Curtis's Birthday in New Orleans!

On our way to New Orleans on Tuesday April 8th, we passed through Pensacola Florida where we stopped at a very famous irish pub (Mcguires) for Curtis's birthday lunch. This place was like none other. Their famous dollar bill tradition started when they opened the pub and the first dollar they made, they stappled it to the wall to stay there forever. Well since that first dollar many patrons have left their own dollar and stappled it to the wall and ceilings (Now they have accumulated over 550, 000 dollars bills!! over half a million hanging all over the place). As you can see from the picture above we left our dollar and hope to go see it again someday. They also like to play tricks on their guests. When going to the bathroom remember to read the signs carefully (almost everyone falls for their joke, Rachel did) They post Men's bathroom this way signs on the womens door and vice versa. So many men and women make the mistake and walk into the wrong bathroom, luckily they put up swinging doors notifying you that you made or didn't make the right choice upon entering.

Curtis's birthday cake one day late. This was taken on Wednesday at lunchtime at a nearby cheesecake factory knock off, but just as good.

Happy as can be next to the Jazz players! We attended the Jazz game versus New Orleans Hornets on Curtis's birthday. We had 10th row tickets and the Jazz won!! Afterwards we went down on the court to be by the Jazz players and announcers. We spoke to Craig Bolerjack, he's the announcer for KJZZ and a really nice guy, he gave Rachel a half hug and she blushed...haha. It was a great birthday!

So now we are in New Orleans... We're staying in a very safe area in the Garden District. Whatever you've heard about the crime in New Orleans or the poverty....it's all true. We sort of made a bad turn when we first got into town, and couldn't believe our eyes. Right underneath the freeway (just behind the Superdome) 100's of tents..people living in plain sight in tents, police around the area but we guarantee they can't do anything about it cause there is nowhere to go. We made it out in the suburbs today to practice and noticed that it's not much nicer out there either. All of the golf courses are pretty run down (equal to a pebblebrook at home for those who know it) I'm sure the country clubs are nice, but everywhere seams to still be recovering. We haven't made it to downtown just yet, we plan on doing that after practice tomorrow. We didn't want to go there at night, A-for saftey, and B- so we can see everything better, like where they have Mardi Gras and historical sites. New Orleans has the same feel of New York...it smells and lost of old buildings, but a nice beauty to it as well..so much history and sights. One of the cities claims is that its the Most Haunted city in the US. So we've decided to test that out a bit on a little tour tomorrow night. (Steph you'll love this...) We're going on the Vampire Tour. They claim to have had vampire related deaths throughout the histories, and we're going on a 2 hours tour of the different sites. Rachel has been on a similar tour in Portland Oregon and its really cool to hear the spokey side of history in a town. They offer cemetary tours (they have to bury their dead above ground for some reason, and if you go on the tour they tell you why) So thats the plan for the rest of our stay here. We leave New Orleans on Friday and move to Lafeyette Louisiana (about 2 hours away) for 10 days. Next tournament isnt until next weekend. So plenty of time to prepare for a win!