My Epic Weekend In Pictures: Golfing And Pools

Well this was certainly a wonderful, Epic Weekend In Pictures I'll never forget. There were some relaxing, less than Epic moments during my weekend, but that was all mixed in with plenty of action. We'll start my Epic Weekend with Thursday afternoon. Have you seen my Adopt A Pet Of The Week yet? Her name is Priss and is one of the absolute sweetest rock star puppy Pets in our Pet Of The Week history. I've been doing my Pet Of The Week for 8 years, and sometimes all you can say is "there's just something about her." She's so sweet, loving, adorable, I keep calling her sweetie. I'm honestly beyond stunned that there wasn't any interest nor a single application for her this past weekend. She checks all boxes and is just over a year old. You can see her by clicking right here. You will NOT be disappointed with this sweetheart! She's an absolute rock star.

Thursday I was able to enjoy happy hour with my friends JG, Carrie and Jasen. It was for me a late night, my friends joked "oh boy Steve, you were out until the wee hour of 9:30pm." Well for me that is a late night alright?!? LOL. We all had a great time catching up, some of our friends we haven't seen in far too long. The weather was beautiful at Minerals Moonshine Tiki Bar. We enjoyed a gorgeous Jersey sunset by the pool with our friends. This was a terrific way to kick off my Epic Weekend In Pictures.

Friday was a busy, fun day at work where the day kind of flew by a little bit. Friday late afternoon time to meet up with some of my friends for happy hour. First I swung by The Cottage in Franklin and enjoyed a beer, talking with my friends about how excited I was for my Epic Weekend. You feel a little bit of jealousy from your friends when you're bragging about spending Saturday at the pool, and Sunday golfing at Crystal Springs gem Ballyowen.

Friday night after The Cottage I stopped by Minerals Moonshine Tiki Bar for a nightcap beverage. Kimberly was there and so friendly as always. She always has terrific form! My friends wanted me to stay out later and see them, but I just didn't have it in me. My late, Epic Thursday night resulted in me being much more low key on Friday night. My Friday night ended with me on my couch watching the 90s Chris Farley classic movie Tommy Boy. Silly 90s comedy movies can be so good for the soul, so funny.

Saturday morning I did an honestly decent job of preparing for my afternoon at Minerals Resort pool day. I drank some water, enjoyed my Starbucks Treinta Shaken Iced Green Tea with no sweetening. I even remembered to eat my leftover roast beef sub. It always helps to load up on protein a little bit before you're hanging out poolside with your friends. My friends said they'd be there around Noonish. I was there by 11:30 and able to get prime chairs for us. These lounge chairs were right by the edge of a tree, so if you wanted shade, you had it, if you wanted sun, you also could have that too. I've been so lucky to visit the Crystal Springs Vista 180 pool lately, I let my other friends take the sun spots while I was relaxing in the shade. It was such a wonderful time hanging with my besties, Jasen, Carrie, Spooner, Ashley, Brad, and other friends we ran into. You always seem to run into people when it's a gorgeous pool day at Minerals, well at least I always seem to at least.

I know we were at the pool by late morning and we left late afternoon. I did a good job of not being out in the hot sun all day, preparing was key and the shady lounge chairs by the tree were also very helpful. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. All you could see all over the pool areas were smiling, happy people. It was simply an absolutely beautiful summer Saturday in Northwest New Jersey.

Saturday night was still an early night in for me. I'm trying to get better at balancing my Epic Weekends In Pictures. Trying. LOL. Sunday morning we had a tee time of 9:10am at Crystal Springs Ballyowen. Have you seen Ballyowen before by chance? You can see how Epic and beautiful this golf course is by clicking right here.

I have had a sunset drink there before at have attended some charity golf outings at Crystal Springs Ballyowen. This was my first time ever golfing at Ballyowen and WOW. I have taken my parents to Ballyowen for a round of drinks without even golfing just to take in all that beauty. Picture a golf course that's only minutes away, and looks like Scotland or Ireland. Some Crystal Springs Ballyowen employees even wear kilts! You really do feel like you're in Scotland or Ireland. On top of that, you get some of the very best views of our area that can possibly be offered. All you can see are perfectly manicured greens and grass, right before you look up at the ridiculously gorgeous valley and mountain views. It's heaven on Earth!

My old boss Chuck warned me "Steve, at your level, you shouldn't play at Ballyowen. It's a tough course and you'll lose a full case of balls." Okay, fair enough. I went to Walmart and got a 24 pack bag of Wilson balls for $17. I'm not good enough at golf to get fancy higher costing golf balls. When I'm out there on the course, I want to have fun and enjoy the beauty. I don't want to waste much time looking for an expensive golf ball that I'm likely going to lose on the next hole anyway. I may or may not have ended up losing all of the 24 balls on only 18 holes. Part of that is because I'm so awful, part of it is I'm very quick to leave a ball behind if I don't see it immediately.

I golfed with Artie, Bill Eid and his brother Joe. I need to give credit to Bill. I'm not very proactive at reaching out to friends and making plans. Bill first tried to get me out golfing with him 5 weeks ago, but that was days after I broke my left pinkie toe. Now 5 weeks later I'm getting better. Golfing at Crystal Springs Ballyowen was honestly a dream come true for me. The minute you tell friends you're golfing there they all light up and tell you some of their favorite memories from golfing at Ballyowen. It was a typical Steve golf adventure where most of my shots were awful, at times I was happy enough to simply make contact with the ball, and there were some unexpectedly great shots at times. On the second hole, I hit an awesome shot from the sand trap bunker and it landed on the green. I joked with friends that because with golf you're supposed to always keep your head down, most of my good shots I never get to see. This happened with I hit that shot out of the bunker. I'm told it was a great shot, I saw it on the green, but still a little bummed I didn't get to see it.

We had such a great time all of us together. With gorgeous weather and great friends, it was total heaven on Earth.

I then helped Artie and our friend Markie move a very heavy desk table from Sparta to their place in Hardyston. It was a heavy, and Epic adventure. After that, I went to bed early last night. I was happy to wake up and see that the Red Sox at least salvaged a little bit from that Yankees series lol. I didn't even see a minute of the game. I was wiped out from golfing in the sun all day, then helping move heavy furniture.

Thank you so much for reading my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend, and it will start Thursday night with my friends at The Prudential Center in Newark seeing New Kids On The Block!