2015 US Open

In the history of awesome wives, I am pretty much at the top. No, seriously. This year for Father's Day I planned a surprise for Dana. Even more amazing, I kept it a secret for FOUR WHOLE MONTHS!! Which is darn impressive for a Kitchen. I even roped in Matt and Kristen and the co workers and no one peeped. What was the surprise?

2015 US Open Tickets. Yup. Golf. Shocking right? By some amazing fate the US Open was being played at Chambers Bay in Tacoma and happened to be the week in between Dana's classes. When I figured that out in February I knew it was meant to be. I bought us some super cheap tickets to see the practice round on Tuesday, hit Kristen and Matt up to watch little man, and made all the arrangements. Then last Friday after Dana found out he passed his horrible Bio class and he was on cloud nine thinking of his upcoming summer, I let the awesomeness continue. He was pretty stoked.

Monday we got up early, kissed little man and left a very brave Matt behind (yes, for the record he did end up having to change a nasty poopy diaper and Clark is now in his debt forever) and rolled out of Yakima for Cle Elum. Oh, did I not mention I also got him a round of golf. Yes, yes, I am that amazing. So the course left much to be desired but our golf buddy was nice and it had some cool drop offs. Can't say we'll play it again though. 

It was good for Dana to try out the old knee though and it held up quite well with his brace on. He will be ready when Taylor shows over the 4th. Funny tangent: we went to the driving range on Saturday just to test out the knee in case he wasn't ready for golf. We had Clark in the stroller and I was planning just to sit in a chair and feed him behind Dana while he hit. There were a few other people at the range so I was trying to keep it quiet. Dana lined up on the mat, squared off, and drove a beautiful one right now the center. And Clark burst out laughing. He literally spit milk out of his mouth laughing so hard. The lady beside Dana hit another ball and he did the same thing. Seriously, it was so funny. I was so embarrassed because we were trying to be quiet and everything and I ended up packing our stuff up and leaving so the other golfers could finish in peace but I was laughing so hard as I left. Clark just thought it was hilarious. Guess he's off the golf course until he can control himself.

Any hoo. Back to the US Open. So we left Cle Elum and stopped in North Bend because we were starving. Then on to SeaTac where we checked into our luxurious Ramada Inn before walking around the mall looking for a tiny hulk doll for Clark. A quick (but not quick enough) dinner at Olive Garden was followed by maybe the best movie of the year: Jurassic World. Say it together. ROOOAAAR! It was awesome, even if I had some Korean teenagers beside me commenting in a foreign language. Still awesome. 

The next morning, we were out bright and early, although apparently not early enough to catch Tiger Woods who was done practicing by 9:30. Darn it! Oh well. He got cut on Saturday so he wouldn't have won anyway. We parked at the State Fair, hopped buses for a 30 minute ride to Chambers Bay. 

I'm going to try to explain the day although it was mostly just what it sounds like: walking around a giant golf course watching people golf. But it was actually pretty cool. Since it was a practice day there weren't too many people which means we got to get up close to some famous golfers. The course was unusual as a US Open because it was a links style (more like courses in Europe) which means dead brown fescue grass instead of trees. You pretty much lost your ball if you hit it in the fescue. Below is Dana on the 17th hole. There was a train track running along side it and trains seriously came by all day honking their horns. Not sure the pros loved that. 

We camped out at the 16th green for a while because we saw on the leader board that Rory McIlroy was coming. Funny story: he wasn't. The board said Mulroy not McIlroy so we sat for about 40 minutes waiting while a bunch of groups came through but never saw him. He was actually already done for the day. Boo. It was pretty funny when we figured it out. But we saw lots of other golfers. Warning: lots of photos of golfers coming: Zach Johnson on the 2nd, Jim Furyke on the 16th, Phil Mikkelsen walking to the 16th and Bubba Watson on the 13th.




Phil's group had a whole bunch of golfers but I can't remember who they were but this is them on the 16th tee. Coincidentally, it was the only hole with a tree on the entire course. Yeah. Cause that's a tree. Riiiight. Okay one other funny thing. We took this photo after hiking WAAAY up to the upper holes (seriously, it was a trek. I almost died). The photo is pretty cool but note how I look like I have earrings. I don't. That's just a little person in just the right spot:)


Around 3ish we'd seen all there was to see so we hit up the souvenir tent (ball markers baby!), waited forever in the bus line and finally were back in our car (sadly nowhere near a Qdoba or Panera) on our way home to little man. We made it just in time to put him down. Kristen and Matt had a great few days with him but we missed him so bad.

It was a fun trip and one we probably won't forget soon! Happy Father's Day Dana. You are the best hubby and father anyone could ask for and don't ever forget it.