The Car is Back

After one small set back, my car is finally back. On December 16th the body shop called to say happy anniversary, they had had the car for a year, and that it would be ready to go the next week. On December 21st I went down to the shop to pick it up and the car looked great. In fact, I had never seen it look better. They had replaced the grill, both bumpers and completely repainted the entire body of the car.

On the way out Rick, the owner of the body shop, reminded me to drive carefully as my insurance was not back to full value yet. I got about five blocks away when I felt a thud followed by a terrible scrapping noise. I had a minor heart attack. Turns out a bushing had worn out and the rocker arm on the rear passenger side suspension dropped down and was dragging on the ground. I couldn't drive the car, but no damage to the new paint work. Huge relief, but back to the shop to get that fixed over the Christmas holiday.

When I got back in the new year it was good to go and this time I got it all the way home.

Christophe Mac in the House

My godson Christophe MacIntosh came to visit us in St. Andrews this week. He is currently a freshman at the University of Edinburgh. It was great to see him, and we had a lot of fun when he was here. We played the Jubilee golf course on Friday and the New Course on Saturday with Barbara. He is a pretty good golfer for someone who only plays a few times a year, but hopefully he will get to play a lot more now that he in in Scoland. We also had a great dinner at the Tails End, our favorite fish and chip shop in town and a few beers at the Central Bar.

Hopefully we'll get to see a lot more of him while he is at Uni.

Scotscraig Golf Club

I have a goal to play a new course every time I come to Scotland, and this time it was the Scotscraig Golf Club in Tayport, about 20 minutes outside of St. Andrews.

Scotscraig was founded in 1817 and is the 13th oldest golf club in Scotland. In 1888 the "new" course was opened extending the course to nine holes. In the 1890's Tom Morris advised the club on the extension to 18 holes and in 1923 the course was redesigned by five time Open champion James Braid. It has remained largely unchanged since then with the exception of making it longer.

Unfortunately there has been a lot of rain this year and the course was very wet. Several of the bunkers were underwater, but the grounds crew was doing a good job of getting the course back in shape. Scotsgraig is a good challenge. It has been an Open qualifier for the last 20 years. It is a tight, parkland style course with some trees and a lot of gorse. You need to drive the ball straight here or you will be in a lot of trouble. The fourth hole is the most challenging with a near impossible elevated green that slopes off in every direction.

Overall this is a very fun course and I would highly recommend it. It costs 56 pounds ($90) for a midweek round and 72 pounds ($119) for a round on the weekend. They also have some deals that pair a round of golf with lunch or dinner. You'll also find a fully stocked pro shop to go along with a nice restaurant and bar.

Dad's 70th Birthday

My sister has been working on a plan for over a year now to get a plaque on a bench on the Kingsbarns Golf Course to commemorate my Dad's 70th birthday. Yesterday it finally came to fruition. After dozens of e-mails back and forth across the Atlantic, we got the plaque installed.

 

The best news of all was that it was a complete surprise to my Dad. We had just finished playing golf on a near by golf course, when I asked him to swing by the Kingsbarns course to get some merch for a friend. He fell for it. When we got there my Mom was waiting with a bottle of champagne.

 

The young man in the first picture drove us out to the 15th tee and installed it as we popped the cork on champagne. it was a wet and windy day, but it was still a lot of fun.

This course is very special to my Dad as he grew up in Kingsbarns and is a member of the Kingsbarns Golf Club. My Grandfather was also the last person the win the Scottish two ball championship (with my Great Uncle) on the land that is now Kingsbarns Golf Links. It was a nine hole course before WW II, but was never opened again after the war.

Marathon Woman

Last New Year's eve Barbabra registered for the Portland Marathon as part of the celebration of her 50th year and yesterday she completed the mission. Months of training, getting up at 5:30 a.m on Saturdays, blisters, sore feet, paid off as she looked fresh and confident when I met her at the 22 mile mark. From there she cruised in to set a new personal best.

Congratulations! You are amazing.

Philip Johnson's Glass House

On my trip to New Canaan I was able to visit a local landmark, Philip Johnson's Glass House.

The house was built in 1949 on a dozen acres and over the years Johnson expanded the property to 50 acres and added several buildings, about one a decade, until his death in 2005 at 98.

The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997. Johnson passed on ownership of the Glass House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which opened it to visitors in April 2007. The trust expanded the size of the property, buying adjacent lots which extended it to 200 acres. You can now take a two hour tour for $45.

 

The tour begins in downtown New Canaan, where they have a gift shop and an interesting video wall that gives an overview of Johnson's life and the development of the Glass House property, with some fun pictures and videos of the great parties they had over the years. Then you board a bus and drive out to the property. The first thing you see is this interesting gate.It's an aluminum bar that raises up to let you in.

As you start down the path to the Glass House, it is obscured by trees and slowly reveals itself. The house is a lot smaller than you would think. It is a glass rectangle containing a round brick space for the fireplace and the bathroom. This pattern of rectangle and circle is repeated many times on the property. There are hardly any lights, no AC, and few drapes in the house, so you can see in from almost everywhere. Luckily he owed most of the property around him, so there were not a lot of people looking in on Johnson, he was mostly looking out on a beautiful vista.

 

Below the back of the house Johnson added a lake with a Pavilion and a spectacular water feature.  Behind the lake you can see the sculpture, the ladder to nowhere.

Across from the Glass House is the Brick House. We were not able to go inside it, due to sever flood damage and mold, but the pictures were saw revealed a very interesting space. There was a living room and two bedrooms inside and it was air conditioned so Johnson often slept there in the summer.

Because the Glass House has nowhere to hang art, Johnson built an art gallery on the property to display his partner David Whitney's amazing collection. While they were alive they owned 100's of their friend Andy Warhol's pieces as well as the work of other important modern artists.

The tour ends with a trip to the sculpture gallery. Again the building is as interesting as the art. We were luck enough to come a day with great sunshine so we could see the amazing shadows cast by the slats in the ceiling.

Sadly many of the buildings on the property are badly in need of repair. The Brick House is inaccessible and will take millions to renovate (a lot for a 1700 square foot space), the sculpture gallery roof is rusting, and the Glass House itself has a lot of roof issues too. That said, it is still an amazing place that you should visit if you are in the area, make sure you book in advance, tours fill up quickly.

New Canaan Visit

I took a business  trip to NY this week and amazingly I was able to parley it into a opportunity to see almost all my family members. My sister and her family recently moved to New Canaan, CT and Mom and Dad were there visiting for the weekend, so I flew to JFK on Saturday and took the train up to see them. Then on Tuesday night I came back into the city and had dinner with my brother who was there on a business trip.

This is the great new house they have moved into in New Canaan. It's on about three acres, has a pool, and most importantly lots of room for Winston the dog to run around on. New Canaan is a great town, with plenty of shops, a few restaurants and an easy commute to NYC.

 

While we were there we made a trip to Shake Shack, for some great burgers, and in my case a very good strawberry shake. You should also try the "concrete," it's frozen yogurt with dozens of options you can mix in.

I also had the opportunity to introduce my sports loving nephews to The NFL Red Zone, I don't think they will ever watch a full NFL game on Sunday again.