BACK IN UTAH!

Curtis and a rhino at the Hogle Zoo
Pretty zebras
Giraffes!
Pretty baby girl hangin out with Uncle Curtis.

So we're back and Utah and it's nice to be around family and friends. We missed our nieces and nephews. We've had the opportunity to hangout with all of them in the past few days. We all went to the zoo! We have 2 tournaments this month. Arizona for the US Open qualifier, and then the Colorado Open over Rachel's birthday on May 28th. Rachel immediately went back to varius jobs. She taught a golf lesson, working at the pro shop at River Oaks, and back to substitute teaching for a few days. We'll both be doing some temp work to make extra money while we're home. Frankly we need the money to get by and push some bills to bay while we're gone this summer. We'll be back on the open road the first week of June. It's nice to drive home and re-pack the car. We took a lot of stuff we didn't need so next time out will be a bit more roomy.!

Just some pictures from the past week-

Rachel & Gerina hanging out with a huge Gator on South Padre Island
Gerina & Rachel at the "Stars Party" in Louisiana
Leah holding up our accomplished puzzle. (we usually do a puzzle sunday nights as a group)
Curtis and a blow fish!
This Gator was holding on to Curtis pretty good!
Good old Jaws. A cool shop on South Padre Island, Texas

RACHEL'S TOURNAMENT IS CLOSE!

JUST A REMINDER THAT RACHEL IS HOSTING A 2-MAN SCRAMBLE ON SATURDAY, MAY 10TH. WE ARE STILL IN NEED OF GOLFERS TO PLAY AND RAFFLE PRIZES. IF YOU CAN CONTINUE TO SPREAD THE WORD AND HAVE THOSE PEOPLE INTERESTED CALL RIVER OAKS GOLF COURSE TO REGISTER AT 801-568-4653 WE WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT SO WE CAN KNOW HOW MUCH DAMAGE CONTROL WE NEED TO DO WHEN WE GET BACK TO UTAH. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT ON THIS, WE ARE HOPING FOR A GREAT TURNOUT.

Pelican Classic Ups and DQ...what?!

That's right. Rachel had to disqualify herself after an amazing round of 66! Here's the story...

After a bogey-free round of 66 we were feeling pretty good about going into the final round tied for 5th at 5 under for the tournament. We went to Whataburger to celebrate (with what we have in savings that was the biggest celebratory lunch we could afford), and after that we went back to the course to hit the range. After hitting for a good hour we were walking over to the practice green to work on putting. When we passed the leader board Curtis noticed that they had Rachel marked down for a 7-under 65. Rachel said that happens all the time because the volunteers don't always get the official information. The Curtis remembered seeing the scoreboard where Rachel's score read "138," and 73 plus 66 doesn't equal 138. After comparing the scores written on the leader board with what Rachel had on her stat sheet we realized that she wrote 4 on a hole where she really got a 5. The mistake was that when se wrote down her score she wrote it as a par not realizing that the hole was a par 5. It was a totally inocent mistake, but that doesn't matter in golf...a rule is a rule.

Here comes the best part though. The only two people that knew about the mistake at the time were her and Curtis. She could have kept it to herself and nobody would have ever known. That's not the way it happened, however. Not 5 seconds after she realized her mistake, she stood up and walked to the rules official and said, "I need to DQ myslef." She was told she needed to go tell the head rules official who was in the travel office. Next thing you know she was talking to the two writers of the tour for a story that will be posted on the website.

So, here's to the player of the year! Rachel's honesty truly inspires all who knows her!

A few things we learned!

This is a picture of downtown from the freeway. It's a pretty big city. Plenty of homeless people, street performers, and even a casino in the heart of downtown.
Curtis has been dying to play after watching 100's of girls play it for the past few weeks so we tee'd it up at a local course for $8 bucks each! (the only thing cheap in New Orleans)
This is a picture of the St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quater across from Jackson Square (a big square park) It's taken right before our Vampire tour.
Look closely, it didn't come through too great, but its a giant shadow of Christ cast onto the back of the church. Kind of creepy when you're on a vampire tour.

Our tour: So we highly recommend doing the Vampire Tour. Do a little research first so you can ask good questions. This tour guide knew his vampires. The stories were great and we'll share them with you all over dinner sometime cause i don't think i could type all the information, but they are really creepy and really cool. The tour also gives you history of the french quarter and how New Orleans was founded and built. A short version of one of the stories is that in the Ursuline convent of the nuns in 1720 right near the mississippi river there is supposedly vampires living in the attic of the convent and that the church is responsible for storing them there. A ship suppose to be carrying young girls from france for the workers in new orleans to marry, showed up to shore with no women (fact-they docked in Mobile, Alabama and stayed there because of fear of the men in New orleans) the only thing the ship left was a ton of coffin like boxes. The church officials at the time immediately took control of the "boxes" and stored them in a nearby facility. A riot broke out one night when rumors spread that the church was hiding whatever was in the boxes so the men broke into the priests' chambers and demanded to know because it was driving them mad. The priest told them that they would take the "boxes" and store them in the attic and lock them up. The convent has-4 shuttered windows on the top level. Not only are the top leveled window shutters shut, but sealed...with 100 blessed...yes blessed by a preist bolts. Each shutter a 100. "I wonder why?" probably cause they are housing vampires and trying to keep them inside so they wont kill. It's known to see one of the shutters open in the early hours of the morning before dawn and then closed during the day. (supposedly) and it's also known that if you ask a member of the staff at the convent what is in the attic they will dodge the question and move along or inform you that it was once sleeping quarters and no longer is. So what did Curtis and I do???...we took the tour of the convent the next day and asked that question and got a short reply of "nothing is housed on the 3rd floor, but the second is archives and outside is the gardens.." So kind of mysterious. The convent is no longer used nor the church connected to it, but it serves as a museum. Really cool tours and sightseeing. We had a great time. This weekend is the French Quarter festival so there is music everywhere and food, and tons of paintings for sale (similar to arts festival in Park city, but a ton bigger and palm readers/ tarot card readers everywhere) Must see city for anyone... Stay in the Garden District..bit safer and very pretty.

So you think gas is expensive???? Try milk in Louisiana... $4.42 a gallon for skim. Well if you know Curtis he has to have his milk, so we went broke again just buying it. We'll be pushing the car now so he can have milk. JK.

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!

American Systems round 2

This is Rachel on the range after today's round. She played well, but felt there was something missing in her swing. She figured it out after a long practice session with no other girls on the range. We got out of there pretty fast because it started to rain (we are hoping it will make for higher scores for the afternoon groups). After two rounds only the top 70 players make it to the last day (and the last day is what makes you a pay check!). Rachel is in good position to make the cut, and after working out the kinks, we are planning to go low tomorrow. The only thing holding us back is a slight sunburn, and aching feet (well, Curtis's feet are aching, but give him a break, he's use to sitting behind a computer all day!).