Tag Archives: Sports

My Olympic Doppelganger

The Olympics officially end tonight or with the time difference I guess it’s probably happening right now. It’s been a fully packed two weeks and looking back it seems like they have been going on for a lot longer than two weeks! What has been everyone’s highlights?

For me:

  • USA Women’s Soccer Team! If only my DVR properly recorded their gold winning game.
  • Water Polo is ruthless. The fact that the men’s bodies are so chiseled makes up for them wearing those funny little caps. (Yes, I just went there!)
  • Andy Murray – High Five! I’m so happy you won!
  • Rowing looks awfully fun…. I need to make some friends in that department.
  • Michael Phelps – great job obtaining the most medals of any Olympian. Just a head’s up – Usain Bolt is claiming he is the greatest Olympian of all time. I’ll admit he’s fast but not so sure about the greatest.
  • I enjoyed seeing the Royals at the games (and really getting into them).
  • Did anyone else realize how huge London is?! It’s MASSIVE!
  • The time difference caused some serious issues… 90% of the time I knew the winner before I watched the race. Didn’t stop me from watching them!
  • I FOUND MY DOPPELGANGER! (For anyone who doesn’t know, a doppelganger is someone who could be your twin.) Rebecca Soni, Captain for the US Women’s Swimming Team. Sy’s had quite a lot of fun with this. He tells people to look up Soni’s picture or shows them and he just gets laughs. Ask him – he is incredibly amused.

What were your favorite Olympic moment’s from the past two weeks?

Top Golf

There are only a few Top Golf locations situated throughout the world. London, D.C., Chicago and Texas.
What is Top Golf? It’s a driving range, but not any driving range… it’s more like a game. When you arrive, you get a card with your name and balance, kind of like a gift card. Each ball has a computer chip in so it will acknowledge which ball is yours (this is done when you get your bucket of balls out of the machine.) If you hit your ball over the fence and into traffic, they will know it’s yours, beware.
 
This is where it gets interesting. Instead of hitting the ball at a flag as you would at most driving ranges, each flag is surrounded a bigger hole type area. The closer to the flag you hit the ball, the more points you get. Yes I said points. There are various types of games that you can play with your friends to fire up the competition a little bit. The closer to the flag and the farther away the flag is, the more points you get. Every once in a while, the computer will show that you get a bonus ball. If you hit within the inner most circle surrounding the flag, this is considered a hole-in-one and you get a free game. Not too shabby!
Pay no attention to form. Strictly the fact that I hit the hell out of that ball!
At one point we were going there every Sunday morning and calling it “Church”.  Not only would we go to play golf but they also have great food and drinks available. This is a great outing for family, a group of friends, business parties or even just to practice on your swing. It’s pretty cute to see the little kids get out there and practice their swing. The only downside is that it is a little more on the expensive side but it’s definitely worth the fun for any skill level. I had never played golf before Top Golf. Even though I mostly go to just hit the ball hard and far, I really do love it and it helped lead me to actually try out a real game of golf!
I even beat the boys!
Points of Note:
* Pets are welcome, just don’t leave them in your car.
** Free clubs are available to use if you don’t have your own.
***Be sure to sign up on their website to be on their email list – they will occasionally send you free games.
**** The Top Golf in Dallas has three miniature golf courses. They are a lot of fun.
 

Bolton Valley Resort

In honor of the dumping Vermont just received… and I wish I could fly home this second to enjoy it all!

I lived in Vermont my entire life (well, all up until I decided to move when I was 23 – crazy). Anyway, one would think that growing up in Vermont and having access to all that powdery goodness I would’ve started snowboarding or skiing at a young age, but I didn’t – that was my brother 🙂 I was the one that could be found snowmobiling any night of the week with my dad and his friends. Then college came and my senior year I decided to give snowboarding a go.

I went to Champlain College, they had a deal with Bolton Valley. The first time I went, I borrowed a board from one of my friends, bought some cheap boots from a second hand sports store and crossed my fingers. We skipped right over the bunny hill and went right to the top of the mountain. Two hours later, I made it back down to the base. Yea, that’s right, two hours. I was on my butt for most of the trip down, went flying over the side of the bank, went flying head first, probably cursed a little, laughed a little too. The worst part was having my friends sit and wait for me but they are so awesome they just kept encouraging me the entire way. At the end of the day, I was addicted and ready to go back for more.

Snowboarding isn’t easy. Personally, I think skiing would be a lot harder, I guess it’s just all up for preference and I would rather have both my feet strapped into one board. I ended up getting seasons passes, going up with my friends every weekend, going by myself every second that I could get, even calling in on the days where the powder just came down. There is NOTHING like a good powder / blizzard day.

Overtime, my “skills” improved from “lack of” to being able to link my turns. Looking back, we had some wicked times at Bolton. They provide night riding which is something that not a lot of resorts offer. They are super close to Burlington, making the perfect day getting up early to hit the mountain and then hitting up Church Street later that night. It’s where we decided to try hitting some jumps and rails, trying to ride in the woods (and getting stuck in waist deep powder) and sticking to the left side of the mountain. (This was the side of the mountain where no one seemed to go (for some weird reason but we were so thankful), where it was always ungroomed trails. There is nothing like carving the first trail in untouched snow.

Bolton is a great small resort. Good food, good atmosphere and if you are from the area you will typically run into someone that you know and the lift ticket prices are decent. There are lessons for all skill levels and ages (don’t worry the five year olds will make sure to show you up!).