We weren’t sure if we would be golfing this morning at 9:28am but we drove to Qualicum Beach Memorial Golf Club anyway, with the hope that we would be able to get out for our round of golf, but it very much depended on the weather. We were not going to golf if it was pouring rain!
As per usual I put my golf boots on in Jerry, and Richard went up the hill to the pro shop, to pay our green fees and bring us back some pull carts. I was feeling a bit sore today thinking that perhaps I over did my work out yesterday in Newman, so I wasn’t sure how I would feel to golf.
The next thing I saw as I looked up was Richard coming down the hill from the pro shop with 2 handles to the golf pull carts in his hands. Richard was smiling away carrying the the handles to the carts and I’m thinking to myself ”what is wrong with him? Where are the carts? He’s only got the handles in his hands!”
I yelled over to him “Where are the pull carts?” He says “Oh ya,...what am I doing? and back up the hill he goes to connect the handles to the carts and bring them down to the parking lot so we could load up our golf clubs.
Here comes Richard with the pull carts and not just the screw in handles to the carts. Oh my...Alzheimer’s must be setting in!
We met our golf buddies Ken and Curtis on the first tee today and while the sun was trying to come out, it was only +2C when we teed off.
First tee at Qualicum Beach Memorial Golf Club with me, Curtis and Ken. It is so nice to have the Salish Sea/Strait of Georgia in the background when we golf!
We started with our usual double bogey start today on the first hole. YEESH.....the first hole is a long slow uphill par 5 and it beats us up every time! Maybe once the course dries out a bit it will give us some roll, but even with a good drive and 2 good 3 woods, I still wasn’t on the green!
I had my jacket off by the 2nd hole, but I kept my rain pants on just in case it rained. Curtis’ ball found the bushes on the 2nd hole and he went in to look for his ball and came back with a nice pink Pinnacle for me. Usually I’m a golf ball snob and will only play Titleist ProV1 or Titleist AVX golf balls, but today after the 2nd hole, when I started to play the pink Pinnacle, I started to play much better. I parred 2 holes today with the pink ball!
How we play golf at this time of year is really quite secondary to the camaraderie we have with our golf buddies. At one point today Curtis started talking about the “Damnpanic” and we couldn’t quite understand him until we realized he was talking about the “Pandemic”. He is so witty and we end up laughing a lot, so the score just doesn’t matter during this ‘silly season’ of golf when we don’t have to record our scores for handicap purposes.
The rain did start to fall very lightly on the 7th tee, but after we finished the 7th hole, the rain stopped. It was a very short rainfall though and we’re glad we didn’t get too wet playing golf today!
Packing up after golf today. Richard really didn’t need that golf jacket on.
We decided to head to Coombs after our round of golf, as we were both really hungry. A lot of Qualicum Beach seems to shut down on Sundays, so rather than look for somewhere to have lunch, we thought we would go to the ‘Goats on the Roof’ area of Coombs and see what we could find there for lunch.
I had remembered that our golf buddy Ken had told us about a restaurant behind ‘Goats on the Roof’ called ‘Cuckoo’ and he mentioned they had great Italian food, so I asked Richard to go in and see if we could get a table for lunch, while I shopped in a sportswear store. I’ve been wearing these ’Buff’ brand of buffs around my neck since we arrived on the island and I love them! The buff is enough to keep my neck warm, without having to wear a scarf.. Unfortunately the store was sold out of buffs. Apparently they sell them more in the winter than in the summer, although they really are a year round clothing item as they can be worn as a head band too while hiking.
Richard texted me that he had a beautiful table for two in the corner of the restaurant when I was finished shopping.
‘Cuckoo in Coombs Trattoria and Pizzeria’ at ‘Goats on the Roof’ was opened in 2011 and has been a destination for delicious food and beautiful character in an Italian-inspired stucco building.
Richard is happy with his ‘pail’ of Tinhorn Chardonnay from the Okanagan in B.C. He would rate the Chardonnay a 10/10! We liked the self serve water jug on each table.
Mimosa for me!
The ambience in the restaurant was fantastic: Nice white linen tablecloths, airy ceiling, great social distancing, large windows with natural light and fantastic service!
My view looking out at the patio to the water fountain at Cuckoo restaurant. We were imagining how nice it would be to sit out on a nicer day and enjoy a meal on the patio.
Cheers! My buff is around my neck. And there is no way I’m taking this hat off after golfing!
I had to order the pizza because the restaurant had a wood fired pizza oven.
The pizza was very delicious and was a ‘capricious’ pizza!
Richard was going to order chicken manicotti when I steered him into the Pescatore pasta with mussels, clams, scallops and shrimp.
Richard’s seafood pasta which he would rate 9/10. He would have loved some extra spice, but he said it was excellent!
After lunch we wandered around the ‘Goats on the Roof’ complex and decided to visit ‘Our Root Cellar’ which is an open air produce market, located behind the ‘Goats on the Roof‘ building.
‘Our Root Cellar’ at ‘Goats on the Roof’. There were tons of different apples for sale which are all from local producers.
Checking out at ’Our Root Cellar’. THe market reminds us of the local market in our town in Plant City, Florida called ‘Parksdale’. The only thing that was missing today at the outdoor market was the fresh strawberry shortcake and freshly made strawberry milkshakes, like they have at ‘Parksdale’ in Florida.
Richard headed back to drop off our produce in Jerry, while I decided to check out the donut store which had not been open before when we had visited ‘Goats’ before, located at the back of ‘Goats on the Roof’.
The donut shop at ‘Goats on the Roof’. The lineup was quite long before lunch, but not so bad after lunch. One person was allowed in the store at a time.
Inside the donut shop. With names like ’Red for Dinner’ - red velvet donuts with cream cheese frosting, ‘Strawberry Parfait’ strawberry donut, ‘Mango Mango’ donut, ‘Nanaimo bar’ donut, ‘Bacon maple’ donut, there was some serious donut love going on in this store. We purchased 6 donuts to save the GST and to share with our neighbours Jim & Daniele, when we got home from Coombs.
As soon as we left the donut shop the rain started. What perfect timing! We headed home to watch the PGA tour at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill golf course in Florida (where I’ve had the chance to play the course once with my friend from Hyundai) and to watch the Meghan and Harry interview with Oprah on TV. We felt ‘lazy’ today that we were home so early in the afternoon, but with the constant ‘go, go, go’ that we have been doing, it felt nice to hang out in Newman, lying on a couch and relaxing with a heating pad!
And I really do think Richard needed his nap this afternoon to help with his ‘alzheimers’ moment today in forgetting our golf carts at the course. I’m sure he won’t do that again!
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