Week of July 25th - Bailey's, Florida Museum, Aquatica Water Park, Glass Blowing and Painting!

Cramming in a few activities before school begins!
Monday was the one-day NFJG Tournament at San Jose (separate post). So glad AA has been playing there with Stephanie a few times at San Jose.
After showers, another so hot day (95 degrees), made ice cream sandwich cake for Tuesday's (tomorrow) gathering at the Bailey's. Making cake, usually use store brand ice cream sandwiches, but the store I went to was out; used Klondike sandwiches instead - didn't get a photo of finished cake with TONS of sprinkles on top!

And our kitchen refrigerator DIED! We cleaned out both refrigerators to make room for combining all into the garage refrigerator. Threw away many items but always good to clean out after a few years! General Electric appointment is Wednesday to see if it may be repaired or preplaced. It is about 8 years old.

Celebrated with champagne - cheers to good and bad news!

Tuesday: Called Ms. Penny to wish her a happy birthday. Emailed Larry Bradley to wish him a belated birthday - with all the activities yesterday, it slipped our minds! I went to the library to concentrate on work; I am down to ten hours per week, so am trying the library twice a week for now. Once AA goes back to school, I may work at home, just trying this to see how productive I am. 

Alyzabeth went to the Bailey's for a friends reunion before school starts, swimming, dinner (and our ice cream sandwich cake) and movie (separate post).
Wednesday: I sent Ford and AA off to Kohl's to shop for clothes while I worked a few hours. AA came home with a pair of blue jeans, a pair of black jeans and three tops. Not too bad!! We had a lunch then off to her golf lesson with Coach Bryan (she drives locally, haven't ventured very far from our town). Next, she stayed to help with the PGA Jr. All Star team practice. 

Refrigerator news: We were very lucky to have a capable GE repair person - he replaced a part and now the refrigerator is working again!
Thursday: Florida Museum of Natural History and Satchel's (separate post). We attended AA's High School Girls Golf Team meeting at FIGC.
Friday: AA played some golf, we did house chores, groceries, etc. Glass blowing with Carolyn at King Maker Brewery on 720 King Street. (separate post).
Saturday: Alyzabeth was at Aquatic in Orlando with the Bailey family, Shannon's brother, and they met up with Mr. Harris, his daughter, his girlfriend and his sister. They had a long drive starting at 5:30 a.m. Stopped for a fast breakfast sandwich, then to the park. Lots of fun slides, waves, river rides, but all got tired by afternoon (no photos in the park, as they did not take their phones in). Dinner was a the local Chipotle then home at 10:30 p.m.! Long day!

AA, Ian and Owen:

Ford and I had breakfast at Metro Diner, did errands, then to the River House with Kathy. During my afternoon walk with Ginger, a spotted owl was watching me from trees in neighbor Bill's backyard.

Sunday: NFJG/Jack sent out the voting for - the Jack Nicklaus Award which is given to the player (male and female) who exemplifies the spirit of the game by his/her attitude, demeanor and whose values align with the character, sportsmanship, dedication and respect for fellow players as Mr. Nicklaus would demand. Alyzabeth has been nominated every year and has "won" once. 

In the early afternoon, we collected our glass objects from the brewery then headed to Painting with a Twist with Carolyn. We painted "gentle giant" a whale. (separate post).

Tomorrow, a two-day NFJG tournament! Next to last one for the year!

Painting with a Twist!

We arrived with snacks and ready to paint. First we swung by the brewery and picked up our glass from Friday's session (to give Carolyn her stemless wine glass).

"Gentle Giant" Whale:

Took me awhile to glob on enough paint and get used to the brush; I felt like I was behind the first 30 minutes, then caught and with steady painting and listening to the instructors hints, got it done! Nearing the finish line:

Finished after two hours!

Good fun!

NFJG - Jack's Newsletter 07/26th and 30th

Jack missed three tournaments due to attending with family to his Uncle's funeral. On his arrival back in Jacksonville, he was catching up on news and preparing for the end of season awards banquet. He is an amazing person, golfer and supporter of junior golfers. He has improved the NFJG Foundation organization immensely over his nine years!

07/26/22:

Good evening, As I sit here in the JFK International Airport waiting out a three-hour layover and a delayed flight, I figure there is no better time to give you an update on our upcoming events. 

Over the past ten days we put together a summer series of events, to include the “Junior Players”, the “North Florida Junior Amateur”, and the “San Jose Classic”. We hope you enjoyed them as much as we enjoyed hosting them. If you noticed I was not present for either of these events as I was attending to personal matters in my hometown of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. To my understanding the events ran very smoothly, so many thanks to my outstanding staff and our volunteers. Congratulations to everyone who played in these events and special congratulations to all our winners. 

Over the past eight months 140 plus tour players have been competing to qualify for the top twenty-five spots in the “NFJGTOUR Junior Players Cup”.  At the conclusion of the “Greater Jacksonville Junior Championship” the top 25 players (based on points) were identified and at the “North Florida Junior Amateur” at the World Golf Village-King and Bear course this past week those players collided to determine the top player. Congratulations to Fleming Island’s Tyler Mawhinney who battled Ponte Vedra’s Cameron Reed down to the wire.  Both players shot an amazing six under par to tie at the top and force a sudden-death play-off.  In the sudden-death play-off the players would tie the opening hole and go to the 100-yard marker for one shot at the title and rights to represent the NFJG Foundation at this years AJGA “Junior PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. It’s hard to believe that after all that it would all come down to a single shot, but it most often happens that. Once again congratulations Tyler! 

OK, there are only three events left in the season and there is only one event, THE NFJGTOUR Championship that can affect the PLAYER OF THE YEAR point standings, so if you are in the running, I hope you are paying attention.  This event is being played next week on Monday and Tuesday, August 1st and 2nd at Marsh Landing Country Club and Glen Kernan Country Club, so we hope to see you there. As a reminder for our Foundation Division players, you will play both days. Nine-holes each day.

Then it’s the “Tournament of Champions”.  This event is being played at Ponte Vedra Inn and Club on Sunday, August 8th.  To be eligible for this event, you must have won an event in prior years or won an event during this season. Bottom line, you must have won a tournament.

Finally, we will be hosting the “ADULT-JUNIOR WINNERS” Tournament at Marsh Landing Country Club on Sunday, August 14th.  For this event, if you finished 1st, 2nd or 3rd in the gross or net division of any ADULT-JUNIOR event, then you are eligible.  Players may not be substituted. The teams must be the players who won together, regardless of age.  So, if you won in 2013 and you are now 22 years old and now an NFJGTOUR alum, you are still eligible to play with your then adult partner.

Then our last event of the year will be the Awards Banquet at TPC on Wednesday, August 24th. Prior to the awards banquet award recipients and others will tee it up on the Stadium Course for 9 holes of fun. Award recipients do have priority sign up until August 18th.  Players may sign up at any time, but everyone will be placed on a wait list until August 18 unless you a confirmed awards recipient.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Jack Aschenbach, PGA

07/30/22:

I hope this newsletter finds you well and at the top of your game. If not, go see your local PGA Pro for a quick review. Don't struggle through it alone. The solution could be as simple as grip, posture, stance or alignment.
After nine plus years and over 300 junior tour and special events I find myself reflecting back at all the great golf I and my staff have witnessed over the years. It’s simply amazing what our kids are accomplishing in today’s golf arena.
For us, it all starts in October of each year with the start of the fall tournament series and then ends two tournament series later in August just in time for high school golf to kick in.
Preparing our members for higher-level golf opportunities is just one mission of the North Florida Junior Golf Foundation and I like to think we do a rather good job at it. Here’s a few examples.
How about a young man named Luke Balaskiewicz who traveled to the University of Georgia up in Athens to try to qualify for the Notah Begay Junior Golf National Championship. Yes, he qualified and, in the process, shot a course record 10 under par “61”. How about a youngster named Matthew French and another named Nolan Harper who shot five and four under par to qualify for the “US Junior Amateur”? Balaskiewicz qualified too. What about another superstar named Tyler Mawhinney who this year has played in five events and won all five events with a scoring average (over 10 rounds) of 70.44. OR how about a young lady named Alyzabeth Morgan who has been on the NFJGTOUR since she was six years old (now 15) and has played in over 170 tournaments and has won 39 times and has just as many runners-up finishes as wins. Now that’s impressive. For a final OR. How about a young lady named Lizzie Thompson who has been on the tour for three years, played in 40 events and a couple of weeks ago posted her career low round of 79 for her first Gold Medal.
I simply could write a book with hundreds of pages on all the accomplishments our kids have made. I’m so impressed and I hope you are as well.
This season we lose some of that talent as 43 seniors will be on there way to higher level learning. Twenty-eight young men and fifteen young ladies will head to college, and most will play division I or II golf at their respective houses of knowledge. We wish them all the absolute best and we hope they come back to pay it forward one day.
I can’t say it enough, but thank you to all our foundation partners, sponsors and supporters for your overwhelming generosity and making this all possible.

Burnt Glassworks at King Maker Brewing

Burnt Glassworks at King Maker Brewing - I signed Carolyn, Alyzabeth and I up for an introductory glass blowing class to make one item. It was a "pop-up" at a small brewery that we had never heard of.  Glass blowing is definitely an art that would take lots of experience. The instructor, Colton, made it easy, allowed us to participate at each step, even though he did 90% of the work. 

Heating up the glass:

Blowing, expanding the ornament globe:

Carolyn was late due to missing an exit, so I went first, making the glass ornament globe. This required much reheating and blowing air into it - many times. At the end, after "knocking/breaking" it off the glass holder/rod, Colton filled the opening with molten glass, pinched it off, pulled the hot glass into a loop for hanging. 
AA went next, making her starfish paperweight, which did not require any blowing of air into it. They used a metal mold on the floor, allowing the glass to ooze into the five "arms". After several reheating and pulling on each arm, the starfish was shaped. Using a blowtorch, evened out the surface.

Finished - but still hot, glowing red.

Carolyn arrived as AA was finishing up, so glad she was able to make her stemless wineglass in blue/green. It took a while longer making, blowing and reheating. Actually, our projects took about 15 - 20 minutes each. Not very long.

Carolyn rolling her hot glob of glass into the colored glass chips, she selected blue/green:

Finished stemless glass:

We enjoyed a draft beer (red ale, and an IPA for me). The bar was nice and cool, air conditioned; while working with hot glass in the warehouse area was very hot. Nice time!

Drive to Gainesville - Florida Museum of Natural History

Thursday, since AA loves museums and we travel to other large cities just to wander through many famous ones, we decided to check out the local Florida museum in Gainesville. And a chance to eat at Satchel's again! The main lobby had a video screen with our image and with wild animals moving across the screen, they stopped, so you could try "virtually" petting them.

The museum was wonderful, efficient, artfully curated and educational. Then we went next door to the Art Museum - Florida Impressions, African Collection - Elusive Spirits, ceramics and Asian rooms. A few fun things thrown in the mix too.
The butterfly exhibit was delightful, so many butterflies - blue, red, green.

Butterflies having a meal of bananas:

Fossil exhibits, one is long term and a second, a special new temporary exhibit.

Art museum - Asian/China/Japan/Korean rooms:

We had a late lunch at Satchel's and drove home!