I failed to complete the Vacation story (which turned into a series) as promised but hey this worked out better since there’s a picture of something which counted as my birthday dinner with the Silders. All I’ll say in my defense right now is the things I will do for a good steak.
Day Six Golfin’: Walking around the National Mall et al. drained everyone so our final, full day with the Silder Clan was spent at a nearby recreation center to play a couple games of putt-putt golf in what will be remembered as the Silder Gaithersburg 2009 Open! Let’s just say I should stick to the Wii. Below are the photographed highlights.
Jack modifies an old cliché by being the human on the monkey's back!
TJ going in for the Birdie on this challenging hole.
I'm laughing because I just got a hole-in-one by closing my eyes while putting. The ball then went through the opening between the lion's tail and body before it was in! Suck it Tiger Woods and Greg Norman!
Paul with the winning shot…before handicaps were factored in.
We all returned to unwind further at Chez Silder, review the pictures we took and play some Raving Rabids on their Wii. Then I twisted everyone’s arms into having steak for dinner. It would be very un-Texan of me not to. Besides, Somara and I were flying home the next day. I wouldn’t want my last decent meal to be tofu if our plane bit it between DC and Dallas. The choice restaurant in their area has a Canadian theme. Not the McKenzie Brothers but Dudley Doo Right and the Couer de Bois fur trappers. The place isn’t true to Canuck culture though, they didn’t offer backbacon as an appetizer! However, I had to kiss a moose (puppet) for my birthday which was the tipping point into cajoling everyone into this dining choice.
- The waitress is assuring me that I will not be bombarded by ping-pong balls like the poor, put-upon Captain Kangaroo was.
Day Seven Returnin’: The day we all regretted, having to go home. We thanked the boys, Paul and Helen for the wonderful time we had. Once the kids were at camp, the Silders gave us a lift back to Dulles Airport in time to have American Airlines hold our luggage hostage for another $55 (they’re going to raise it five bucks next month too). The captain of our Dallas plane must’ve been Schnitzel from Chowder too. We couldn’t make out a word he said other than “radda radda radda.” Good thing his pilot skills were better than his public speaking, it was rather uneventful despite all the thunderstorm warnings on every weather forecasting source I could get my hands on. The quick n’ easy finale between Dallas and Austin was a different debacle. Allegedly, the ground crew put too much fuel into the plane which made us too heavy for such a short distance. I blame the three pounds I put on from all the eating I did on this vacation.
Final analysis. It was a great, relaxing and eventful vacation. I’m glad I finally got to meet TJ and Jack. Currently, TJ writes to me through his own e-mail account too; Helen and I set up his own home directory on their Mac with a Google Mail address (Yahoo wanted money because he’s under 13 or something, no way). We do hope to do this again in the near future. The harder part will be getting the four Silders to Austin. Jack wants to attend UT (he’s only eight, he may change his mind) so I am now putting him in charge of Operation Longhorned Terrapin.