A Day at The Masters

Augusta in the morning

Back in April Eric and I (with my Dad and brother) had the opportunity to do something that a lot of people only dream of.  We got to go to The Masters in Augusta, Georgia! I knew it was a pretty big deal, but had no idea how big of a deal it was until we started telling friends we were going.  I had no idea how many people had that on their bucket list. I can't honestly say that it was on my bucket list but I thought it would be pretty cool to do someday. My parents went to the Masters Par 3 Tournament 4 years ago and said it was an absolutely incredible experience so of course it piqued my interest. My Dad's cousin drew 4 practice round tickets in the lottery this year and couldn't go, so she offered them to my Dad who offered to take Eric and I, and my brother. Since you either have to know someone with an "in" to the tournament or draw for tickets in a lottery, getting to attend the tournament is not an easy thing to do unless you want to pay an arm and a leg for scalped tickets.

We asked a scalper just for fun on the way in and he said he would buy practice round tickets for $400/each! We said sorry dude but we're going...

We drove over Sunday night and met them at a hotel right outside of Augusta. We were up and ready early (because golfers aren't the sleeping in type) to head to the course. Going to the Masters is kinda of like a time warp. They have very strict course rules, specifically NO CELLPHONES...like not even just silence your phone. You can't take it in with you at all. Period. I was shocked but people actually abided by the rule! In 2016! I even overheard a conversation between a group of guys who looked to be Eric's and my age about how weird if felt no to have their cell phones with them.  I didn't mind it so much...and it was kind of nice not to have to take it with me.

Their old school, non-digitized scoreboard

One of the major differences between the practice rounds (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) and the tournament days (Thursday- Sunday) is that you can take a (non-cell phone) camera with you during the practice rounds, so I packed up my nice camera and extra batteries so we could get some pics at the tournament. The other kicker about the practice rounds is that any of the golfers can tee off whenever they want with whomever they want so you never know who you'll see when or where.  All I can say is thank goodness for the caddies' outfits having the golfers' names on the backs of them! The guys knew who most of the golfers were but yours truly was clueless.

We wanted to see the entire course so we started walking the perimeter, right next to the holes. We'd stop every time a group would come through and take pics to see who was there. This tactic worked out pretty well for us and we ended up see a bunch of big names: Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, and Jordan Speith to name a few...not that I'm name dropping or anything.

1) Scott Piercy; 2) Bryson DeChambeau (reigning U.S. Amateur Champion) and Vaughn Taylor; 3) Billy Horschel and Matt Kuchar; 4) Brandt Snedeker, Lee Westwood, and Graeme McDowell; 5) Jordan Speith (who came in 2nd), Justin Thomas, and Brooks Koepka (who lost the AT&T Byron Nelson Tournament this past weekend in a playoff with Sergio Garcia); 6) Smylie Kaufman (who made a run on Saturday and was paired with Jordan Speith in the final pairing), Zach Johnson, and Kevin Streelman; 7) Rich Beem; 8) Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson

There was one pair that I was convinced were following us at one point because we saw them on about 5 different holes, but I didn't mind because it was one of the most famous golfers on the tour....

Hello Rory McIlroy and Chris Wood! Rory is one that I can even pick out of a crowd!

One of the non-golf things that the Masters is famous for is the food, specifically their Egg Salad and Pimento Cheese Sandwiches that you can still get for $1.50 each. For such a big sporting event the food prices were amazingly affordable.  You could get a reasonable lunch for less than $10 that included a sandwich, drink, chips, and dessert. We tried our hardest to try almost everything on the menu of course, and did a pretty good job if I say so myself.

All of the food had it's own Masters Packaging, too, which was a tad odd, but when you're the Masters, people do what you tell them.

Clockwise from top left: 1) With golf, you're going to get some "style" and we got a bit of a taste. These guys were not golfers, just spectators. 2) This picture made me laugh so hard; these are the bathrooms. I have decided that this might be one of the few places on earth where the men's room has a line that goes out the door while I was able to walk right the women's restroom to a stall. Of course I was greeted by not one but 2 restroom attendants.  I told you the Master's was a different place! 3) Yes this is a picture of my feet, but look at the grass. No I did not sneak on to a green or even onto a fairway. This is the rough, specifically rough that has been designated for spectator standing. I'm pretty sure that rough was nicer that 75% of greens on most courses.

So say that the grounds were absolutely amazing was an understatement. The entire course was immaculate with not a weed in site.

This is 6th tee box and fairway where the golfers hit over the spectators to the hole. We ate lunch where those green trash cans are in the middle of the fairway.

One of the more famous holes is #13, affectionately known by the golfers as Amen Corner. Why? Because the hole does a 90 degree turn to the left. The top picture of the tee was taken straight ahead, the bottom picture of the green was taken in the exact same spot, I just turned to my right. 

Another famous hole and probably my favorite was #16. An old Master's tradition during the practice rounds is for the golfers to hit their tee shot and then go to the edge of the water to hit another ball, skipping it across the water. We got to see several try it.  Jason Day is on the left, and Kaufman, Streelman, and Johnson skipped theirs together all at once. It was awesome! Fun Fact: 6 golfers shot holes-in-one on #16 during Masters Week tournament play this year! During the Par 3 Contest on Wednesday Gary Player hit one and a little while later Zach Johnson and Ricky Fowler both hit one...in consecutive strokes! On Sunday another 3 players: Shane Lowery, Davis Love III, and Louis Oosthuzien put their names in the Hole-in-One Record Books. Personally, I think a hole in one is the way to go at Augusta because those greens were brutal...we saw golfers hit a ball one way that would turn 180 degrees back to the other direction!

 My dates for the day...they all had a blast!

 The Clubhouse....I decided after we got there that the lottery was a really wonderful idea because the course was not so crowded that you couldn't get around or see anything.  You could pretty much get wherever you wanted, when you wanted. 

This trip was certainly a once in a lifetime experience that I won't forget any time soon! We had an absolutely fantastic, albeit exhausting day. We will certainly continue to put in for tickets every year....you never know when you'll get picked!

Weekend Recap: Hello Summer

I think I've finally accepted the fact that summer is coming and there's nothing I can do to stop it at this point. So rather than fight it, I've chosen to embrace it. The absolutely gorgeous weather we had this weekend really helped my attitude, too.

Views like this make a big difference too!

After about 3 months of intensely busy weekends we took a break this weekend. We went a did a few things, but made sure to do them at our own pace, which was fantastic. Friday night we grilled out with friends on our back porch and feasted on some delicious steaks that we paired with some delicious wine and good company.  It was a BYOM (bring your own meat) and Chef Cagle did a fantastic job making sure eveyone's steak was delicious!

Saturday morning we slept in (if 7:30 even counts as sleeping in) and got a few things done around the house. I headed up to the gym for a quick workout but didn't stay long because I had to get home and get ready for the lake! Some of our good friends who are both teachers "move" to the beach every summer in their camper and they were headed down since school ended last week, so we helped them kick off their summer and break in their pontoon boat with an afternoon on the lake. We couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day while we were there. We pulled up on an island and hung out for a little while before we made our way back to the slew (pictured above) where the boys did a little fishing (just for fun) before we headed home. We ended the night at their house for a shrimp boil and s'mores which totally put me in summer mode! Although I think my favorite part of the evening was listening to the guys convince one of their friends that we'd caught the shrimp in the lake that afternoon. The guy totally bought it and they never did tell him the truth. I just hope he realizes that freshwater shrimp are just a figment of their imagination before he tells a whole bunch of people about it.

The char to ooze ratio on the s'more is key to success. I'd say I did pretty well on this one.

I didn't think we could do much more to make the weekend better but on Sunday we put the icing on the cake.  I got up early and headed to church and when I got home we took Belle (Eric's Dad's dog) up to the nursing home to visit him.  I'm not sure which one of them was more excited to see the other. It was a great visit and Belle was very well behaved. We took her around the outside and were told by the nurses that we could bring her inside, which we did on our way out.  She was a hit, although we didn't hang around inside too long.  On another note, his Dad is doing really well and only had a few days left on his antibiotics so he should be headed home soon!

We vegged for a little bit when we got home before heading down to the neighbors' house for Sunday Funday! We had an agenda this week and it involved a wiffle ball game. Oh yes wiffle ball.  And the kids even stayed interested for about 2.5 innings before they got bored and went to find something else to do, so yes the game ended up being a group of adults playing wiffle ball in the front yard.  We managed to get away mostly unscathed. I think we had one pulled hamstring, a couple of slips in the pinestraw, one elbow to the nose, and a couple of first basemen taken out by base runners, but we had an absolute blast! I guarantee we're all feeling it today, too! I know I am. We celebrated with post-game ribs and chicken legs and then Eric and I gather up our 4-legged children who played all afternoon in the pool/backyard with their friends and headed home.

It's weekends like this that remind me how lucky we are to have the friends that we do. They are our people and we're so fortunate to have found such a fun group of people to do life with.

A New Era and Some Catching Up

Last week I had an epiphany.  This is the first time since we've been married that he isn't coaching and I am not coaching or teaching. We had our dance recital the weekend before last - which was amazing and awesome, so I am done teaching for a few months. And I can say with confidence that I officially believe Eric that he isn't coaching football this year. They had spring practice a few weeks ago and he did not go....shocker, I know. We're kind of in thie weird "what do we do now" place right now but it's kind of fun. As far as I can remember this has not happened since before we got married almost 6 years ago. Our softball team even took a year off so we don't even have games to be at a couple of nights per week.  But don't worry we're keeping busy...we still have not sat down to eat dinner before 8PM a single night this week #oldhabitsdiehard

As always, a lot has been going on in our little world since I last hung out around this space. So in true Cagle Chronicles style I'll try to do a full update in a single post....ha! In list form no less!

1) Joneses Descend on Alabama

My Daddio turned the big 6-0 last month, so Mom and I decided we needed to have a party for him, because you have to celebrate birthdays - especially the milestone ones...amIright?! My parents drove down and Matt-Matt flew down (3 days after he closed on his new house - what a nice guy!) and we celebrated for the entire weekend.  We had Strawberry Shortcake Birthday cake, the boys got to golf to their little hearts' content and Mom and I did what we do...a little of this and a little of that and had a great time doing it! It was so awesome having all of them at our house! It's been a few years since we've been able to, so I was pretty excited to host them all.

One of Dad's birthday presents was a Bocce Ball set, which we had to take outside and try out, naturally! 

Mom and Dad brought their pup, Maggie (Hawk's daughter) with them for the weekend and we were so excited to see her. She is a complete nut an so much fun, basically everything you'd expect from a 1 year old lab puppy.  Lucky for us (well for Hawk and Peanut anyway) we had a secret weapon. Eric's Dad has been sick (but doing so much better now!) so we've been keeping his almost 3 year old bulldog, Belle, for the past few weeks.  She and Maggie were a match made in heaven and spent at least 2 hours every morning wearing each other out, playing tug-of-war and chasing each other around the house. It was fantastic!  They'd play and play and play and play and play and play....you get the picture, and then they'd collapse and sleep for hours! She even got a swimming lesson from her dad and has been using her skills in the water since she's been back home!

This is about as good of a picture as I could get....they didn't stay still very long unless they were sleeping.

And what's a family get-together without a good-ole faceswap session?  Let's just say the pics were quite a bit disturbing.

See...just a tad bit creepy....especially the last one!  I knew my Mom and I look quite a bit alike, but it barely looks like anything has changed in the photo, don't you think??

2) Recital 2016

The week after my family was here really kicked into overdrive for me with a really busy week and work and recital week at the dance studio!  We all kept saying how fast this dance year had gone and we could not believe that the recital was already here. Needless to say the show was a complete success and the girls performed so well!  I didn't even have an Abby Lee moment!  I wish I could say I had more pics, but I don't. We were going nonstop all day long and I barely had time to look at my phone, so pics just didn't happen.  But how gorgeous is this stage?!

Our recital theme was Once Upon A Time (obviously) so it was princess everything! The little ones thought it was the best thing ever!  We even had some of the older girls dress up as some of the Disney Princesses and make cameos in the little ones' numbers. Those precious babies had no idea they were the high school girls and called them by their princess names the whole time!  What's crazy is that we're only 2 weeks out and already scheming for next year! I know we've got 4 months until we start back up again, but I can't wait!

3) Tournament Fishing

With all of his non-football free time, Eric has been spending it where you would expect: on the water. He dipped his toe in the Tournament Fishing waters a few weeks ago and had a great time doing it!  He and one of his fishing buddies fished a Crappie Tournament near us at the end of April and came in 17th out of 32 boats.  They were .4 lbs out of the top 10, and had a 2lb fish die on the first day before they were able to get it weighed in that could have put them in the Top 5.  This tournament fishing is a whole different world than what he's used to, but I was really proud of his finish! He and his fishing partner considered and scouted out a couple of other tournament sites in Tennessee and Mississippi with the intention of fishing in a couple more tournaments, but ultimately decided to forego the tournaments because it wasn't their kind of fishing....they would have had to troll which means you put a rod with 8 hooks in the water and ride really slowly up and down the bank until you get a bite...for hours.  He prefers fishing with an actual pole in your hand where you can feel the fish hit the line and have to set the hook....such a purist... =)

But don't worry...he's still practicing on the lake for next year. =) 

Don't let that look fool you...he was having a great time. 

Whew!  That was a long one, I know....my bad.  I had more but I figured 3 bullets was enough for now. I promise to be back with my usualy weekend roundups and a few fun trip recaps that have happened the past couple of months! Happy Friday!