Walking in Memphis (and Jackson)

Couldn’t help myself with Marc Cohn reference–Joe had no idea what song I was humming all weekend long! Surely I’m not the only one who does this at the mere mention of Memphis, Tennessee?!

Anywho–we actually spend the majority of Memorial Day weekend in Mississippi for a friend’s wedding and could not have loved the city more! I had never been to Jackson so wasn’t sure what we needed to hit up during our short visit but three things we managed to squeeze in was a visit to Brent’s Drugs a stop at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Sciences and a walk around the Capital building–none of which disappointed!

First things first though, Brent’s. OH MY GOSH. We just stopped in for a quick ice cream prior to the wedding but man do I wish we’d had more time! Our server, Ms. Dorothy, became a fast friend to Louis and Judy setting them up with crayons, their own soda jerk hats and even offering to give cranky pants, Judy, her own little dish of ice cream since she wasn’t in a sharing mood. Threenager. She took such good care of us and the food looked so good that I’m already hoping to find another excuse to head to Jackson! Also, the diner was in a great location with some antique shops nearby and adorable neighborhoods to drive through in North Jackson.

Promising the kids ice cream was the only thing getting the kids out of the Museum that we stopped in right as we rolled into town! I was SO impressed by this kids museum! Bonus points for the fact that it was FREE as members of the U.S. Space & Rocket Museum. That membership has allowed for us to visit a museum in every city we have visited in the last 3 years since joining so it has definitely been worth it!

So MMNS has a great variety of indoor exhibits to touch and explore (currently Ripley’s Believe It or Not), plus an aquarium featuring some HUGE catfish and snakes to pet, an indoor play area, outdoor trails and an interactive bubble park! This place was just great and we were there for a solid two hours!

It was then time to head to the wedding  which was Lou and Judy’s first one and they did great! Thank God! Judy just loved seeing her little bestie as the flower girl and we had so much fun seeing such great friends celebrate their love. Plus there’s nothing cuter than watching toddlers dance.

Sunday morning we headed into downtown to visit the Capital Building and I was in awe of how beautiful the building was! The grounds were impeccably kept, the people out enjoying said grounds were incredibly friendly and the parking was bountiful and free–what more could a girl ask for?!

After exploring a bit we headed over to Memphis which was only an hour and change away. First, we of course swung into the Tanger Outlets where we grabbed lunch and did a little damage. Priorities.

Once we parked in downtown Memphis (btw parking garages are like $1/hour which is AMAZING coming from Baltimore where they are at least $8/hr) it was off to the Peabody Hotel to see the world famous ducks! We didn’t catch them parade into the lobby but the kids sure got a kick out of seeing all these ducks waddling around inside this glamorous room!

After that we meandered over to Beale street–it’s pretty tame during the day but a lot of the bars/restaurants that had live music were 21+ so we couldn’t really hang which was a bit of a bummer. Also, I’m not gonna lie to you, the whole street reeked of weed with Louis asking every ten seconds,”why does it smell like skunk??”. WHOOPS.

We didn’t have much more time to explore before needing to hit the road and head back home but I would definitely go to Memphis again as we would love to take the kids to a baseball game (the new stadium is GORGEOUS) and I hear the Bass Pro Shop pyramid is amazing.

It was a whirlwind of a weekend but the fact that Louis starts kindergarten in the fall has us wanting to cram in all the trips! So until the next adventure….