{"id":1404,"date":"2017-05-14T19:57:51","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T09:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/?p=1404"},"modified":"2017-05-14T19:57:51","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T09:57:51","slug":"carolina-on-my-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/?p=1404","title":{"rendered":"Carolina on my mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

After two years without going on my annual golf trip, I was getting a bit antsy.\u00a0 Luckily my family lives in Raleigh, just an hour north of our golf trip location, so I was able to combine a visit with family with the festiveness of Golf Trip and a bonus side trip to see Mike at Clemson.\u00a0 I get more vacation days than Sara, so I didn’t have to sacrifice any fun trips with her to make this work! 2 weeks in America, woo.<\/p>\n

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Big bird<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I hitched a ride (for free!\u00a0 Thanks 2013 HandelTech business travel!) on the Qantas Airbus A380 to Raleigh via Los Angeles and Charlotte.\u00a0 I had a challenging connection at LAX and my golf clubs ended up a flight behind me, but all in all I made it fairly unscathed, if a bit jet-lagged.\u00a0 Certainly better than our experience in December.\u00a0 I had a good couple of days visiting with my family despite two plus days of torrential rain.\u00a0 I got to hang with Natasha and Nick a good amount along with my dad and step-mom.<\/p>\n

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Nick right before he lost a shoe to the mud.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then it was off to meet the mates in Pinehurst, NC for what was an annual trip (8 years in a row leading up to 2014 for me) before I left for Australia.\u00a0 The boys managed to scrape together a trip without me in 2015, but not in 2016.<\/p>\n

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Erik, Zack, Chris, me, Drew, Chad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lots of golf was played, along with Kan Jam when we got home.<\/p>\n

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Afternoon activities<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And how could we not choose King Cobra 40oz as our drink of choice given it’s $2 price tag.\u00a0 It helped dull the pain of 36 holes of golf and Capitals losses.<\/p>\n

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We have defeated the King Cobra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After Pinehurst, it was off to Clemson to meet up with Mike and see what he was up to in South Carolina.\u00a0 He was a great host – in a day and half we got in a trip to a local brewery, grilled massive steaks, watched the Caps win and even played golf.<\/p>\n

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A rare Mike appearance at a golf course.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then it was back to to Raleigh for more family time.\u00a0 I saw Natasha’s softball team score an epic walk-off win and again went kayaking with Nick on the small pond behind their house.\u00a0 I even managed to get in a round of golf with my dad.\u00a0 I also provided numerous, much need IT services for the household.<\/p>\n

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Natasha’s final softball game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I headed back to Australia via the epic Dallas – Sydney route.\u00a0 For a while it was the longest flight in the world, now I think it is #3 or something.\u00a0 It was a 17 hour flight.\u00a0 Luckily I was able to sleep for quite a bit of it.\u00a0 Then thanks to my arrival to Melbourne via Sydney, Sara was able to meet me right at the gate!\u00a0 Woo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After two years without going on my annual golf trip, I was getting a bit antsy.\u00a0 Luckily my family lives in Raleigh, just an hour north of our golf trip location, so I was able to combine a visit with family with the festiveness of Golf Trip and a bonus side trip to see Mike … Continue reading Carolina on my mind<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1404"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1416,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions\/1416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}