Welcome to B2B Weekend Vibes – a weekly roundup of current goings-on From the Bay to the Beach. Here you’ll find a few of my favorite things, a bit of home decor inspiration, and a peek into my week. Yay – it’s Friday!
In this post – Howard Jones, a sophisticated take on coastal Halloween decor, attending the Ryder Cup, and a visit to the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
Concert Fun
Howard Jones at The Sound
We’ve had a fun couple of weeks around here. First it was a blast from the past with a Howard Jones concert at The Sound in Del Mar. I’ve always loved his music and messaging- and his voice hasn’t changed at all!
The Sound is a great venue for a calmer, more adult concert-going experience. You’ll find lots of room to move around, short to nonexistent lines in the bathrooms and easy access to concessions. It’s the opposite of a typical stadium concert experience and I love it.
You can buy reserve seating tickets and/or general admission depending on the show. We bought general admission and were able to stand close to the stage.
I first saw HoJo in concert as a teen at the Concord Pavilion in 1985 – 40 years ago. Yikes! I wish I had kept my T-shirt from that concert. Oh well. Of course, I had to buy a new one to commemorate this occasion. There were plenty to choose from. Can you guess which one I bought?
He played all of his greatest hits plus a few lesser known songs. I was impressed by his skills as a pianist. I don’t think I realized what an accomplished piano player he is. He also shared some interesting background stories about some of his songs, including one of my favorites “Look Mama”. I had forgotten that he performed at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in July of 1985, which means I saw him in concert just a few months after that. Pretty cool!
Sophisticated Halloween Decor by the Sea
In case you missed it, there’s a new post on the blog about how I like to decorate for Halloween here at the beach. Since our home is more modern – I like to call it modern luxe (see post) – a lot of bright orange Halloween decorations would seem very out of place.
Instead, I leaned into my skeleton collection to come up with some neutral-toned decorations that add some spooky spirit in the style of our decor. I particularly love this light-up angler fish. He reminds me of Finding Nemo.
Mermaids are also perfect for a coastal theme, so I incorporated some of my mermaid skeletons into the mix as well.
For more on our Halloween decor, be sure to check out this post. Some sources linked below!
3 Pack Skeleton Fish Halloween Decor
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Halloween Skeleton Lantern Fish with LED Eye
Buy Now →Ryder Cup 2025
Now that the Ryder Cup is over and the Europeans have retained the Cup, I’m ready to share a little bit about what it was like to actually attend the tournament. We were there on Thursday and Friday. Thursday was a rainy practice day and Friday was the first day of play.
First of all, the Bethpage Black course is absolutely stunning. I have never seen such a perfect golf course. Fans were allowed to walk across the middle of some of the fairways to get from one hole to another and it was amazing to be able to see the course up close from a player’s point of view.
On Wednesday night, we were invited to a dinner at our Brooklyn hotel featuring sports reporter Cara Banks and PGA champion Matt Kuchar. They hosted a Q and A session that was very entertaining and insightful. (Sorry for the poor picture quality, it’s a scan of the original. Also – this is one of the few times I was the shortest one in a group photo!)
We were corporate guests and had access to one of the hospitality “chalets” on the 15th fairway. The views from the deck looking down on the fairway were spectacular.
Although there were rain showers throughout the day on Thursday, we had lots of fun exploring the venue. We did have to pick our way around the mud puddles. Note to self – new white shoes are not a good idea on a muddy golf course!
There were many opportunities to watch the players up close on the practice range. Below is Xander Schauffele practicing his drives. A pro hitting his driver looks and sounds a lot different than the average player for sure!
Of course, there was plenty of shopping. There were two tent stores on the course selling all things Ryder Cup. Below are some pictures from inside the main tent store. I think nearly every golf brand was represented, and of course Polo Ralph Lauren was front and center. We shopped early on Thursday to avoid the bigger crowds on Friday.
We had passes that allowed us access to the Grandstand on Thursday. It was fun to see the view of the first fairway and 18th green, but I’m glad we weren’t sitting there on Friday because the crowds were huge.
Speaking of the Friday crowds, we arrived at the course on Friday morning at about 5:30 AM (which to us California peeps was basically the middle of the night) to try to beat the crowds. The sunrise was quite beautiful!
Getting there super early was worth it though, because we snagged a spot right by the first green and were there to watch the Americans win the first hole of the day.
We spent the rest of Friday walking the course and catching some of the pros in action. Here’s Scotty Scheffler teeing off on the 6th hole.
We made it back to the chalet to watch Justin Turner play through on 15. He made an unbelievable shot from against a hospitality tent up onto the green.
Being a guest at the Ryder Cup was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Since I’d never been to a golf tournament before it was super interesting. I now have much more appreciation for professional golf. Too bad the Americans couldn’t pull off a comeback on Sunday!
9/11 Memorial & Museum
We ended our trip with a visit to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. We had visited the memorial before but hadn’t had a chance to tour the museum. It was definitely an emotional experience. I’m sure anyone reading this who is old enough to remember that day can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when the attack happened. I was on my way to my job as a 3rd grade teacher that morning and I’ll never forget how traumatic it was watching the events unfold while comforting students who didn’t understand what was happening. And this was in California – I can’t image what teachers and students in NYC went through that day. It’s hard to believe that nearly 25 years have passed since.
I did snap some photos, but I was so moved by the experience that I limited it to just a few. The most difficult exhibit was a room full of photos of all of the victims from that day. I was almost moved to tears, but I held it together. By taking time to look at their photos and read their names, it felt like the right way to honor the fallen.
If you visit, I highly recommend taking the audio tour. We wouldn’t have had the same experience if we had skipped it. The tour was self-paced and took about 90 minutes. I still felt like I didn’t have enough time to see all of the exhibits.
Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you have a fantastic weekend!
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