Travels WithJohn and Janice

Travel blog

Every trip we've shared since 2011—filter by where we went, when we traveled, or what we explored.

Showing 60 of 236 posts

Turquoise water and a pink-sand cove on the Bermuda coastBermuda
14 min read2026

Dateline March 22-26, 2026, Bermuda

Twenty years after our first visit, we returned to the Pompano Beach Club for its couples' golf tournament, three courses, three formats, and a week of new friends from all over. The story of how a Massachusetts man fell for the island and built the resort, a travel day at the mercy of the weather, the famous par 3 hanging over the Atlantic at Port Royal, the history of the Royal Naval Dockyard, John's seventy-ninth birthday in the rain, and golf so bad it could only be called fun.

#Bermuda#Pompano Beach Club#Port Royal
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Will's celebration of lifeUnited States
5 min read2021

Dateline August 13, 2021, Raleigh and Family

A week in Raleigh with the family, the opening leg of a longer trip north. At its heart was a celebration of the life of John's brother Will, who passed in July, a gathering full of love, sorrow, and the kind of laughter only Willie could inspire. There was time too for Falls Lake, a round at Wildwood Green, a USGA qualifier, and a Shabbat dinner to send us on our way.

#Raleigh#family#Will Wilson
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John, Bunny, Pete, and Janice at the Old Waverly chairUnited States
10 min read2021

Dateline July 23, 2021, On the Road Again, Golf in Mississippi

Our first trip in about a year, a golf vacation through Mississippi with our friends Pete and Bunny Warenski. A stop in Troy, Alabama, then West Point for Old Waverly and Gil Hanse's remarkable Mossy Oak, then the Choctaw's Dancing Rabbit at Pearl River Resort, a place whose name carries a hard and important history. We turned for home a day early, ahead of a storm.

#Mississippi#golf#Old Waverly
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Janice first off the tee at Pinehurst No. 8 in the morning fogUnited States
5 min read2020

Dateline August 25, 2020, Pinehurst and the North-South Senior

On to Pinehurst, by way of the Donald Ross courses at Mid Pines and Southern Pines, and a shared rental mansion called Symphony. Both of us had been accepted to play the 2020 North-South Senior Championship across Pinehurst's famous numbered courses, John on the legendary No. 2, Janice first off the tee at No. 8 in the morning fog. A thrill of a tournament, however the scorecards came out.

#Pinehurst#North-South Senior#Donald Ross
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John and Janice in the masks Marilyn made for the tripUnited States
8 min read2020

Dateline August 7, 2020, Indiana Golf

The start of our masked travels, and our first trip by car after selling the Roadtrek. Four days in Indiana at a Golfweek rater retreat, playing the college campus courses, the brand-new Pfau Course at Indiana University, both of Pete Dye's layouts at Purdue, a look at Culver Academy, an afternoon at Swan Lake, and the Warren Course at Notre Dame. A small-world meeting with a fellow old-Spokane golfer along the way, and a toast to Janice's nephew at his alma mater.

#Indiana#college golf#Golfweek
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John on the Mile High Swinging Bridge at Grandfather MountainUnited States
6 min read2019

Dateline September 6, 2019, A Winery, the High Country, and Old Friends

Out of Williamsburg and down into North Carolina, where a Harvest Host stay at Grove Winery turned into a party, and a round at Linville Ridge, the highest golf course east of the Mississippi, gave us one of the most beautiful days of the whole trip. Then on to Cherokee to meet our friends Sandie and Skip for a steak dinner and a tubing run that did not go entirely to plan, and up to Grandfather Mountain and its Mile High Swinging Bridge, the first day all summer we needed a windbreaker.

#North Carolina#Grove Winery#Linville Ridge
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The four of us together at YorktownUnited States
5 min read2019

Dateline September 3, 2019, Williamsburg and Yorktown

A Labor Day weekend in Williamsburg with Janice's cousin Kathy and her husband Eddie, who had just lost Kathy's mother. We walked the Saturday Farmers Market, took in a Virginia Symphony concert of cartoon music on Yorktown Beach, worshiped at one of the oldest Episcopal churches in the country for the dedication of its new organ, landed in the Colonial Williamsburg stocks, and played Kathy's father's old course at Ford's Colony, where we picked up the funniest single in Virginia.

#Williamsburg#Yorktown#Colonial Williamsburg
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The eighteenth hole at the Pete Dye River Course with the clubhouse behindUnited States
5 min read2019

Dateline September 1, 2019, The Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech

On the way east to Janice's cousin in Williamsburg, we stopped for a round at the Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech in Radford, one of the state's top courses, laid out along the New River. We met head pro John Norton, who told us how the place came to bear Pete Dye's name, and shared the story of Pete's Revenge, the howls the pros let out when Dye first unveiled his Stadium Course at Sawgrass. Small, unforgiving greens and tiny deep bunkers are the Dye signature, and the River has them in abundance.

#Pete Dye#Virginia Tech#River Course
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Osoyoos, British Columbia, seen from the mountainsUnited States
10 min read2019

Dateline August 25, 2019, Canadian and USGA Senior Women's Amateur Championships

Janice's late-summer run at two national championships, the Canadian Senior Women's Amateur at Osoyoos, British Columbia, and the USGA Senior Women's Amateur at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with a twenty-seven-hour drive stitched in between. She made the Canadian cut, then gave up her spot to rest a swollen ankle for the bigger event. The road carried us over the Continental Divide, past Wall Drug, and through a good deal of Montana and South Dakota. At Cedar Rapids we watched a fifty-two-year-old newcomer play the round of the week, and two faraway companies went out of their way to keep our RV running.

#USGA Senior Women's Amateur#Canadian Senior Women's Amateur#Osoyoos
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Bridges, both plain and suspension, on the Cedar Rapids Country Club courseUnited States
3 min read2019

Dateline August 2, 2019, Cedar Rapids and Donald Ross

With Janice qualified, we drove to Cedar Rapids to get a look at the course that will host the USGA Senior Women's Amateur, and what a course: a 1915 Donald Ross design, restored to his original plans, with raised greens that shrug a ball off into the rough, wooden rakes and flagsticks, and suspension bridges over the streams. We found a county park nearby and booked it for tournament week.

#Iowa#Golf#USGA
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Janice with her USGA Senior Women's Amateur qualifying letterUnited States
4 min read2019

Dateline July 31, 2019, Janice Qualifies

We stopped in Libertyville with Pete and Bunny, friends from the Alaska trip, and Janice picked the Chicago qualifier so we could visit a while. At seventy she opened with a double bogey, laughed it off, then came home in 37 and sank a birdie putt on the sixteenth in a playoff to make it, the oldest qualifier in Chicago and bound for the USGA Senior Women's Amateur in Iowa.

#Illinois#Golf#USGA
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Sailboats racing against Sunapee MountainUnited States
3 min read2019

Dateline July 25, 2019, Sunapee Golf and Goodbyes

With the generator finally reinstalled and a fine breakfast with our Flagler Beach neighbor Frank behind us, we played Lake Sunapee Country Club, a Donald Ross course and Gene Sarazen's old home club where Janice's family once held a membership. The last days on the lake brought sailing and sculling, Connie's chicken legs, a farewell dive, and John's ribs, before we packed up Friday for a winery in New York.

#New Hampshire#Lake Sunapee#Golf
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Uncle Bill and Aunt Margaret's back porch at sunset on Cape CodUnited States
3 min read2019

Dateline July 14, 2019, Cape Cod

On the way to the Cape we played the Rees Jones layout at Pinehills and fell in with a friendly twosome, then settled in at Harwich for our yearly visit with Janice's Uncle Bill and Aunt Margaret. Bill, ninety-one and still walking the hills, nearly shot his age at Cranberry Valley. We left not with goodbye but see you next summer, and pointed the rig toward New Hampshire.

#Massachusetts#Cape Cod#Golf
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Blackwater Falls, a sixty-two-foot cascade in West VirginiaUnited States
5 min read2019

Dateline July 12, 2019, Blackwater Falls and Hershey

From the West Virginia highlands we hiked to Blackwater Falls in its morning sun and out the muddy mile to Lindy Point, then took the back roads north to Hershey. We played the West Course in the shadow of the chocolate factory, where Byron Nelson won his first PGA Championship in 1940, and spent our first Harvest Host night at a farm winery and brewery, with a Friday band and the Gellatly family's story.

#West Virginia#Pennsylvania#Blackwater Falls
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John and Janice celebrating their 20th anniversary at The CellarUnited States
5 min read2019

Dateline July 7, 2019, Innisbrook and the Summer Ahead

A June shakedown weekend of golf at Innisbrook turned up a flat that was really a second cracked Sprinter wheel, just like Billings last year, but five new wheels later the Roadtrek is finally sound. We met fun playing partners, launched a new chapter writing up courses around the country, and marked our twentieth anniversary at The Cellar in Warren Harding's old winter home. Monday morning we point north, bound for New England and then British Columbia.

#Florida#Innisbrook#Golf
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The Lakes Golf Club at Ben EoinCanada
3 min read2017

Dateline August 20, 2017, Golf in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia gave us three rounds and a new friendship. At Amherst we drew Spud and Patty from Truro, Spud raised on PEI potatoes, thirty-one years a sailor, and we liked them enough to follow Spud to his home club. A roadside repair set us back eighty-five dollars and not much time, a lakeside campground tried to park us beside two Porta Potties and lost our business, and The Lakes at Ben Eoin turned out one of the prettiest, toughest courses we've played. On to Louisbourg.

#Amherst#Truro#The Lakes at Ben Eoin
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The Mount Washington HotelUnited States
6 min read2017

Dateline August 12, 2017, New Hampshire and Maine

From Connie and Lee's we wound through the White Mountains: golf with our friend Maurica, the Flume gorge at Franconia Notch, and the grand Mount Washington Hotel, where forty-four nations built the postwar financial order in 1944. We stayed with Janice's cousin Brian and his Donna in their light-filled forest home, then crossed into Maine for Castine, older than Plymouth, and a campsite supper of two-pound lobsters delivered for twenty-seven dollars. In the morning, the Canadian border.

#Franconia Notch#The Flume#Mount Washington Hotel
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The four of us at Hidden Lake Golf ClubUnited States
3 min read2017

Dateline August 9, 2017, Connie and Lee and the Car Show

We pulled into Derry to stay with Janice's sister Connie and her husband Lee, where Happy Hour keeps its own clock and Connie served flank steak with Stan's potatoes, her late father's recipe. Janice came a stroke shy of qualifying for the USGA Senior, we played Hidden Lake, and Connie and Lee took us to Pipe Dream, a brewery two former Marines built. Then the big day: a Make-A-Wish car show at the Budweiser plant, Lee's '66 Biscayne, the Clydesdales up close, and a brewery tour. On toward Newfoundland, with a promise to see them again at Sunapee.

#Derry#Hidden Lake#Pipe Dream
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The fourth hole at Cape Ann, looking toward GloucesterUnited States
3 min read2017

Dateline August 8, 2017, A Little Golf

With the Cape behind us, we made an early Sunday run north of Boston for a few rounds of golf. Cape Ann in Essex gave us a Golf Digest hole looking out to Gloucester and two friendly local couples to play with. We camped on the ocean at Salisbury Beach and played the Sagamore-Hampton course in New Hampshire, good enough to come back for, and there met Dean and Melissa Rascoe, who bought us beers after Janice gave Melissa a tip or two. Then on toward Janice's sister's.

#Cape Ann#Gloucester#Sagamore-Hampton
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Trinity Church in Newport, Rhode IslandUnited States
5 min read2017

Dateline July 28, 2017, North Carolina and Rhode Island

North up the coast, we skipped the stops we'd shown you before and kept to the new ones and the good golf. We leveled the RV on a hillside near Asheville and played Black Mountain, sweated through a 99-degree round on Arnold Palmer's Lonnie Poole with our daughter Kieran in Raleigh, and got a four-year-old's dawn hug at our son James's in Wind Gap. Then Rhode Island: golf at Winnapaug, and Newport's Trinity Church, where Marty and Jeff were married, leaning six degrees until steel set it straight. A good day, and on to Janice's aunt and uncle.

#Black Mountain#Lonnie Poole#Winnapaug
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A hole lined with flowers at Georgia Veterans State ParkUnited States
3 min read2017

Dateline July 17, 2017, Let the Summer Begin

Summer set us off again, north this time, aiming for Newfoundland and Janice's place in the Canadian Women's Golf Championship in August, with golf, family, and good country all the way up. First, the Saga of the Cabinet, the cherry cabinet we designed and built ourselves after our carpenter quit on us, with brother Brian's help to finish. Then our first stop, Georgia Veterans State Park on Blackshear Lake, a campsite on the water and a fine morning round. In the afternoon we waved at Plains, Jimmy Carter's hometown, with his library to come.

#Georgia Veterans State Park#Blackshear Lake#Cordele
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Kobus at KnysnaSouth Africa
6 min read2006

Our Guide and Friend in South Africa, Kobus de Jonge

Years before we started this blog, in the South African autumn of 2006, we took a trip we have never stopped talking about, planned and guided by a remarkable man named Kobus de Jonge. From Table Mountain and the Cape wineries to an Easter dinner with local farmers, the steam train to Knysna, and the Big Five at Kruger, Kobus showed us the South Africa the locals love. This is the story of the guide who became a lifelong friend, with much more of the trip still to come from Janice.

#South Africa#Kobus de Jonge#Jewel of Africa Safaris
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An ocean hole at Teeth of the DogDominican Republic
6 min read2015

Dateline November 21, 2015, Casa de Campo

Forty years after Janice first played Casa de Campo as a young programmer on a golf vacation, we returned to the Dominican Republic for the resort's annual Senior Golf Week. A week of Pete Dye golf followed: the famous ocean holes of Teeth of the Dog, the cliffside views of Dye Fore above the Altos de Chavón village, and a turn on the Links. Old friends turned up by surprise, the pool bar did its work after each round, and when the credits were tallied Janice won the women's division and John the men's.

#Casa de Campo#Pete Dye#Teeth of the Dog
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Pinehurst clubhouse from the 18th hole of Number 2United States
9 min read2015

Dateline August 28, 2015, Pinehurst, Niagara on the Lake and Forest, Ontario

The family leg gave way to the tournament trail. We based ourselves at Pinehurst for Janice's North and South Senior, played the Donald Ross masterpiece that is Number 2, and shared a rented house with good friends. From there we worked north to the Niagara River for the history of Old Fort Niagara, a round at Niagara Falls Country Club in the company of a golfing chaplain, and the oldest nine-hole course in North America at Niagara-on-the-Lake. The trip finished across the border at the Canadian Women's Senior Amateur near Forest, Ontario, where Janice carded her 7th hole in one and a second-place finish in the Super Senior division.

#Pinehurst#Donald Ross#North and South Senior
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John relaxing on the Cape May ferryUnited States
5 min read2015

Dateline August 14, 2015, Summer Travels Begin, Family and Friends

After a beautiful spring and early summer at home in Flagler Beach and at our golf course, The Riv, the time came to pick up our travels again. We packed the car for six-plus weeks on the road, beginning with a long loop of family and friends up the East Coast. From a Cape May ferry crossing and a boat night on Huntington Bay to a martini toast at Lake Sunapee, golf in New Hampshire, and grandchildren in Wind Gap, this was the family leg before the tournaments began.

#Flagler Beach#Long Island#Lake Sunapee
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The Sydney Harbour BridgeAustralia
8 min read2015

Dateline March 6, 2015, Sydney, and Then Home

Our last stop. We arrived in Sydney from Narooma and pulled into the Russell Hotel at the Rocks, an old boutique hotel with a wonderful staircase puzzle (cut through two fire-exit doors, up two stairs, down three stairs, to find your room). A few days to wind down a 42-day adventure: a pass on the $250 walk across the Harbour Bridge (we'd rather get high at the pubs, thanks), a Sydney butcher-counter dinner at Phillip's Foote where you cook your own steak, a Saturday market crowded by 3,000 of our closest friends off a cruise ship, a small Pony Lounge dinner we loved so much we went back for the End-of-Vacation supper with Pete and Bunny, and a Sunday round at Moore Park Golf Club that turned out to be eight holes because of a booking-system quirk. The last bottle of Lambert Estate, The Commitment Shiraz, was opened in the Russell's reading room. We donated the chill box to Maxine at the front desk. Then a 24-hour flight, and a landing at Daytona Beach just before midnight on a Monday. Forty-two days, 4,200 miles, fifty-some bottles of wine, six of rum, six of vodka. Goodbye to another adventure with Pete and Bunny.

#australia#new-south-wales#sydney
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Kookaburras on the electric wires at Narooma, New South WalesAustralia
8 min read2015

Dateline March 2, 2015, Melbourne to Sydney

We enjoyed our final breakfast at Robinsons with Stanley saying his goodbyes, packed the car, and Paul gave us directions to the M-1. His suggestion for the first night was Metung, a small fishing village where Paul's family had summered when he was a boy. From there it was Eden (with golf among the friendliest kangaroos we had met yet), then two nights in Narooma at Anchors Aweigh B&B with Heather and Kerry, where the train ran through the ceiling, the kookaburras on the wires had two chicks, and a crow at Narooma Golf Club stole John's yellow ball and flew with it out over the ocean. A picnic on the way at Bega Valley with prawns, leftover steak, and the last bottle of Lambert Estate sparkling. The Blow Hole at Kiama as we drove north. Then Pete behind the wheel for the run into Sydney, and the keys to our final room at The Russell Hotel on the Rocks. We returned the car to Avis and closed out 4,200 miles of driving between New Zealand and Australia.

#australia#victoria#new-south-wales
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The kangaroos at Anglesea Golf Club, Victoria, AustraliaAustralia
3 min read2015

Dateline February 27, 2015, Anglesea Golf Club

We drove out from our motel in Apollo Bay with a planned stop for breakfast at the Wye Cafe, about twenty minutes up the coast. John and Janice noticed on arriving that it was the same cafe they had stopped at on a previous Melbourne to Adelaide drive — a small coincidence to start the day. Then on to Anglesea Golf Club for the round we had been waiting for. Anglesea is famous for the kangaroos who share the fairways with the golfers. Looking out from the clubhouse before our 1:15 tee time, we couldn't see a single one. The pro told us they sleep in the heat of the day and start feeding as it cools. We started on the 10th hole. By the 11th green, our first mob. From there, it was constant. Many of the kangaroos wore collars with names — permanent members of the club, we figured. The course was a good test of golf, except for the part where there are kangaroos everywhere and you cannot stop taking pictures of them. The pictures tell the story.

#australia#victoria#anglesea
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The Obelisk at Robe, South AustraliaAustralia
7 min read2015

Dateline February 18, 2015, Robe and Port Fairy, Australia

We drove almost six hours to get to our next destination, Robe, one of the oldest towns in South Australia. We checked into the Harbour View Motel, where Robbie at the front desk offered us an 'upgrade' for an extra hundred dollars (we politely declined). Drinks at the Caledonia Hotel, built in 1858, then dinner at Sails, the best restaurant in town and probably in the province. A morning walk along the cliffs by the lighthouse, breakfast at the Marina Cafe, a lobster pickup at the fish market that became one of our favorite lunches of the trip on a picnic table at Cape Bridgewater. Then north to Port Fairy and the Quamby Homestead, where William and Ailsa host out of a property whose gardens were designed in the 1880s by William Guilfoyle, who ran the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. A round of golf at Port Fairy Golf Club, oceanside and beautiful, where a friendly woman at the bar afterward showed us a photo of the tiger snake she had recently found in her house and warned us about the copperheads on the course. A walk around Griffiths Island, a first wallaby sighting, and a second night at Clonmara Cottages. Onward to the Great Ocean Drive.

#australia#south-australia#victoria
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Jack's Point Golf Club, on Lake Wakatipu, beneath the Remarkables Range, South Island, New ZealandNew Zealand
3 min read2015

Dateline February 10, 2015, Jack's Point Golf Club

The first question the pro at Jack's Point gets is whether the course is named for Jack Nicklaus. It is not. It is named for Jack Tewa, known as Māori Jack, who saved two friends from drowning when their boat overturned on Lake Wakatipu in 1862, near what is now the Jack's Point village. He is also credited with the first discovery of gold in the Arrow River that same year, which set off the gold rush in the region. The course is one of the top-rated in the world. Snow fell the night before we played, so the Remarkables Range stood over us in white. On the second hole, an airplane landed on the grass strip just below the tee, then took off almost immediately with a load of skydivers, whose chutes opened against the mountains as we played on. The fourth tee is across a small road and through a stone wall, with views down Lake Wakatipu and out to the high ranges. It is a true links: you do not see the clubhouse again until you walk off the eighteenth green. We agreed that it was the most beautiful and challenging course we had ever played, and we told the pro so. We were rained out at The Hills the next day, and the local advice was that Jack's Point was the better course anyway, so we went back and played it a second time. That second round was the end of our golf in New Zealand. It was a spectacular ending.

#new-zealand#south-island#queenstown
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Coming down the road into the valley toward Queenstown and the Millbrook ResortNew Zealand
8 min read2015

Dateline February 10, 2015, Millbrook Resort and Queenstown

We came down into the valley to our final base in New Zealand, the Millbrook Resort, just outside Queenstown. The one-lane bridges in this part of the country are a queueing art form, watching the arrows to figure out who has the right of way. We checked into a two-bedroom cottage on the golf course. It was Pete's birthday on the 6th, so we let him pick dinner; he wanted to eat in. Janice and Bunny made the grocery run and came back with the most beautiful rainbow we had seen in a while. The week that followed was a series of rounds at Millbrook, a side trip to Arrowtown for Stephanie's recommended tapas at La Rumbla, an introduction to New Zealand's Blue Duck vodka, an extra night that Will Owen rescued for us when we found an error in our own schedule, a rained-out tee time at The Hills (refunded), a visit to the Kiwi Birdlife Park, the Queenstown gondola, and two old men attempting the Haka in front of an All Blacks poster. We close out New Zealand at Jack's Point, in the next post.

#new-zealand#south-island#queenstown
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Terrace Downs golf course in its mountain valley, South Island, New ZealandNew Zealand
3 min read2015

Dateline February 4, 2015, Terrace Downs and Quickenberry B&B

We arrived at Terrace Downs on time, but the wind was blowing about forty miles per hour with gusts up to sixty, so golf was out. The course sits in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains, and the wind comes howling through. The staff at the clubhouse kindly moved our tee time to the following morning and pointed us toward Methven, a small village nearby with a few cafes. We poked around the stores (hardware first, of course) and had a lovely lunch at Cafe 131. We were booked into the Quickenberry B&B, where we were greeted with the news that we had been 'upgraded' to a villa at the golf course. We suspected an overbooking. Will Owen had told us the previous week's guests had been there with no issues. We did drive back to Quickenberry for dinner and the next morning's breakfast, both of which were exceptional. The villa had nice views over the course and a beautiful moon that evening. The next morning the wind had calmed enough to play. The course was in decent shape, the greens slow, a few blind shots, and the vistas of the mountains and rivers were stunning. By the last five holes, the wind was back at thirty-plus and the golf got a little crazy. Lunch at the clubhouse, where Bunny ordered the Green Lip Mussels. Then on to Lake Tekapo.

#new-zealand#south-island#terrace-downs
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The Museum Art Hotel, Wellington, New ZealandNew Zealand
4 min read2015

Dateline January 31, 2015, Wellington

After a fantastic breakfast at Millhills, we took the road south for Wellington. The drive ran along the coast, through small beach towns, on routes 56 and 58. We pulled into Wellington and checked into the Museum Art Hotel for two nights. The hotel has a restaurant called Hippopotamus, and sure enough, from our balcony there was a very large Hippo looking back at us. The National Museum is across the street. An entire floor is given over to the social history of New Zealand, and we spent the afternoon on the Māori exhibits and the Treaty of Waitangi, signed February 6, 1840. Some patterns there felt familiar from US history. The next morning we drove up the coast for a round at Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club, a true links course. It was raining. Then it was raining harder. We walked in after nine holes, took hot showers, and caught up on the blogs. For dinner the concierge sent us to Chow's, an Asian-fusion tapas place two blocks away, up three floors in an old-fashioned elevator. We ordered most of the menu. Next morning, the ferry to the South Island.

#new-zealand#wellington#museum-art-hotel
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Cape Kidnappers, the Tom Doak design on Julian Robertson's property above the cliffs of Hawke's BayNew Zealand
4 min read2015

Dateline January 30, 2015, Cape Kidnappers

From Millhills Lodge to Cape Kidnappers, the Tom Doak course on Julian Robertson's six-thousand-acre former sheep farm on Hawke's Bay. The TomTom got us to the entrance in thirty minutes. Then we learned it was another fifteen-minute drive on the inside road just to reach the clubhouse, narrow and winding and lined with speed bumps. Like Kauri Cliffs, we were among only eight players on the course that day. The staff was mostly young Americans on their post-college golf years, one from Penn State, all on their way back to the US to take jobs at courses there. We played the first two holes. We arrived at the third. Peter, Janice, and John all missed the green. Then Bunny stepped up and put it in the cup for her first hole-in-one. From there the course winds in and out of the fingers of land that drop straight off the cliffs, with cows as our gallery and electric fencing going up around us. At the turn the lodge brought down sandwiches. The back nine plays along the cliff edges, with the danger signs to match. Back to Millhills Lodge for Penny's gourmet dinner.

#new-zealand#cape-kidnappers#hawkes-bay
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Arriving at Kinloch Golf Club, the Jack Nicklaus design near Taupo, New ZealandNew Zealand
2 min read2015

Dateline January 29, 2015, Golf at the Jack Nicklaus-Designed Kinloch Golf Club

Thursday morning, one more goodbye to Pat and Russell at Ambleside, and on to Kinloch Golf Club. Kinloch was designed by Jack Nicklaus, about seven years before our visit, for a wealthy New Zealander who knew nothing about golf. Phil, the club's golf professional, joked that the owner probably googled 'best golfer in the world,' found Jack, and asked him to build a course. Whatever the path was, the result is exceptional. The land itself does most of the work. Nicklaus barely moved any of it. The course is links-style, with carries that punish the wrong club, but it is one of the most beautiful layouts we have seen on the trip so far. We chose the white tees at 6,500 yards. They were a little too much for our games, but we did not care. Of the four courses we had played in New Zealand by this point, Kinloch was the most interesting and the most challenging. For a low handicapper it would be a great test. For us it was difficult, beautiful, and worth playing again. After the round we packed up and headed for Hawke's Bay and Millhills Lodge, with Cape Kidnappers on the schedule for the next day.

#new-zealand#kinloch#kinloch-golf-club
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Bunny Warenski with the Callaway ball from her hole-in-one on the third hole at Cape KidnappersNew Zealand
1 min read2015

Dateline January 30, 2015, Ace Bunny Warenski, Hole in One!

Extra, extra, read all about it. Bunny made her first hole-in-one on the third hole at Cape Kidnappers. Some backstory. The day before, on the practice range at Wairakei, Bunny had set her clubs down on the grass. When she picked them up, there was duck poop on her clubs, her arm, and a little on her shirt. We all told her: bird poop is good luck. We had no idea how right we would turn out to be. The next day, on the third hole at Cape Kidnappers, with a Callaway ball that had a 3 stamped on it, on the 30th day of the month, on the third day in a row of New Zealand golf, Bunny put it in the cup. Cape Kidnappers later sent us a photo of the plaque with her name engraved on it. Bunny's was the second hole-in-one of the year on that course. The first one belonged to a PGA pro.

#new-zealand#cape-kidnappers#hole-in-one
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Gulf Harbour Country Club, Robert Trent Jones design on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula north of AucklandNew Zealand
3 min read2015

Dateline January 26, 2015, Golf at Gulf Harbour

Goodbyes after breakfast at Swallow Ridge, then south back toward Auckland for our second round of New Zealand golf at Gulf Harbour, the Robert Trent Jones design that hosted the 1998 World Cup of Golf. Jones likens the course to Pebble Beach. Pete and Bunny had been with us on the Robert Trent Jones Trail in Alabama in 2012, so we were happy to be playing another Jones course together. An early afternoon tee time, a clubhouse sandwich, a few range balls, and out we went. The front nine was a pleasant layout, challenging in spots but not punishing. The back nine climbs up to the cliffs above the Hauraki Gulf, with views back across to Auckland and the Sky Tower in the distance. We absolutely loved the back nine. Off to Panorama Heights in Western Auckland for the night, then south in the morning to our next golf course and our next B&B.

#new-zealand#gulf-harbour#gulf-harbour-country-club
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Entry to the course at Wairakei Golf and Sanctuary, Taupo, New ZealandNew Zealand
3 min read2015

Dateline January 28, 2015, Golf at Wairakei Golf and Sanctuary

A ten o'clock tee time at Wairakei Golf and Sanctuary, just up the road from Pat and Russell's place in Taupo. The course is owned by a wealthy Taupo dairy farmer the locals refer to as Smiley, because no one has ever seen him smiling. The course was designed by the British architect Commander John Harris, who routed it through one of the most active geothermal landscapes in the country. It was in the world top 100 in the 1970s, fell on hard times for years, and has been pristine since Smiley took it over. The entire course is fenced as a wildlife sanctuary, to keep out the rodents that would eat the kiwi birds and other native species. You drive your cart up to a gate, the gate opens, and you are in. Beautiful entry, beautiful Maori totem at the gate, and a round of golf with pheasant, quail, and the occasional mother bird and chick wandering across the fairway. Back to Ambleside for another evening with Pat and Russell.

#new-zealand#taupo#wairakei
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Kauri Cliffs Golf Club, perched above the Bay of Islands on the North Island of New ZealandNew Zealand
3 min read2015

Dateline January 26, 2015, Golf at Kauri Cliffs

A thirty-five-minute drive from Kerikeri took us off the main road and onto a mile of dirt road that had us wondering if TomTom had us lost. Then the gate appeared. Cameron, the assistant golf pro, met us in the drive, loaded our carts, and pointed us out to the course. Seventy-five degrees and sunny, a soft breeze, and only six other players on the course for the whole day. The course was designed by David Harman of Orlando, Florida, who died of lung cancer at fifty-one not long after completing this design. The owner is Julian Robertson, the Tiger Management founder, who fell in love with New Zealand as a young man on a writing year and later built both Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers on cliffs above the Pacific. The front nine plays over fantastic vistas out to the Bay of Islands. On the back, John birdied ten, birdied eleven, and parred twelve before reality returned on thirteen. Janice shot eighty-three from the men's tees at six thousand-plus yards. Pete and Bunny had a blast. Back to Swallow Ridge for rum and Cokes by the pool and a quiet dinner.

#new-zealand#kauri-cliffs#kauri-cliffs-golf-club
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Hearst Castle on the California coast, 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens, terraces, and poolsUnited States
8 min read2013

Dateline July 23, 2013, Monterey, Carmel, and the California Coast

Out of Yosemite to the coast and the Monterey Peninsula. The Monterey Fair Grounds RV park, set up among the horse stalls (the 'Don't Wash Horses Here' sign at our water hookup was a nice touch). A walk through Monterey, with a memory or two from a Citrix Systems conference there years ago before we were married, the night they hosted a dinner inside the aquarium. Golf at the Bayonet Course, where the PGA Championship had played in 2012. Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing, oysters on the half shell and a snapper sandwich big enough to defeat the two of us together. Carmel, the lodge at Pebble Beach, and the bagpiper walking out of the fog on the patio at Spanish Bay at sunset. Then the Pacific Coast Highway south through Big Sur, the elephant seals at their July haul-out, the Hearst Castle, the wines at Adelaida Cellars in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and an overnight high above the Malibu beach. The Reagan Library was waiting for us in the morning.

#california#monterey-peninsula#monterey
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A par 3 at Torrey Pines South Course, the green sitting on a cliff above the PacificUnited States
5 min read2013

Dateline July 30, 2013, Long Beach to Torrey Pines, Closing the Trip

Out of Simi Valley after the Reagan Library, down the 405 (the freeway only one person in modern history has ever been able to drive fast on, and even he was crawling). Long Beach for a city park overnight near the Queen Mary, then a Mercedes brake job that ate the whole next day. Huntington Beach, with the campsites taken by the US Open Surfing crowds, so a Marriott Courtyard instead. Janice's practice round at Sea Cliff Country Club for the USGA Senior Women's Amateur qualifier, with John caddying. A Safeway chicken eaten next to the rig in the hotel parking lot. Breakfast with Gigi Kimball at Ruby's on the pier. Monday over to Yorba Linda for the Nixon Library. Tuesday Janice's qualifier, a four-putt on the par-three 17th that pushed her into a six-way playoff, and a brutally tough second-year-in-a-row playoff loss. Then Ann and Ruth in Oceanside (who turn out to live in a beach house on the Pacific). And finally Torrey Pines, the South Course, the closing round of more than 1,600 miles down the California coast. Then east toward Arizona, with Lelia and Betty Lou waiting for us.

#california#long-beach#queen-mary
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The Floating Green at the Coeur d'Alene Resort, the world's only movable floating golf green, on underwater cablesUnited States
3 min read2013

Dateline July 11, 2013, Coeur d'Alene and the Floating Green

Pulling into Coeur d'Alene to look for a campground, we noticed we were right next to the famous golf course, so we turned in just to take a look. One conversation with the assistant pro later, we had an 8:50 tee time the next morning. The course was in impeccable condition, hand-watered, divots filled in by staff walking the fairways with buckets. Two fawns played across the 6th hole until their mother called them back into the woods. Then the 14th: the floating green, the world's only one, movable on underwater cables to play anywhere from 100 to 200 yards. Janice hit it and made par. Janice's verdict, after lunch: better than Pebble Beach, which she has played a number of times. On to Seattle.

#idaho#coeur-dalene#coeur-dalene-resort
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The Grand National sign at the Robert Trent Jones Trail course in Opelika, AlabamaUnited States
3 min read2013

Dateline June 29, 2013, Leaving Flagler Beach, Going West

Heading out west for the summer. National Parks, family, friends. The first leg runs from Flagler Beach to Cody, Wyoming for the Stampede on July 4th, then on to Yellowstone. Out of Florida, a stop in Orlando to swap a glow plug sensor, a KOA in Perry. Then a round at Grand National at Opelika, the one RTJ Trail course we did not get to with Pete and Bunny last May. Wind Creek State Park on Lake Martin. The drive through Alabama up to Memphis and on to Jonesboro, Arkansas, where Doris at Craighead Forest Park rented us a lakeside site for $10. The open country of Arkansas and Missouri, the kind that reminds you how big the country still is. Cooper's Landing on the Missouri River was flooded out, so we backed into Binder Park outside Jefferson City for the night. Independence, Missouri and the Truman Library in the morning.

#florida#alabama#arkansas
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Sunset over Mobile Bay from Meaher State Park, on the last night of the Robert Trent Jones Trail tripAlabama
8 min read2012

Dateline May 27, 2012, Capitol Hill, Magnolia Grove, and the End of the Trail

The last week of the Robert Trent Jones Trail trip. Montgomery and the Capitol Hill complex: The Legislator (rained out partway and finished the next afternoon), The Judge with its first tee two hundred feet above the fairway, and The Senator with its 160 pot bunkers. Then down to Mobile and Magnolia Grove for the Crossings and the Falls. On the last round, individual stroke play, Janice shot a 78 from the men's white tees and won outright. Final standings, with Janice giving the most strokes all trip. The Trail ends. The alligator at Meaher State Park does not. And James and Mary's wedding in Gettysburg waits a few weeks ahead.

#alabama#robert-trent-jones-trail#rtj-trail
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John, Janice, Pete, and Bunny at the 19th hole after a round at Oxmoor ValleyAlabama
4 min read2012

Dateline May 20, 2012, Oxmoor Valley

Ninety minutes south from Gadsden to Oak Mountain State Park outside Birmingham, the largest state park in Alabama, nearly ten thousand acres of trails and lakes. Then up to Oxmoor Valley to play the Ridge and the Valley, two of the most photogenic courses on the Trail, both built on former coal-mining country. The Ridge with its 150-foot elevation changes, the Valley running two miles down its namesake. Plus the discovery of sweet tea vodka, a small wildlife parade of turkeys, and an East Hampton neighbor in the campground who came in second in the XTERRA over-50 women's triathlon.

#alabama#robert-trent-jones-trail#rtj-trail
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The Silver Lakes clubhouse, rebuilt after the April 2011 tornadoAlabama
4 min read2012

Dateline May 17, 2012, Hampton Cove and Silver Lakes

Out of Florence and up to Monte Sano State Park, sixteen hundred feet above Huntsville. Two days at Hampton Cove, including the River Course, the only Robert Trent Jones Trail layout in Alabama with not a single bunker. Then eighty miles south to Gadsden and Silver Lakes, which we found in remarkable shape considering an EF4 tornado from the April 27, 2011 Super Outbreak had taken out forty thousand of its trees and the top of its clubhouse a year before. The Backbreaker and the Mindbreaker. And a brown water snake we left to its business.

#alabama#robert-trent-jones-trail#rtj-trail
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The 18th green of The Fighting Joe at The Shoals, overlooking Wilson Lake on the Tennessee RiverAlabama
6 min read2012

Dateline May 12, 2012, RTJ Trail Alabama, The Shoals

Out of Henderson Beach to Joe Wheeler State Park on the Tennessee River, where Pete and Bunny Warenski were already set up. Three rounds over four days. The Fighting Joe at The Shoals, all eight thousand yards of it. A rain day for Rogersville antiques and Brooks BBQ (Yelp again). The Schoolmaster the next day. And on Friday, Turtle Point Country Club in Killen, a private RTJ Sr design Janice had played years before in the SWATCA tournament. Plus a quick history of the Nassau bet, and the unlikely story of Joe Wheeler, the only Confederate general to come back and serve under Union colors.

#alabama#robert-trent-jones-trail#rtj-trail
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A green at Grand National on the Robert Trent Jones Trail, the iconic checkered pin flag against the waterAlabama
4 min read2012

Dateline May 8, 2012, The Robert Trent Jones Trail

Off for another adventure. Pete and Bunny, who we met during Walkabout in Alaska, came down to Flagler Beach in January for a few days of golf at home. By the end of the visit, we had a plan: meet in Muscle Shoals in May for a three-week golf fest on the Robert Trent Jones Trail. Twelve courses scheduled, and the Trail itself a quiet small-miracle of state economic development. A short post on the history of how 26 public golf courses, on eleven sites, with 468 holes, ever got built in Alabama in the first place.

#alabama#robert-trent-jones-trail#rtj-trail
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The 15th hole at Augusta National Golf ClubGeorgia
6 min read2012

Dateline April 2, 2012, The Masters Practice Round at Augusta National

Back on the road in the Roadtrek after six months in Flagler Beach. Janice's sister Connie and her husband Lee dropped at the Jacksonville airport, an overnight at Jekyll Island, and on to Augusta for Monday of Masters week. The 5:30 AM alarm, Gate 9, the merchandise tent, and then down to Amen Corner where Tiger and Mark O'Meara were standing on the 15th fairway. Tom Watson hitting into 9. The Eisenhower Cabin. Lunch by the Hogan Bridge in 90 degree heat. The 16th skip-shots. And Janice walking the same course she had worked three Masters tournaments on with IBM in the late 1990s, still without the chance to play it that some of her colleagues got.

#georgia#augusta-national#the-masters
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Walker's Point, the George H.W. Bush family home in Kennebunkport, MaineNew England
10 min read2011

Dateline August 25, 2011, Family Visits and Maine

Pittsburgh with our son James and his fiancée Mary, and the great mouse caper that began in the Midwest. Clinton NY with Janice's cousin Bobbie. Elvis Weekend at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino with Steve and Marilyn. Long Lake with Kim, Tony, Stella, and Daphne. Vermont, then a quiet visit to Janice's parents Stanley and Jeanne at Eastman Cemetery. Connie and Lee in Derry, the Bush home at Walker's Point, Cape Arundel at sunset, lobster in Rockport, and Cape Cod with Uncle Bill and Aunt Margaret as Hurricane Irene rolled through.

#pittsburgh#watkins-glen#clinton-new-york
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The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, with its famous long porch overlooking Lake HuronMichigan
7 min read2011

Dateline August 8, 2011, Across Michigan to Mackinac, and on to Indiana

Across the Upper Peninsula on the UP Golf Trail. Mackinac Island with the Grand Hotel, the red phone booth, no cars since 1898, and clubs hauled between the front and back nine by horse-drawn carriage. Sleeping Bear Dunes with Pat and Anna Carney, who were also on the long road home from Alaska. Traverse City with our friend Robin Vaught and her family. And on to Noblesville, Indiana, where Janice took a swing at qualifying for the USGA Women's Senior Amateur.

#michigan#indiana#upper-peninsula
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