Shiloh, stop 1: Corinth, MS

John and I put our heads together on Friday evening and started researching our options. The options were looking slim and while there were attractions we could see, there wasn't anything we were super excited about.


Then, on a whim, I looked up how far it would be to the Shiloh, TN Civil War battlefield. It was only 1.5 hours away. Shiloh is one of those places that might make John's top desired places to see (in the United States). This was far more exciting and we did discuss other options before finally coming back to Shiloh. It was going to be a big undertaking with 3 youngish kids, but it was something we were excited to try.

We got going up early in the morning so we could arrive in time to get some looking around done. We packed up some lunches so we wouldn't have to search out lunch in the middle of the day (in hindsight, this was absolutely necessary as there was nothing in the park and little close by).

We hit the road early and prepped the kids for the kind of day we were having. One reason our kids travel so well is I work hard to let them know a rough schedule and what the expectations were going to be. This kind of day was going to be a little drive, some really interesting history to look at and check out and then more driving. Good listening and behavior were going to earn cookies and chips for lunch. Good behavior after lunch would earn extra electronic time in the car on the way home.

The plan was to picnic at Shiloh and leave there around 4ish in order to eat dinner in nearby Mississippi.

We programmed Shiloh national monument into our gps and headed down the road. It didn't take us the way I thought it would, but the gps has rarely steered is wrong.

When we pulled up, it appeared we had arrived at the Corinth, Mississippi Shiloh national monument. Prior to arriving, neither John or I had any idea it existed.

It turned out to be a very interesting sight with several interesting exhibits. I doubt that if we had arrived at the larger Shiloh monument first that we would have gone back to check this out. This turned out to be a very happy accident. Although it put our timing off, we enjoyed this site and learned quite a bit.

After a short visit, we were back on track and drove the 30 minutes to the Tennessee Shiloh national monument.

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.