Golfing Around

Sorry for the delay, I usually try to post something at least once a week. I guess I was slacking off for no reason. Thanks for checking back! Now on to the pictures:

Small golf! My friends were playing Pictionary decades ago, and while trying to draw "Mini Golf" one of the guesses was instead (repeated over and over a few times) "small golf" and forever afterwards they joke about the funny wrong guess. Kind of like when you use a quote from a movie, but like, a real-life version of that. Anyway, we played some Small Golf and I got some pictures.

Behind the Ocean Breeze Fun Park in Virginia Beach, there is a mountain of minigolf. Pirates themed. Could you tell by the big pirate ship in the lake? Nobody questions the logic of a ship in a lake. It's just a theme.

Rule 1: You don't talk about Fight Club. Sorry... it's something about skateboards. This place would make an awesome level of the Tony Hawk video game, you think?

There's the sign, Shipwreck Golf. Motorworld is the racetrack thing right next to this mountain. You'll be able to see it in the background of some pictures later.

I wonder if there is some kind of official place to get standardized rules for minigolf. Is the word "pleasure" the correct word to use on the top of this sign? It feels like it's not the right word.

This was new. Rather than give you a golf ball, they give you a coin, which you use in a vending machine. It's like extra steps. But kinda fun, too. The vending machine looks cool.

There are two courses here. We went to the Captain's Course first. This is where Picard wants to go when he says "Engage!" and points his fingers.

Each hole number had a shipwreck name and cargo description. I have to assume these are based on real things, for authenticity purposes. Why would they make stuff up? Give the kids a history lesson if you can.

You know the best minigolf courses have the waterfall going through it. Starting from the bottom, we're going to go to the top! ...And then probably back down to the bottom again.

Can you see it? Past them trees. There's like a swamp river right next to this. That foliage is blocking it pretty good, but I can still see it.

The rocks put the waterfall over top of this place you have to putt under. This is the type of thing you want in a minigolf place. It's like landscaping art.

We're closer to the top of the mountain. Nobody told us there would be so many stairs involved with this. I mean, it IS a mountain, so we could have figured it out. Is that on us? Stop complaining about the hidden exercise.

Another thing you look forward to on a minigolf course, a cool cave. By "cool" I mean, temperature-wise. It's several degrees cooler in here, and a nice break from the hot summer day.

Hole 18 on the course, the flag is waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy down there! I gotta say, every single hole on this place is based on luck instead of skill. That hole is so far away down this massive hill. The only way you're getting a hole-in-one is with a massive amount of luck.

Would it be funny for this pirate to have a golf club instead of a hook on his hand? Or would he not look enough like a pirate if they did that? They need a "Shipwreck Golf" sign next to this obvious photo-op bench, so you'd remember where you got the picture.

Whew! Let's take a break with an over-priced soda. You can't blame them for charging so much, at least it's cold. Here's my extra coin for the ball to be used on the next course!

The Jonas Grumby course! Oddly enough, they never gave Gillian a full name, but all the other characters on his island had full names, including The Skipper.

This cave near the lake had um... lake in it. Neat.

That lake looks.... odd. There's like some stuff in it. Is that soap? Come to think of it, they probably need to put stuff in it so it's not, what's the word... filthy? Rancid? Full of gross stuff?

I'm on a boat! Pirate themes are common for beach tourist minigolf places, and you gotta be on a ship with cannons at some point.

Oh yeah, playing both courses meant we had to go back up and down the mountain again. I'm on top of the world! It's like a volcano, but water instead.

This. This is what I was talking about before. NO WAY can you plan on anything. Just hit the ball and hope you get lucky when it curves down this mess. It almost doesn't feel like you are playing minigolf so much as just hitting a ball and when it gets near the hole finally you are suddenly playing minigolf.

Nobody wanted me to take a picture of every single hole marker, right? Like, if you wanted to research what ship was the Hattie Jones was, and where it wrecked? At least they give you the year, 1896.

Can you see the MotorWorld track back there? We did not do that, but it's right next to the minigolf course. This was the final hole, again down a long hill with many bumps along the way, and the hole is off to the side, impossible to aim for. Good luck.

I won! Um, that's what I get for chopping off the names from the top of the score sheet. One of us DID manage a single hole-in-one on a tricky bump-hill mess. It seemed like it was easy until you miss and the ball rolls way far away from the hole again. So it was still tricky to do, but at least it was possible.

Skip ahead to another day! I figured I'd put all the minigolf pictures together, even though this was a whole 'nother time. This particular place was near where my friend used to live, and being here brought back some memories.

There's no mountain, but this fountain created a nice flow to the small waterway winding around the course.

Stuck! This totally counts! I forgot to get a picture of the big sign, this place is simply called Lynnhaven Golf Park. And there's not too much of a theme going on, but it's still solid minigolf. A little bit more "skill" than plain luck, but still a lot of luck involved.

We both hit the same spot on this hill! D'oh! You know when you are near the edge, you can put the ball one club-head-length away from the wall to hit it, yet as soon as you put the ball down, it rolls down the hill further. Since we both did the same thing, we just moved the balls and let them roll the rest of the hill.

I had to get a picture of the walking path that had a TON of goose... leavings. I don't know how futile it would be to try and keep the paths cleaner, but it did not seem like they were trying at all. Maybe they were trying, and it was just too much.

Who can be mad at the goose? Goose has gotta goose. Hi goose! Check out the driving range over there. We did not do that, this time.

Here's the scorecard next to an artistic golfball Xmas tree decoration. It's the summer, but they made an Xmas tree, so why not keep it up? Check out the painted dinosaur busting through the brick wall back there.