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Published: August 10th 2013
Stone Tree Golf Club Napa California
The challenging back 9 - grassy fairways, dry rough and blind shots2013 USA and Canada Golfing Holiday - Hi from the retirees
21 July - had a great trip with Qantas to Los Angeles. The A380 Airbus was fitted out with a SkyCam Camera. It was kind of freaky watching our own plane take off and land - Leanne was checking carefully that the pilot had it lined up with the white line - not that she could do anything about it if it was off target. It turned out to be our fastest flight to LA thanks to two on board medical emergencies which resulted in a priority landing – straight in, no circling and the paramedics and fire dept were waiting on the ground. We landed 45 minutes earlier than scheduled – so they weren’t messing around.
Lauren, QANTAS was awesome with the GF food. No fish in sight – yummy curry, nice desserts and snacks – great breakfast etc and when they served my meal they also served dad and the other lady sitting with us so that I didn’t have to eat by myself – how good is that!!!
As luck would have it we had to wait until 3.40pm for the flight to San
Graham's new wine estate in Napa
Domaine Carneros owned by the Tattinger family - grapes across the valleys as far as the eye can see Francisco – it was late leaving because the air bridge got stuck on the side of the plane……but not to worry – another good flight and we collected our hire car – a nice new Mazda 6.
Set off for the Wine Valley Lodge Motel in Napa – took us 3 hours of heavy traffic driving. Had an awesome dinner at a local Napa restaurant called “Tarla” – and hit the sack being urgently in need of sleep after 35 odd hours of travel. Woke up late feeling so rested. The weather in Napa was gorgeous - mum you would love the roses at this motel – the most beautiful colours and gorgeous perfume. Spent the day resting and checking out supermarkets for GF supplies.
22 July - Played golf at Stone Tree Golf Course where Carla and Brent had collected us some nice memorabilia on their 2007 USA trip. Graham set the course on fire for the first 7 holes with lots of pars and almost birdies – he had a great round all up. Leanne had one real birdie and a couple of pars mixed in with a few 3 putts which wrecked the scores.
Domaine Carneros - Napa Valley
Grapes as far as the eye can see It was a good course for a first game for two very ‘stiff’ travellers. The hilly back nine was tougher than the front where the flatter holes were more forgiving. We were surprised to come across a mob of wild turkeys and lots of deer.
Drove the Silverado Wine Trail on our way back to our motel – there are grapes as far as the eye can see and so many wineries to visit. They are not as generous as Australian wineries -charge you to try a 1 ounce tasting…..ah but that is how they make a buck here in the US.
23 July – started our drive up the west coast heading to Gold Beach in Oregon - long day of driving (9 hrs) cause we kept stopping to take photos along the Redwood Highway through the giant redwood tree groves. They are magnificent. Came across a little forest town where they have a redwood forest and a famous old tree (called the Chandelier Tree) that is so big you can drive a car through it. Watched a crazy family from Louisiana drive a huge SUV through with millimetres to spare. At one stage it was
The Giant Redwood Highway
These trees are so tall they seem to go upwards forever almost stuck but some fancy directing got the car through and everyone cheered!
Hit the coast at a town called Eureka and the Pacific Ocean looked magnificent - views like the coast of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria – the main difference being the whole coastline is strewn with logged trees on the beaches. They are there from logging in days gone by and massive floods in the rivers bringing trees etc down in the raging waters to the coastline.
On arriving at Gold Beach we went down to the harbour front - watched the fishermen unload huge baskets of giant Pacific cod. They told us the restaurant next door used part of the catch so we figured it was the place to eat and it did not disappoint us. Great pieces of freshly grilled cod and hand cut chips washed down with some delicious ice cold Oregon white wine. It was yum!! Then we headed down to the beach to watch Gold Beach’s famous summer sunset – we were not disappointed – stunning!
24 July Drove to the old whaling, fishing and logging town of Bandon and out to the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort
Chandelier Tree
Louisiana Dad directing the son, daughter and 3 grandkids through the tree - it was a tight fit for an afternoon round on the Old Macdonald Course. By the time we hit off the gentle breeze coming straight off the Pacific Ocean had turned into a strong wind. The course was crazy because of the wind – boomerang shots into the wind and uncontrollable shots with a tail wind. We had to lay our ‘rickshaw’ buggies down on the ground to stop them blowing away and even then on some of the slopes the buggies kept rolling.
The course’s claim to fame was its bare, links style with the biggest greens in the world. We felt it was a bit too “Mickey Mouse” to be a decent course - Americans have a lot to learn about building links golf courses. So we finished with good scores having had another crazy golfing experience.
25 July – Bandon Trails Course at 9.30. Had a lovely breakfast at the Trail Head Pro Shop and then set out. The Trails Course was much more sheltered with only a few holes on the ocean front. Played good golf and started to get a feel for the greens which looked really ugly – patchy brown but somehow the balls rolled nicely. Enjoyed
The beautiful Oregon Coastline
Views every which way - notice the gritty black sand the course but again felt it was over-rated. Spent the evening in Bandon and toured the old port area. Found a little Italian Restaurant with a big queue – bought a GF pizza and GF strawberry cheesecake – it was really good!!
26 July an early start on Pacific Dunes - howling wind and cool so Leanne went straight to the pro shop to buy a beanie and came out with a head band that goes over the cap but keeps the ears warm – sounds dorky but works really well in the wind and cold. Played with a father and son combination who had a hired a caddy. They needed one - the son cost his dad a lot of money in lost balls and he wasted the green fees cause he was a terrible golfer. We felt sorry for the caddy.
We played really good golf and enjoyed the course which also had many nice photo opportunities of the coastline. Graham continued to drive really well and our scorecards look good.
Spent the afternoon walking the Coquille Nature Reserve cliff top walk. This was really amazing – it is so high and windswept with lots
Gold Beach
Stunning sunset - notice the logs along the beach of plants and wildflowers. The sea views are stunning and we walked down the staircase down to the beach. Headed down to the Bandon Dunes “Scottish Pub” for the evening and met up with a couple of middle-aged golfers from South Carolina. They were so funny and had similar thoughts to us about their round of golf at Old Macdonald- like “what the hell was that for a golf course…” . We had a great night out and learnt about golf courses that we ‘have to play’ in North Carolina’s east coast.
27 July – saved the last day for Bandon Dunes which turned out to be the best course by a long way. We really enjoyed it. It was nice to play such a good course with no caddy and no hackers. The course marshalls were so helpful and loved to chat and ask about Australia – they don’t get many Australians at Bandon Dunes. We finished the round with both of us parring the Par 5 18
th and it was a great way to finish our four day of golf at Bandon Dunes.
We packed the clubs and spent the afternoon driving 3 hours north east
Coquille Cliff Top Walk - Oregon Coast
Check out the trees lying on the beach - apparently they have been there for years - mighty tough wood to a place called Eugene. The motel manager recommended a restaurant across the road called “Bates Steakhouse” – It was a great night of traditional American food - black beans, tacos, prime rib fillets, corn and coleslaw with a ‘root beer soda’ dessert. Imagine our surprise to learn that a root beer soda was a big scoop of icecream with sarsaparilla poured over it. It didn’t taste too bad – our cowgirl waitress said it was really popular local dessert……guess it doesn’t take much preparation.
28 July – Left Eugene and headed further east towards the mountain town of Sisters and on to Pronghorn Creek Resort near the town of Bend. We drove along the Mackenzie River with its green meadows where mobs of elk were resting and grazing. Lots of people did what we did – stopped at the viewing area and started clicking the camera – our first elk photos. Continuing on up the windy mountain road we had some lovely views of the Mackenzie River’s beautiful rapids.
Leaving the river we started up the Mackenzie Pass/Santian Pass (5,500 ft) Scenic Byway. Heading up the Pass imagine our surprise as we rounded a corner to see
Pacific Dunes at Bandon
Happy golfer teeing off - trying hard not to be distracted by the coast views. black lava flows as far as the eye could see. We were on the lava flows of Belknap Mountain and its crater. It was such an amazing thing to see – so black, lumpy, broken and very difficult to try to walk on or climb. We drove for miles (remember that’s how they measure distance in the US) with the camera working overtime – photographing blackened rocks that extended as far as the eye could see.
Then the sights got even more amazing as we stumbled on the Williamette National Park viewing area for the Belknap Volcano. They had built the centre completely out of the black rocks and it was hard to believe the tower like complex wasn’t made by the volcanic explosion about 2000 years ago. The beautiful, snow capped mountains of the Three Sisters looked over the lava flows and seemed to follow us everywhere we drove. As we climbed to 5,500 feet we followed the original trail surveyed in the 1800’s. At the top of the Santian Pass was a tiny hut belonging to a postman who sadly froze to death in the hut during a terrible snow storm - no ducted gas heating back
Pacific Dunes - Bandon
What a sight - deep bunkers and stunning ocean views then!!
Arrived in the town of Sisters (destroyed by fire twice – bushfire and kitchen fire) found the coolest coffee shop for lunch. After exploring this lovely town where all the buildings are made from timber – go figure that in a serious bushfire zone, we headed towards the town of Bend. It was a strange drive across flat, dry land which came to life wherever the farmers were irrigating. Our photos show saltbush and desert on one side of the road, lush green pasture under irrigation on the other.
Finally arrived in Bend about 3pm thinking there was plenty of time to get ready for our 3.30 golf tee off. Unfortunately Tom Tom took us to the wrong golf course and we had a torrid time locating Pronghorn Creek – 15miles out of town. When we finally arrived they had overlooked our booking for golf and accommodation. Whew – that caused us a bit of concern but not to worry it was all sorted and they quickly organised a lovely condominium for us overlooking the 18
th green with a great bottle of red wine ‘gratis’.
The golf course was a patch of amazing green fairways in
Bandon Dunes Golf
The picture tells the story - tough course, lots of rough, fast greens and sea views the middle of a huge pile of saltbush and sand. Amazing experience – desert golf in the US!! Finished the day with drinks and dinner on the clubhouse balcony watching a stunning sunset – it was a great ending to a huge day of travelling and golf. After brekky in the ‘Trail Head’ restaurant we farewelled Pronghorn Creek – rated number 97 on our bucket list of top 100 courses in the world.
Next morning we headed north on Highway 26 through Warm Springs Indian Reservation, around Portland into Washington State and up to Mt Saint Helens Volcano on our way to Tacoma, on the outskirts of Seattle. This was a big day of driving (again).
About an hour north of Portland we detoured onto Highway 504 to the Mt Saint Helens Visitor Centre. Here we learned that it was another 75 minute drive to the actual viewing area at the Johnston Ridge Observatory. The guide told us they rarely have such good weather to see the top of Mt Saint Helens so we thought let’s get going and cheerfully got into the car and headed off to see the best viewing point for the volcano. Wow what
Belknap Crater
Check out the lava flow - imagine our surprise when we first saw this! a drive it turned out to be and so worthwhile. The new road complete with amazing bridges etc was built to replace the previous highway and valley which was buried in 1980 by a massive land slide and mud flow as part of the volcanic eruption.
We climbed quickly to 4,000 ft and saw amazing views of Mt Saint Helens – its crater just visible in the light cloud. When we arrived at the visitors centre viewing area (5,500ft) it was clear to see the result of the massive explosion that blew away the north side of this huge mountain leaving the mountain only 8393 feet high – a very high mountain!! Even though the explosion happened 30 years ago, the mud slides still look like bare, mud rivers carved into a new valley area – tiny plants and baby pine trees are beginning to grow again. We were informed that although 50 odd people died, it would have been much worse if the southern side of the mountain had blown out because it would have wiped out the city of Portland. It was truly worth the drive and we were so pleased we made the effort. Heading north
Williamette Park Visitor Centre
Views over the lava flow with the snow capped Three Sisters Mountains in the background we finally arrived in Tacoma – had 4 nights at a great motel.
Next morning two very stiff retirees dragged themselves out of bed for an 8.01 tee off at Chambers Bay Golf Course – site of the 2015 US Open. Can honestly say that the look of the course totally surprised us. With the hot weather, the course was dry and brown, only the wide fairways were green – looked like desert but it was on coastal sand dunes looking across the beautiful Puget Sound.
It was a bit like our course in summer - green fairways but wild rough everywhere else. Having said that the course is amazing and a great challenge with lots of bunkers, links style fairways with heavy swales and lots of elevation changes – added to this the greens run fiercely to the ocean but just creep away from the water – this took a lot of getting used to and we had a few four putts till we got it sorted out. Luckily we had another game booked for the following day and we used the first day to learn more about how to play the course. The 18
th fairway was
Pronghorn Creek Golf Club, Bend
Desert golf - grassy fairways with saltbush in the rough - beautiful mountains in the background really something – a long par 5, 600+ yards. Right in the middle of the massive fairway was the deepest chasm of a bunker you have ever seen - at least 3 metres deep like a big narrow crack in the ground. There are steps down into it and it takes a heck of a shot to get out.
We finished with a bundle of amazing photos. The only low point was the rude American lady in our group – blamed her caddy for her poor golf. The guy in our group had the best sense of humour and kept us entertained – he even pulled out a Jiménez cigar to look like a great European golfer.
The next morning life for the retirees was a bit messy. We had to sort out a credit card issue caused by the Bandon Dunes Resort and this meant we were very late setting off for a tour of Seattle using the park and ride system. It all went to custard when we hit the heavy freeway traffic and then attempted to find a parking spot next to a light rail network into Seattle. Unfortunately we failed as the car park
was completely full. After looking for parking for more than an hour we had to go to the backup option of finding a park and bus ride into Seattle.
Our day trip ended up being a 2 hour tour of Seattle because of the morning dramas. Our luck changed when we got on the bus. We met a middle aged local gentleman who offered to show us the city highlights. He was fantastic - he knew lots of short cuts and took us to the Columbia Building for an amazing view of the city landmarks. Seattle is like any other city – lots of concrete buildings and congested freeways. We shouted him lunch at the Starbucks on the 51
st floor and then it was time to head back to our bus which was leaving from the same Seattle Tunnel Terminal – it is a really impressive public transport set up and there were both buses and electric trams zooming in and out. We were so grateful to our Seattle helper. We would not have known where to go nor would we have been able to find our way back to the bus so quickly to get back to the
Mt Saint Helens
Check out the mud flows - the crater at the front is the part that was removed during the explosion - BIG BANG! park and ride to then drive our car to Chambers Bay for our twilight game of golf – talk about good luck!!
We had a rushed trip along the motorway using the priority lane (two or more in a car) arriving with 15 minutes to our tee time - talk about just timing it all to perfection. Our 2
nd game was great - we played with a Canadian couple taking a break from Edmonton. They were both in IT – she works for HP and he is working on the Calgary flood recovery project. They turned up with a caddy and a beer each so they were there to enjoy. The caddy was a young guy who had spent 3 months in Australia so we had a good time.
The golf was better and the scores were an improvement but it is a very tough golf course. Leanne had a very good round with a net 69 – even managed a real birdie on the 10
th, rated #3 for women. Graham improved his score to 82. The putting was still very tricky and the greens very hard to read. Can‘t wait to see how the professionals play the
Chambers Bay (Day 1)
Leanne teeing off on the women's short par 3 17th hole. The views look across the remnants of an old copper mine and shipping wharf on the Puget Sound course in 2015. For them the course will be in excess of 7200 yards (the back markers are 7165 yards). Graham played the course 6500 yards and Leanne played the 5,200 yards. We finished in the dark and shared dinner with our new Canadian golfing friends.
The next morning we awoke to a wet and rainy day for our drive to Anacortes to catch the ferry to Sidney on Vancouver Island- the start of the Canadian part of our holiday. We had mistakenly thought it was about an hours drive but TomTom was right on the mark with its 3 hour estimate.
The traffic was very heavy on the freeway cause it was a long weekend in Canada. Even though it as raining and congested, the traffic flowed at a constant 60 mile per hour. It was amazing that all lanes seemed to be travelling at the speed limit without issue – nothing like Sydney or Canberra in the rain!! After our 2hour 30 min crossing we arrived at Sidney, Vancouver Island where we cleared Canadian customs and drove into Victoria for 3 days on sunny, clear Vancouver Island.
Look out for our Canadian travel adventures in
Chambers Bay (Day 1)
Par 3 on the 3rd hole with the famous Lone Pine - kept because it had an eagles nest when the course was being built - there are no other trees on the actual course in keeping with links golf Blog 2. Best wishes to you all from Leanne and Graham
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Dana
non-member comment
Go you good things!
Looks like you're having so much fun! Leanne, you are looking fantastic as always! Live it up and let's catch up when you're back xx