Magic Carpet & Flowing Tide

March 29, 2011

Is it really warm enough to do an outdoor activity? Has spring sprung? In Reno, if the weather is nice, don’t wait around for it to get nicer, just get outside and have fun or you might miss it. So tonight was our first official outdoor outing and we started it at Magic Carpet Golf. By the time we got there we only had an hour before they closed, so we did the short course, 19 holes. We got our balls, clubs, scorecard, and tiny pencil and headed out the door labeled “middle course.” With Virginia to the east and 395 to the west, I thought we could avoid some of the road noise by being in the middle. Uh, yeah...not so much. Anyway, with only an hour to get through the course we had to get down to business. There were a few other people there, but they were far enough ahead that they didn’t slow us down. L went first and on swing 4 or 5 at the first hole I heard, “I suck at this.”  Patience, patience, take your time, don’t swing so hard, you don't need the follow through, just keep the club below your knee level. We got through the pyramid, the sphinx, the mine, the jack-o-lantern, and maybe even the dragon before L changed from the putt-putt style to the drag-the-ball-into-to-the-hole-with-the-club style of getting the ball in the cup. She was checking out the hole ahead before we finished the hole we were on.  It was fun trying to keep up with her. The 19th hole was a slot-machine (yes, a real slot machine, don't act surprised, this is Reno) where you get a chance for a free game. You place the ball in a hole (where the old change tray is), pull the lever, and hope to line up 7's. No luck with either of our balls, but L had fun trying. Well we did get through all 18 holes in waaaay less than an hour and that meant we had time for a great air hockey match in the arcade. During the air hockey match she told me “I’m good at this.” And she was!

Next stop was the Flowing Tide Pub, a neighborhood pub that, despite the name, a lot of families frequent; and L actually frequented it a lot with her previous Big. I had never been there so she showed me around and chose the biggest table in the place for us to sit. We played games while we waited for our food -- chicken fingers for her and (huge) cold pasta salad for me. Yummy! Leftovers! I learned the fine art of coloring Styrofoam containers and our evening came to an end.

Stay tuned for next week’s Aces adventure...