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.