Family Fun - MacFarlane Style

As our vacation is nearly over, packing has begun and we are hitting the road north a day early as the forecast is calling for mucho rain tomorrow - may as well get home a day early and get geared up for the Monday morning reality check.  Hence, I shall post tomorrow's blog now as the rooster will be crowing early in the morning.

We finished off the week with 54 holes of mini-putt, or putt-putt as they fondly call it here in the "Mini-putt capital of the world".  That's right - one of Myrtle Beach's claims to fame.  We bought a five-round pass at the beginning of last week and had to squeeze the final three in today.  Some of you have questioned whether the mini-putt was for us or for Emma.  Allow me to reassure you - this is totally Miss Emma's thing.  As much as we enjoy the big kid golf, she loves the miniature version.  

Claiming yourself as the Mini-putt capital of the world requires an enormous investment of imagination and money.  The mini-putt owners here obviously possess both.  We're talking fire-breathing dragons, miles of fast-moving water falls, faux volcanoes and challenging terrain - every modern kid's expectation of what mini-putt is all about.

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, if the mini-putt had a windmill with a mouse hole in the bottom, we thought we were living!  Most of them had holes in the indoor-outdoor carpeting (if they were carpeted at all) and weeds growing out of every crack and crevice.  The water features were usually dried up and the paint on the clown head's nose was a faded pink instead of the vibrant red it once was in it's glory days.....and we didn't care a bit.  The best part wasn't the course itself, it was the fun we were having with our parents and beating our siblings.

The truth is, that part hasn't changed.  The only difference for us, is that Emma competes with us, not a smelly younger brother or nasty older sister, so she always wins.  Until today.  She had won the first 5 rounds (we actually played six) and was set to make it a complete skunk, but I stopped her from claiming the "unbeaten" crown.  There was a moment of pouting as she finished adding up the score card and I had to coax a high five out of her - "Girl Power" I reminded her and that cheered her up a bit. 

 

Mini-putt has become a family tradition for us in the same way families like the Kennedys' play touch football on the lawn on holidays.  We may never enjoy the thrill of tackling our friends and relatives on the lawn, but we would challenge anybody to a round of MacFarlane family fun any day of the week. 

 

Bring your own club, put your game face on and may the best putt win.