Rollin' on the River

Or if you are Wesley "riber."

We were lucky enough to steal our little brother Michael (or Uncle Michael) this weekend so Friday we packed up and headed to the Mighty Mississippi at Mud Island. I have not seen the mud island museum since I was 4, and I have been very anxious to take Wesley and Michael for years. I remember it (in my 4 yr old memory) being a fabulous time had by all.

I love museums and touristy type things a lot so I am so glad Wesley is getting old enough to appreciate them in her own way too. At least we can go to them and she feigns interest.

Michael is even better. He is at the real academic age where things are starting to connect, like wars and geography etc. So it's neat to take him places and actually have conversations about what we are seeing. And since he is still 9 he still enjoys just being a kid too.

Here we are heading over on the historic monorail. Which everybody but me loves, so I take pictures and pretend I'm juuuust fine the whole ride.

**Notice the bass pro shop hat, of which Matt has a matching companion. And hasn't stopped wearing it since Thursday.

Once we got over the river all the memories of my child hood trip came "flooding" back, hahahaha get it?!!?.

I am having some old pictures scanned into digital pics and when I get them back I may update this post with one of me at Mud Island.

I didn't take many pictures in the museum part, put it was because we were busy looking at everything. It really is very well done.

After the history lesson, you head outside and there is a full scale model of the Mississippi river from Canada to Gulf of Mexico. It is so cool. Definitely a must see if you visit or live in Memphis. It has maps of all the cities along the way and plaques to tell the history of the river in these cities as well. Of course we couldn't read these plaques because the scale model is a working model, meaning it is made of water, water the kiddos can get in! So that's what we did : )

The model changes width and depth according to the real river so some parts were easier to walk in then others, And then sometimes you find a water fall and just need to go for it all the way!

That is Michael, underwater, under Arkansas. Wesley is amazed. Yet she never felt the need to try this trick.

We had to stop for photo opps in our fair city on the map.

Here is Wee kinda on our neighborhood.

 

And after many "c'mons" and "keep goings" we finally made it to the Gulf of Mexico. Which I had promised they could swim in, because that's what I did when I was little, but apparently it is too much of a liability now, because the deep end was roped off : ( The sprinklers were an OK compromise.

 

Then had to convince two soaking wet, overheated kids to get out of the water and walk back without getting in the "river" anymore so that we could go get lunch. That was SUPER easy......

But we did get everyone home, fed and napped. And then headed out for more Memphis adventure:: Shelby Forest General Store steak and bluegrass night!! 

I grew up near Shelby Forest, it was my summer playground. And since Micheal lives to fish, it was a good next stop on our tour.

After fishing we hit up the legendary steak at the general store. The restaurant is not just called the general store, it is a store. Our table was in the middle of the drink coolers, which was nice, because that's where you get your drinks. While waiting for our dinner we met JJ. He is the store mascot.

He is pretty much awesome. He lets you pet him and really likes bluegrass music, gotta respect that. At the end of the night he jumps on the roof of the store and hops over to his "condo." that was the best part.

Our last adventure of the night was using our new bug catchers to grab a few fireflies on our way out of the Forest.

Note on taking bug catchers full of bugs home in the car with a 2 year old :: DON'T! Somehow the words "Don't open that again" just didn't make sense to her, and we ended up with a well lit ride home. Not only that but every time a free bug landed on her leg it was like they were made of fire. Quite traumatic for everyone in the car.


But all in all it was a fabulous weekend with our best boy Michael! Hope to do it again before the summer is through! Next stop Pink Palace!