Any trip to Niceville always includes a trip to The Track, the miniature golf – go-cart destination in Destin. This trip was no exception, so, on Monday, after I had completed my work for the day, we headed on down.
Mini Golf: This visit to the track was, for me, mostly an exercise in realizing how much the boys have grown. Past visits have included miniature golf and had Fric and Frac just racing ahead and lots of frustration with them about their youthful lack of patience. The most recent visit had Kevin just whipping Dad in head-to-head competition….a low point, to be sure.
This visit was good. Fric and Frac played well, but, for them, it’s still more of an exercise in finishing as opposed to doing well. Dad and Kevin continued their match-play wars….and I absolutely throttled him! Kevin had a few holes in the beginning where he just couldn’t get it done (to be fair, the course is pretty beat up and you get some goofy inclines away from the holes sometimes). Any day that I’m ‘taller’ than Kevin right now is a good day though!
Go-Carts: Here’s where I felt old. Matthew is now tall enough to drive the cart by himself. He was super-excited to get out there, and, in the end, was pretty happy about the whole gig (even though some kid spun him out). Matthew was more upset that he took an extra lap because he didn’t understand that it was time to ‘pit’…..you probably don’t get to do that more than once so just told him to enjoy that he got an extra lap in.
Video of Kevin and Matthew on the go-carts is here.
We also rode the big wooden track; you have to be 16 to drive a double-cart so Kevin dutifully remembered he was born in 1993 and a sophomore in high school. I let Kevin and Matthew pass me and Christopher at one point, Christopher was pretty unhappy about that. The 2nd time we went over the asked for ID for Kevin…so, just Christopher and I went. The double karts always go faster than the singles, so, we started off at the back and had a good time passing the people in front of us…..
Bungee: Last time we went to the track it was too windy for Kevin to bungee jump; this time it wasn’t. Kevin ponies up his money and climbs to the top of the stairs…I’m ready to tape him. There’s a girl in front of Kevin; unbeknownst to me she says “go ahead, you go first” and he’s quickly hooked up, jumps, and I completely miss it on tape.
Kevin says it’s a blast, have a little talk about waving to the crowd first and not just rushing off so that we can tape him(!) and he resolves to do it again (the 2nd jump is cheaper than the 1st) but this time, go head first.
That jump is here.
The sharp-eyed will notice he didn’t go head first….apparently they wanted him to wrap his legs around the ‘cushion’ and he didn’t feel comfortable doing that (we watched the next person do it…they want you to do that so you don’t do a bunch of flips, just go straight down and back).
