(Steph: I can't add to this one at all, except…I'm posting this bright & early in the morning cuz that's when Todd would have been exploring.)
On any trip, Stampin' Up or otherwise, one of my favorite things to do is go on what I call "an explore". Usually this is an early morning affair, as I am up early and Stephanie wants to sleep in. On both the SU trips to Washington DC and Newport Beach I had great "explores" ending up at some of the National monuments and the Pacific Ocean respectively. Obviously on the 2 SU cruises a good "explore" is limited to whatever is on the boat. A day or two before leaving for Maui I had done some Google map research of what might be good things to check out around the resort. One thing that caught my attention is a golf course just down the street. Back story for many that haven't known me for a long time is that I grew up playing a lot of golf, and later on after my Dad retired he worked one day a week at a private golf course here in GR, so we could play free there. However since my Mom died in 2006 I have hardly played at all. Many reasons go into that, but that doesn't mean I don't sometimes miss it. Since Dad died in January, I have felt the pull to get back into it, but haven't gotten that far yet.
So I headed out early in the morning and started down at the resort beachfront as it was just becoming light, enjoying the sounds of the gentle surf. From there I headed out the front of the resort to see what I could find. I cut across the street with the initial thought of taking a quick peek at the golf course on the way to somewhere else. I was stopped in the course parking lot by someone I later found out was the course superintendent to see if I had recently parked a vehicle in the lot. They were setting up for an event that needed a truck in the lot moved out. Since he had approached me I asked if he minded if I walked a few holes (it was probably around 5:45am). He said normally they didn't allow that for liability reasons and they also had an early event, but he said that he didn't mind if I walked the back nine. So off I went. The 10th hole headed uphill inland away from the water. It wasn't until I got to the green and looked back at the spectacular view that I started thinking about my Dad. How I wanted to be able to share this view with him. How I remembered the times we played scenic courses like this, like Arcadia Bluffs up north, where you could shoot the worst round of your life but looking at the spectacular views it didn't matter. From the 11th tee on I just walked (when I was a kid we hardly ever took a cart when we played golf. So even today I would much rather walk a course than taking a cart). I just walked taking in the beauty of the golf course and the beauty of the surroundings and just feeling like Dad and I were enjoying one last round of golf together. Certainly none of this was planned, so of course I had no Kleenex on me. I must have been a sight for anyone who saw me walking along with tears streaming down my face. Even though I didn't touch a ball or club, this walk will always be a special golf memory. Here are a few views from my little old iPhone which don't show the true beauty of the course.
So the other thing I am going to share are card samples from the SU swap. I know that Stephanie will in some form share many more, but I just wanted to show all you stampers MY favorites. (Steph: the ones on the boards are swaps; the ones on the display racks are new product samples.)
The reason I picked this last one? For some reason my Dad loved French things and he definitely was a wine lover. So if there was a card Dad would've wanted to get, it would have been this one.
Stay tuned for a new adventure tomorrow.
Note: Less than 1% of all demonstrators earn the incentive trip each year.
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