings and watching game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. A match between the favored Boston Bruins and the underdog St. Louis Blues. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great game. The Blues won their first title in team history 4-1 on Wednesday night. From Bdubs we headed home and went to bed with anticipation in our heads because we were headed to Pebble Beach for the US Open the very next morning. However, not before at least a couple games of ping pong.

Ba da da da-da-da... Another One Bites the Dust

Well, he did it! He got a wife!

Jon got married!

In the weeks leading up to the wedding, we all had a mad dash to try and figure out how we all were going to go out to Plains, Montana, and back.  So here is a basic breakdown of how we all did it...

Landon had to work at the hospital and couldn't get off for the wedding.  (Personally, just between you and me... I think its because he might be going to Florida to see his GIRLFRIEND a little too often) (Says the single guy)

Dan along with Matt and Linda (and Linda's youngest brother Milan), drove Ole Hezzie out to Montana... they left in mid-May and will stay till the end of July or sometime in August.

Dwylin and Jared got a free trip out to BIG SKY COUNTRY because they took Dan's 'white beater' Ford truck out to the great west.   They headed out on the 9th and drove straight through to Montana. We spent a week out in Plains with the Borntreger family with a plan to fly home on Sunday morning of the 17th with a layover in Minneapolis.

Nate and Caleb headed out from Holmes County Wednesday morning the 13th...  30 hrs of driving later, and they rolled into town around 4 o'clock Thursday night.  Unfortunately, the fun with them was short-lived. Nate left hours after the wedding since he is MOVING to Colorado and he had a plane to catch... unfortunately he had plane issues and couldn't fly out until almost halfway through the following day.  Caleb is also moving and left the same time as Nate to continue his move out to Bonners Ferry, Idaho.  He'll be working construction while he is there.  It sounds like he is staying through December and reevaluating if he wants to keep living out there.

The Borntreger Household Was FULL

(5 RVs were Present)

By the time Dwylin and Jared arrived, it was 9 am Sunday morning.  They decided against going to church that morning and slept into the afternoon instead.  Because of the wedding, many members of Dan and Jon's family were already out there for the big event...

The first couple of days there wasn't a lot to occupy our time... a group went and hiked Baldy on the Cabinet Mountains (that is probably where it is).  Dwylin went golfing at the IMMENSELY overpriced Plains Golf Course. Actually, we went golfing Multiple times, and Dwylin lost every time.

We helped set up for the reception on Wednesday, and it was sketchy... here are some pictures of the teardown. 

Matt's brother and his wife, Micheal and Mindy, along with their daughter Oakley also came out west for the wedding and enjoyed a long weekend.

Friday at 11:  It's go time!

As Dwylin and Jared were waiting for the wedding to start, they were getting bored!  So what do two guys do... Jared was watching the FIFA World Cup and Dwylin was watching the US Open golf on their phones.

Overall it was a great time! Best wishes to Jon & Heidi!

(Nate trying to melt his butter over the candle) 

A mix of the people that came on our Alaska RV & Montana Hiking Trip

Saturday was a rainy and cold day... a bunch of us went out to eat for breakfast at the Nook (Dan and Jon's Restaurant).  Then some of the brothers of Dan went Morel Mushroom hunting and they struck gold!

The brothers also went to Baldy Tire Shop and had a quick race...

Most of the day was spent indoors playing Jokers & Marbles or Euchre.  This was the only day we didn't spend time by the fire or playing Bouche Ball.  However the excitement level went up when one of the Grandkids shot a quarter that he put on top of a 22 barrel... and later that night another Grandchild shot and butchered three birds just for fun.

This was the end of our great trip. Jared and I flew from Missoula, MT.  We got on the plane just in time to watch game 1 of the World Cup for the Day... Our second plane did not have that same amenities...

but we made it home to the South Bend Airport by 12:30 pm on Sunday afternoon.

(1st Plane)

 (2nd Plane)