2025 was the fifteenth year in a row that I’ve written down my best experiences of the year. Of those thirty-eight, the list was narrowed down to the best of the best, which you will read below. The bad times are way too easy to recollect, and the good times can be easily forgotten, so writing the good times down throughout the year and recalling them here is my way of staying grounded in the good. As usual, I will list the top ten in reverse order, saving the best of the best for last.
10. Buffalo beat Liberty 26-7 in the Bahamas Bowl
The Buffalo Bulls finished the 2024 season with a very respectable 8-4 record, earning them a bowl game. What better location could they have than to fly to Nassau in the Bahamas? Elaine’s son Brian is the Safeties and Nickels coach for the Bulls, and his defense limited the Liberty Flames to a single touchdown, while the offense put up 26 points for a decisive win. We watched the game in our living room, having decided we would travel to watch Elaine’s son Pat and his Texas A&M Aggies take on the University of Southern California in the Las Vegas Bowl.
9. U.S. Women’s Amateur Qualifier @ Walnut Grove Country Club
Our country club played host to one of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Qualifiers, and as members, we were allowed to follow the groups on the course. We were amazed by how far they could hit the ball and how little effort they appeared to muster. The ladies routinely smacked drives on the 18th hole that soared over the tall tree that’s planted nearly in the middle of the fairway, landing just a short chip shot from the green. The 17th hole is a 200-yard, uphill par-3 that I’ve managed to hit only a couple of times in our eight years as members. One group of three ladies, all using less than a driver, hit the green on that hole. On the par-5 16th, one of the longest hitting ladies was on the green after smashing a driver and an iron. The ladies were playing from the blue tees, the same as I usually play, but they made that distance look easy. We watched for a couple of hours until the bug bites got too much to take. Next time we’ll bring a can of bug spray.
8. U.S. Open Golf Tournament in Oakmont, PA
Elaine’s niece, Laura, was able to get us a couple of tickets to the U.S. Open in Oakmont, a short drive east of Elaine’s hometown of Pittsburgh. Her brother-in-law, Albert, chauffeured us to a remote parking lot where we caught one of the dozens and dozens of buses that made the several-mile drive to and from the course. The organizers deserve a heap of praise for keeping the 40,000 spectators that Saturday, moved, fed, and hydrated. We enjoyed the afternoon of spectacular golf shots on one of the hardest courses in the world, made even more daunting by the rain that had soaked the course. Elaine’s pass got her access to the “Suites on 13”, a two-story “tent” that was filled with all sorts of food and drink. She was sweet to bring me out a popsicle, which I snarfed before it totally melted in the humid heat. After the round, Albert returned to take us home. What a nice guy!
7. Soft Shell Crab at Uncle Ernie’s in Panama City
We had a week of perfect weather during our trip to Panama City Beach, Florida, in late April. This was a new place to vacation, and we spent the week exploring its sights and sounds. I was hoping to find a restaurant that served a soft-shell crab sandwich, and we ventured across the bay to Uncle Ernie’s Bayfront Grill and Brew House. Situated on St. Andrews Bay in Panama City, Florida, Uncle Ernie’s delivered on my hopes, not with just a sandwich, but a dinner consisting of two huge, fried soft-shell crabs served with a remoulade sauce on a bed of lettuce. It was so delicious that we went back for lunch a few days later, and I had their equally delicious soft-shell crab sandwich.
6. Dinner at Benny’s Coastal Kitchen in Hilton Head
An October trip to visit our friends Dan and Grace in Hilton Head was our usual great time, and among a few new restaurants for us to try, I fell in love with Benny’s Coastal Kitchen. We began the evening with drinks at the second-floor bar overlooking Skull Creek, my selection being an Orange Crush, a refreshing blend of Deep Eddy Orange Vodka, triple sec, orange juice, and a splash of Sprite. Dinner was their Seafood Fritto Misto, a seafood platter packed with fried shrimp, scallops, oysters, pickled vegetables, harissa, and natural fries. I washed that down with a Bourbon Peach Palmer, a tall glass of peach bourbon, lemon simple syrup, and unsweetened iced tea. And since I wasn’t driving, an Espresso Martini for dessert. Benny’s is now my must-go restaurant on Hilton Head Island.
5. Christmas Dinner
We stayed home for Christmas this year and enjoyed a few days with Elaine’s son Brian and his wife Deborah. Christmas dinner was a memorable feast with Elaine making a standing rib roast, a very cheesy sliced potato casserole, and fresh carrots. The roast was salted and open-cured in the refrigerator overnight, then reverse-seared. That method has the meat roasted low-and-slow in the oven for three hours, then finished at high heat to sear the crust. It was the best piece of prime rib I’ve eaten anywhere. The potatoes were super-cheesy delicious, and I ate every bit of the leftovers.
We served wine with dinner and decided, after years of looking for the right occasion, to open the bottle of 2002 Château Lafite-Rothschild I bought back in 2010 for $180 and now worth 3-4 times that much. Getting that bottle is a long story in itself; it was dumb luck I found it, and a second bottle for my daughter’s 30th birthday gift. For those who might not know, Château Lafite-Rothschild is one of the four wines called First Growths that were first designated back in 1855, expanded to five wines in 1973, and represent the best of French wine. Opening a twenty-three-year-old bottle of expensive wine is a little nerve-racking. Has it gone bad? Will it really be as good as advertised? While I was inserting the corkscrew, the cork was breaking up, a real sign that the wine might have soured. I had to strain pieces of cork from the wine as I poured it into a decanter to serve. We raised our glasses for a Christmas toast and tried our first sips. The wine was fantastic! Best I’ve ever had and well worth the wait. A true once-in-a-lifetime experience!
4. Riley Green Concert @ The Fraze
When we saw that country star Riley Green was coming to our local Fraze Pavilion, we jumped at the chance to get tickets and snagged a couple of good ones on what turned out to be a beautiful Friday night in July. The energy was electric as he sang songs both familiar and new, and everyone in the packed house stood the entire time. I’ve been to a fair number of concerts at Fraze over the years with perhaps bigger stars, but I’ve never seen the place that packed. I hope the Fraze can attract more up-and-coming country artists in the years to come.
3. 40th Birthday Party for Pat
Both of Elaine’s sons are college football coaches, one of the rare professions where you don’t get vacation days. When I worked, I got a certain number of weeks off each year, and I could ask my manager for whatever days I wanted to take off. Instead, college coaches have a set schedule that includes specific days and weeks off, which includes a week off for spring break and three weeks between late June and early July. For the first time, both sons, their wives, and the two grandkids spent a few days during the summer break to visit us. It was great having everyone together, and we decided to throw a party on Saturday and invited family and friends for a cookout. What we didn’t tell son Pat was that it was also going to be an early 40th birthday party for him. Because with a September birthday, at the start of football season, a party at that time could never happen.
We secretly invited several of Pat’s old high school friends to join the party and included their spouses and kids. The backyard was filled with kids playing, music blasting, burgers grilling, people reminiscing, and lots of laughing. It reminded me of my youth and all the family get-togethers we were able to have way more frequently. These moments will be few and too far between, but for a few hours, we had one to savor forever.
2. Cirque du Soleil “O”
To celebrate Elaine’s 70th birthday, we took a trip to Las Vegas with her siblings, and the highlight of the trip was VIP tickets to the Cirque du Soleil “O” show at the Bellagio. “O” is a homophone with the French word “eau”, which means water, which is the focus of the performance. It centers around a massive 1.5-million-gallon pool that transforms into a stage in seconds. Acts include 60-foot high dives, acrobatics on a swaying, suspended, metal-frame “ship”, and setting an actor on fire. The VIP tickets got us box seats, drinks before and during the show, and a pre-show visit from three of the cast members, including the actor who gets engulfed in flames. It’s a truly spectacular show, and I think the best of the several Cirque du Soleil shows on the Vegas strip.
1. Texas A&M 31-30 Comeback Win vs South Carolina
We saw two Texas A&M football games at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, the first close, but under control, a 16-10 win over Auburn in September. The second game, versus South Carolina, was one for the record books. The game started with teams trading field goals; however, for the rest of the first half, A&M was not its usual aggressive self, and South Carolina scored touchdowns on two long passes and another on a defensive “strip-6”, building a 30-3 lead at halftime. In the past twenty-one years, 286 SEC teams trailed by 27+ points, and no team had come back to win. A&M would have to play a perfect second half of football to have a chance. And they delivered.
Less than four minutes into the second half, they scored their first touchdown on a 27-yard pass play. Another third-quarter touchdown came with just over four minutes left, a 39-yard pass play, completing a seven-play drive that began after a fourth-down stop at the A&M 30-yard line. Now down by only 13 points, the crowd came roaring back, and the place went crazy. Still in the third quarter, A&M held SC to a three-and-out, forcing a punt. Starting at their 20-yard line, a holding penalty pushed them back to the ten. That was followed by the play of the game, a 76-yard pass play to the SC 14. One more pass completion, and the SC lead was down to 6. Starting the fourth quarter on their own 1-yard line, A&M went on a 12-play, 99-yard march down the field to take a 1-point lead. The defense took it from there, never allowing SC to get past their own 40-yard line. We had just witnessed the largest comeback in A&M school history. What a thrill!
