Memphis Part 1

The Children's Museum of Memphis

We drove to Memphis in record time, 11.5 hours. So after getting to Granny's at about midnight, we slept and got up at the kids' normal time 6 am! The sun rises about a half hour earlier than it does where we live, so once it got light, they were up. Plus, they slept in the car really well, so they had slept enough!

After a lunch of Krystal burgers (a childhood favorite!), we went to the museum to play for the afternoon. I think Jamie is about to age out of the place, but we had a great time. Here Jamie is in the cockpit of the airplane they have. This is were I took the most pictures.

I really like the Mississsippi river model they have, where the kids can get their hands in the water and build dams and stuff like that. In this picture, you can see the two bridges in Memphis---the "M bridge" and the "old bridge" as Rachel and I called them. (Bess is by the old one.) Jamie and Larry had made some dams in the river and were looking at how the water was faster running through the small opening than it did when the whole river is opened up. Do you know that the Mississippi river is a mile wide at Memphis? Now that is a river with no equal here in Texas. Behind Jamie in that picture you can see a pump the kids can play with, and a water wheel.


The kids like playing in the human body section---Bess is a doctor here with the x-rays. I liked that they had samples of real human lungs (smoker's lungs and healthy ones) in these little plexiglass boxes. You could pick them up and handle them. And some boxes that said "smell me" and guess what was inside? Cigarette smoke smell! yuck! None of knew for sure what the other box was---maybe potpourri?

I thought I just uploaded three more pictures! I can't see them anyplace.

Anyway, the kids enjoyed the art section, the fire truck, the cowboy exhibit (had to go all the way to Tennessee to learn about that!), the grocery store, and all the other stuff there. I had a picture of Bess climbing in the skyscraper---it's really tall and more sturdy than those McDonald's playplaces!

Our trip wouldn't have been complete without the smashed pennies for 51 cents a piece.

It was fun!!