Memphis Trip

Day two started our trip from Perryville to Memphis. It was about a 3 hour drive. This is a shot of the Pyramid as we were coming into Memphis. It is quite impressive and quite blinding when the sun shines on it. It was about lunch time when we got there and we used Nigel to find our first Bar-B-Q restaurant. It was called the Cozy Corner and it was not in the best part of town. But it has a five star rating so we tried it. When we went in I recognized the owner from the Internet. She was sitting on a bench. We placed our order and went to sit down. As we were eating our ribs the owner came walking by to talk to someone in a booth behind us and she had a 9mm gun strapped to her hip. Now this lady has to be in her seventies but I'm guessing not too many people mess with her. We were definitely in the minority there but really never felt uncomfortable.

Next we went down town and walked around Beale Street. It was pretty interesting and I am sure at night was pretty lively!

We were a little early for our Gibson guitar tour ( about and hour) but it was air conditioned in side and they had nice comfy chairs to sit in. You could walk around their shop and take pictures but no pics on the tour it's self. This tiger Muppet fur caught my eye.

I was still pretty warm from our walk around town. (We gauged the heat by how many hankys I went through) This was definitely a 4 hanky day. Dan assured my it would be cool on the tour because he said it had to be climate controlled for the guitars. Well it was climate controlled all right. 51% humidity!!! My glasses kept fogging up. You had to wear safety glasses even if you wore glasses. I finally took my regular glasses off. The tour was very interesting and if you are in Memphis I would recommend it. Be sure to call a head for reservations.

We were done with the tour about 4:00 and our next stop was to see the Peabody ducks at the Peabody Hotel. We walked there and it was very crowded but cool (air wise I mean). Well the ducks were cool too but they weren't scheduled to parade back to their pent house until 5:30 and we thought that was too long to wait. A couple of quick pictures and we were on our way to Horn Lake Ms to spend the night. We stayed at a Drury Inn and I would recommend them also. Besides a wonderful full breakfast, they also had a free supper. We ate there that night and really enjoyed it. All went to the pool for a while and to bed for a good nights sleep.

Day two started with a trip to the aquarium
It was a pretty neat experience. They had educational shows, divers in the large tanks, and a special seahorse exhibit.

One of the touch tanks was petting a sting ray. Here I am petting one. It felt soft and not at all like I thought it would. Katlin and Connor both petted it but Dan was a chicken. Said he didn't want to die like the crocodile hunter.

They also had other animals including a couple of sea otters that were fascinating to watch. One sat and sunned himself the other would swim from one end of the tank to the other continuously.

For me the neatest things to see were the seahorses. I never knew there were so many different kinds, sizes or colors. These were the cutest. At first we thought they were pregnant but they are pot bellied seahorses. Be sure to click on the picture so you can really see them.

Another one of the exhibits was Bogey a bald eagle so named because he was found on a golf course with a broken wing.

This was one of their larger tanks. It almost looks like they are inside. If you look carefully you can see the divers behind them.

After lunch at Hell's Kitchen (not of TV fame) we rented a surrey bike for an hour. I have never laughed so hard. Poor Dan he was pulling all our weight. I couldn't pedal much because of my bad knee and Connor ,bless his heart, his legs were too short to reach the pedals but he kept trying. He finally said he was getting chafed from sliding back and forth on the seat.Katlin was a little nervous about the whole thing but she did her best. Dan finally got so tired he made us pedal back through traffic so we could get back quicker.
We did not get our full hour in.

Next we went down to the pier to be ready for our wave to the folks back home. They had a web cam mounted on the building behind the boat. I had told everyone back home the web site and said we would be there at 3:00 to wave to them. Several people from home watched us but the funny thing was the people walking up thought we were waving at them and would wave back.

Katlin and Connor wanted to play in the Lake for a while and we tried to get a picture of both of them at the same time but it was really hard because the water was so cold they couldn't stay in for very long. Finally did get this picture of the two of them but you can tell they are cold.

We walked around the shops for a while before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the Pizza train. Here Connor was trying to help out a moose.