Golfing to Remember

Before heading for our Luau yesterday we stopped at the concierge and made arrangements to play golf in the morning. They set it all up for me and I was given an 8:44AM tee time on the Emerald course at Wailea. The annual skins game is played on the Gold course at the same location but I opted for the Emerald course because it only had 84 sand traps instead of 94 (and they just airated the greens on the Gold course)! I was shuttled up to the Emerald course about an hour early only to find I had my own cart with GPS on board and a hot coffee waiting in the cup holder (I was paired up with three other guys) .

They gave me a set of Nike SQ to play with and plenty of time to warm up on the range before we started. The other guys and I were amazed at how each hole was overlooking the ocean from high up on the hillside course. The course was truely more beautiful than anything I have ever seen. Just to give you an idea, the Merrit club was not even close! The fairways were lined with flowers, lava rock formations, and about 20 different breeds of palm trees. What made the day so great was the fact I was able to play from the fairway almost the entire round! I had one birdie and one par and the rest were mostly boggies (OK, maybe a double boggy here and there). In the end, I shot a 99 and considering the championship course I was playing, I was very pleased!

While I played golf, Peg just lounged at the pool and enjoyed the resort. At the end of the round, Peg and Imet up at the resort and we jumped back in our car for the ride back to Lahaina. We turned in our car and tendered back to the ship. We felt the need to pinch ourseleves just to see if we were really awake or only dreaming (it was that awesome).

The entire Maui experience was just fabulous and I am not sure my words can accurately describe just how wondeful it was. Simply said, it was an experience of a lifetime (not so much the type of experience that makes you want to come back and do it again....too expensive, just the type of experience you will always remember and enjoy every time you think of it).

While getting ready for dinner aboard the ship on Saturday, I looked at Peg and said, "Oh My God, I have to get ready for tomorrow morning because we are pulling into Kailua Kona, Hawaii and I am going deep see fishing on the Kona coast!".