Friday night showdown

Now that my mother is here with us in Florida, Eric and I have had the chance to get out in the evenings, which feels like quite a luxury.

Tonight we explored the Friday night scene on Anna Maria Island. We wandered down the city pier watching way more people that I would have expected fishing and even catching things. We got an ice cream cone at "Two Scoops," an average ice creameria. We watched this sunset:


Then the real fun began. And by real fun, I mean mini-golf.

The mini-golf course we stumbled upon was fish-themed (each hole was named after a Florida fish) and its most distinctive feature was the mist machines behind hard-blowing fans which created a moist, hurricane-like environment in the tightly arranged holes. Every time I took a breath the word "biofilm" echoed through my head, and occasionally Eric would comment on which mist machines likely had the highest concentration of legionella. (This is what you get when you marry a microbiologist.)

We jockeyed back and forth for the lead the first nine. Starting the back nine I fell a few strokes behind and got worried. So I changed the rules: each hole required a different physical challenge, and we would alternate choosing the challenge.

First one (12th hole) was standing only on your left leg. Pretty tame. Second one was one-handed.

Third one: behind the back. Eric ended up shooting from behind the back through his legs and did pretty well in spite of a giggling fit right before his second shot.

Fourth one: holding the putter between your knees with you hands above your head ("roller coaster arms"). We had an audience for this one and while they were a little skeptical of my practice swings, they changed their tune after I knocked the ball cleanly down the green toward the hole with a satisfying click. Eric had a solid knee knock as well but the audience wasn't quite as impressed, maybe because he wasn't wearing a skirt.

Fifth one: billiards style. Down on your knees and elbows using the putter like a pool cue. I was the one with the giggling problem on this hole.

Sixth one: blind. Face away from the hole, close eyes, then turn around, place your ball and take your best shot. Do not open those eyes just yet! Your partner leads you with your eyes closed to your ball and places your hand on the ball, then the hole. I sunk it in 2 strokes total. Eric needed 4. This was where things really started to change for me.

18th hole: using the heel of the putter only. This hole had a stream running through the middle of it and required a soft touch that was simply not possible with the heel. Even better, there were three very old men sitting in rocking chairs watching us play the 18th hole. I have no idea what they were doing there. I can only imagine how silly they thought we were, hitting the balls with the wrong side of the club and landing them in the drink again and again and again (5 times for me, 7 for Eric). We did, finally, manage to get the balls into the hole, and my victory was sealed.

Then Eric won the "plinko" to get a free game. So I guess in the end it was kind of a tie.