Bass Pro Panarama

It was big!

More Bass Pro

It was huge. Very big!

Bass Pro Shop

From a distance, I kept spying this pyramid. I had no idea what it was. After we went to Mud Island, we realized it was just down the street from where we were parked. So, we drove by to discover it was a Bass Pro Shop. A huge one. Gigantic. There is a hotel housed within the Bass Pro Shop. It was so big we felt like we needed to have a hand on each of the kids the whole time we were inside.

There was a glass elevator you could take to the top, but at $10/per person, it was out of our budget.

They had live alligators in one area and fish swimming everywhere. Although it wasn't planned, this was pretty memorable!

Big park time

Sometimes you just need to pick something for the kids to do and run around. There was a huge park on our list of "recommended" sights to see.

The sun was shining and the kids were ready for a little running around.

True to the description, the park was huge. Which means not very many pictures. Not many pictures as it is hard to keep track of 3 kids in a giant space.

The was climbing, swinging, a giant sandbox, a bouncy teeter totter, and a huge, crazy slide area. The kids were in heaven.


Obviously, we were paying it forward. Memphis is known for its barbecue and we were planning on getting some for dinner. The kids were not going to be happy with this, so going to the park was our peace offering in advance.

As expected, the barbecue place was tasty and our kids didn't eat hardly at all.

Mud Island Museum

There was a small museum inside the Mud Island park. The museum detailed the history of the civil war battle that took place on the river nearby. John could tell you more about that.

I was a particular fan of the different kinds of eyeglasses used. In particular, I like the pair that looks like there is a pair of eyeballs already in the glasses.

The second photo shows some playing cards and an example of civil war era money.

We enjoyed this museum and even took Ina second museum housed here. There was a Mississippi River steamboat museum as well. Steamboats were very popular for some time on the river and are rarely seen now. I don't have any pictures of this part of the visit.

The ocean

Here is the ocean where the Mississippi River empties. Downtown Memphis is in the background.

Mud Island panorama

Here is a Mud Island panorama.

Mud Island

One of the big attractions at Mud Island is the scale model of the Mississippi River. Funny enough, the scale model begins at st Louis, with small displays with information about the headwaters in Minnesota.

Other than skipping Minnesota, the scale model is fascinating. The model shows depth and width. The were tons of signs around with different information about the uses of the river in different areas, the history and the unique environments.

It was much chillier than we were expecting it to be here this day. It would have been lots of fun to get in the water and cool off on a hot day.


The pictures show Gemma between Memphis and St. Louis on the Mississippi with Amelia in the background.

The second picture is Amelia and Gemma at the mouth of the river near New Orleans. Downtown Memphis is in the background.

William was in his glory. There was tons of water and a huge space to explore. The area was fairly well contained, so other than falling into the river, there wasn't a way to get lost. I don't think we saw him for at least 45 minutes. He was very, very into this. Just not into staying with us.

Amelia

Here is Amelia in Tennessee with the Mississippi River behind her and Arkansas behind her.

Also: growing out bangs is hard work.

The tram ride

The tram ride over the Mississippi River was very exciting. I wasn't prepared for 2 of our kiddos to suddenly be nervous and not want to ride. But, ride they did and I think they enjoyed it?

The highlights of the ride included:

1. Going over the place where our minivan was parked. Very exciting.
2. Seeing a giant pyramid. Very mysterious, this pyramid of Memphis.
3. crossing the Mississippi River. It's big.
4. Seeing the bridge we drove over last night. This bridge connects Arkansas to Tennessee.
5. Passing another team coming from the other direction.

Monorail ride

Monorail ride to Mud Island

Next up was a visit to Mud Island Park. There was a walking bridge or a 2 minute monorail ride. The video is too long to post, so here is the link to a video of us going over the river.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvwk_zNMd6c


Sent from my iPhone

Memphis day #1, morning

John and I looked at a number of resources before going to Memphis, but didn't actually make a formal plan of what we were going to do until the first night in our hotel.

There was a lot to pick from, but it quickly became clear that most of the attractions were not appropriate for the kids (Beale street Jazz bars and a Civil Rights Museum for ages 13 and up) or really expensive. Elvis's home tour was going to be close to $25 per person, which would put our family of 5 over $100. The tour would have been very interesting for John and I, but we both could envision trying to keep the kids from touching items, out of restricted areas, stopping from running indoors and general kid like behavior that is frowned upon from people trying to listen or enjoy a quiet tour. It just wasn't going to be worth it this time. Maybe when they are older?

So, we settled on some Civil War sights, a Mississippi steam boat museum and a huge park to play at for the afternoon.

We got up and helped ourselves to the free breakfast before hitting the road. We ended up finding a parking spot near Confederate Park at the Memphis Welcome center. We stopped in to look for any other attractions/maps/coupons. They had some huge statues of musicians from the Memphis area.


From there, we hiked up a very steep hill to Confederate Park. This was a very small park with a few tiny signs marking it as a Civil War sight. From my memory (which isn't that great), the people of Memphis gathered at this spot as the battles of the Civil War drew closer. Controlling the Mississippi River was of high importance. The major battle for Memphis, took place on the Mississippi River early one morning with a crowd of people on the hill above the river looking on. Before the battle, the area was controlled by the South. The battle was a short one here and was only fought on the water. The citizens observing had expected a win for the south and made their way home quickly after a surprising loss. Memphis was held by the North for the rest of the war.

We walked confederate park and then took a short little walk to explore a little further on the river front. I always forget things appear much closer on the waterfront. There was a very interesting building close by- maybe. 10 minute walk. It became clear after 15 minutes of walking that it was much, much further. Thanks to technology, John was able to pull out his phone and determine it was an art museum/gallery AND it wasn't open that day.

Fingers

Gemma came sliding into our room just before 7 am on a Saturday. I'm sorry to say that I didn't jump up and greet her with a song and dance routine, but I was sleepy still and my bed was snuggly and warm.

She crawled all over me (John too, but he is better at staying asleep than I am) demanding breakfast, music and a dance party.

I an effort to delay her and give myself another few precious moments tucked into my bed, I asked her how many fingers she had.

Gemma held up all her fingers, spread wide. She carefully counted. She has improved greatly recently but I still heard her double count a few of the fingers.

After a few moments, she crowed: "I have 8 fingers!"

I giggled to myself and told her that she did a great job. It was a great job, but she missed a few fingers. She should have 10 fingers.

I started counting her fingers for her, starting with her thumb on her right hand.


Then she gave me an extremely condescending look for a 3 year old. "That is not a finger mom! That is a thumb!"

It took me a few moments, but slowly her meaning became clear.

The correct answer is that she has 8 fingers and 2 thumbs.

I showed her, didn't I?

Sent from my iPhone