Walking in Memphis

Big Trip 2... Day 3... Sunday... July 1, 2007

The kids are up early... I could hear the playstation on upstairs when I got up with Bella and Felisa (at 0645) and Ryan told me later he had woken up at 0615. See, another reason not to get a playstation. Ron got up at 0715. We sat out on the back porch again, enjoying our coffee and good company. A perfect Sunday morning. Eventually we started getting ready for church. We had a family bible reading and discussion before we went to Mass.

1025 Load 'em up!

1155 I have decided that I don't miss anything from the outside world (news-wise) except the weather report. I like knowing what sort of weather to expect on any given day.

1203 Bella and Felisa are asleep. That was fast! We'll have to wake them up soon though because I think we are almost there.

1207 Arrive at Corky's.

1:27 p.m. Mmmm... good food. Cold restaurant!

1:39 p.m. Back at the Ruthlings.

Spend the afternoon swimming, swimming, swimming... Big game of Marco Polo. Even Ron and Fritz joined in. Ron is a tough Marco Polo competitor - the kids had to actually work to stay away from him!

4:15 p.m. Headed out to see the ducks at the Peabody Hotel.

4:20 p.m. Bella calls Grandma D to check-in with things at home.

4:30 p.m. Bella and Felisa are asleep again. This vacation business must be hard work!

4:32 p.m. Another Baptist hospital. Apparently the big baptist church we saw this morning is one of the small ones.

4:37 p.m. Churches - BIG ONES! - everywhere!

4:50 p.m. Getting close to the hotel... get ready to jump and run kids - the ducks march at 5:00!

Well, we didn't get a good seat for the ducks so Felisa didn't see them march by from the fountain to the elevator. Ryan, Bella, Melissa, Logan and Merryn did though so that's good. After the duck march, we waited in line for the elevator to the penthouse so we could see where the ducks spend the night. It was HOT on the roof. Nice view of Memphis and the Mississippi River though. We could even see the end of the Riverwalk park on Mud Island. Next time we go to Memphis, I want to see that. So, after checking out the ducks' digs we headed back down the elevator and over to Beale Street. Walked a couple blocks, heard some blues musicians playing at a park then drug our hot and thirsty kids bag to the car. Ryan decided to run his arm along something on the way up the ramp so his hands and arms were covered with black sooty dirt. Yuck! That took about 6 baby wipes to clean up. Decide to head out and find a place for dinner on the way to the fireworks.

8:12 p.m. Leaving Rafferty's after a painfully LONG dinner. I haven't seen service that slow in a long time. The salad was good though - just as I remembered it. (There was a Rafferty's in Athens, GA so Ron and I had both eaten there before.)

8:14 p.m. D'Arcy called from their car just ahead of us... Do we have Merryn with us?!? There was a bit of kid-shuffling when we were loading up. Ryan decided to ride with the Ruthlings so Merryn decided to ride with us. D'Arcy wasn't positive where Merryn had ended up - with us or sitting on the curb! Better safe than sorry right?

8:26 p.m. D'Arcy was not kidding when she said there were BIG crosses at Belleview. Those are the biggest crosses I think I've ever seen. Quite striking lit up against the night sky.

8:27 p.m. Okay and that is a REALLY BIG CHURCH! Yikes!

8:33 p.m. Park in the field. Grab the chairs and blankets and hike over to find a spot to watch the fireworks. I think this is the first time in several years that I have been to an actual official fireworks display. At the beach house, we just watch from the back deck.

9:45 p.m. Loaded and ready to get out of here! Fritz parked us in an excellent spot and we made out ahead of most of the crowd. The fireworks were a good show though they seemed very slow to start. That did give the kids lots of time to run around and burn off energy before the show.

10:15 p.m. Back to the Ruthlings. Bella and Felisa were asleep so went straight to bed. Ryan decided to read a little and the grown-ups all got things ready for Monday morning's departure. We're headed for TX and the Ruthlings are headed back up to VA. That was so nice of them to host us on the day before their vacation. I admire D'Arcy's ability to have everything done ahead of time so she was able to hang out with us. If it were me, I would've been running around like a crazy headless chicken trying to visit and get ready to leave.