Brotherly Love in Philly

Last summer my family was all together at home in southern Illinois on Father's Day weekend. In the world of professional athletics, Father's Day is annually marked by the U.S. Open Golf Championship. My brother (who's nearly a decade younger than me and the baby in the family) was an active golfer during high school and most of college. I had previously worked in the professional golf industry. We were the only two people in the family who even remotely cared about said championship and we nerded-out together in front of the television to watch every single stroke contested.

So as we lounged on mom's couches in the living room watching the 2012 U.S. Open, we struck up a conversation about how attending one would be on each of our respective Bucket Lists. Never too far from my cell, I started researching the 2013 championship and quickly found that tickets were still available. I bought two four-day grounds passes right then and there, justifying them with the notion that Baby Brother was set to graduate college in May 2013 and it'd be a gift from my husband and me.

That's how Baby Brother and I ended up outside Philadelphia last month. I flew from Austin to Cincinnati where he met me (just a short drive from his college), and we drove from Cincinnati to Philadelphia. Most people wouldn't be enthused over a nine-hour car ride across America, but I cherished every single minute of it. Baby Brother was in fifth grade when I left home for college, and we never really lived together after that. I was five hours away from home for undergrad and grad school, and then right after finishing my Master's degree my husband and I moved to Florida. From there, we moved to Texas … Illinois hasn't even been our home state since 2006.

Baby Brother and I talked the whole way, and we literally spent every moment together. From the time spent in the car and hotel to the time at the golf tournament, we were two peas in a pod. It was fantastic. It probably also helped that out of the four 'kids' in the family, Baby Brother and I share identical senses of humor … and we certainly shared a few priceless laughs that I'll never forget.

Above: Proof of our attendance! Baby Brother and I were on the 18th grandstand on Friday where we watched the entire afternoon wave come through. This is Phil Mickelson's approach shot, and he went on to sink the only birdie putt we saw all day at Merion. 

(Photo courtesy of Callaway Golf Instagram account.)

All-in-all, it was a non-traditional vacation that was slightly on the exhausting side. I'd like to say I'd do it all over again, but it'd only be truly replicated with Baby Brother. It's impossible to know if our schedules will ever line up as perfectly again, and I'm grateful we pulled the trigger and went this year. Like most things in life, there are simply too many 'what ifs' to plan another year in advance.

Every year when the U.S. Open creeps onto the world stage, I'll look back fondly at the memories Baby Brother and I created this summer. At the same time, I'll relish watching the tournament from the comforts of a sofa, inside an air-conditioned home and a being a mere 10 seconds away from the nearest cold beverage.