Walking in Memphis

We recently returned from Memphis, which is our second trip in less than a year. I seem to be drawn to Memphis. I don't know whether it's the "ya'lls", barbeque, and the feeling of a small but friendly city or the opportunity for professional development. Or both. This time, instead of staying in downtown, we were in the Eastern suburbs for the most the trip. We had great barbeque at Corky's and breakfast at Blue Plate Cafe.

Before we left for our return trip, we spent some time at Mud Island River Park. Mud Island is a peninsula that juts into the Mississippi River. Part of it is affluent-looking condos and the other part is an ampitheater, a museum, and retail space. Unfortunately, it looks like some of the businesses and have moved out. It might be a seasonal thing, but it looked to me like there wasn't quite as much money to be made by this venture and the upkeep is suffering. It's a shame, this could be a really nice facility.

What we like the best of the river park was the scale model of the lower Mississippi River. The model begins around Cape Girardeau, MO and ends in the Gulf of Mexico. The model reminds of a topographical map, but where the contours are vertical accurate. It's about six blocks long in total. The photo below shows one of the bends in the river. Owen is in the distance, near New Madrid, if I remember correctly.

It was a warm day, and we had a great time splashing in the water. His main goal appeared to be finding spots where he could jump accross the river.


And because Owen always challenges himself, he looked for wider, and then wider spots to jump across, until...
...ouch. He was fine, though his confidence and pride were damaged more than his knees.

A few more photos:

In this photo, the model represents Memphis. There's a map of Memphis just to the left (out of frame, but you can see the beginning of it) and the bridge on the left is I-55, which we drove out of Arkansas into Memphis. Doesn't this make you want to take out your little toycars and drive them over those bridges?

This represents the Gulf of Mexico. This is where I could the upkeep was not as good as it probably was in past years. This was filled with algae and debris, and if it weren't I'm sure that there would have been little kids playing in the water. Then again, maybe the algae and debris is intentional?

Last photo: a plaque for Dad to read.