Discovering Memphis

Orientation starts tomorrow for Justin, so we've dedicated this past week to having fun and getting to know some of Memphis.
The first place we went was to Mud Island River Park Walk. This is right by the Mississippi River and it's a park where they have built a full size scale of the Mississippi River. It is a 1/2 mile long replica of the lower Mississippi river, from Cairo, IL, to New Orleans, LA. Each 30" stride is equivalent to one mile on the actual river. It was pretty cool and Jackson enjoyed wading in the water. Another must do of living in Memphis is swimming in the pool! It's been really hot here and the pool is mighty refreshing. Jackson really enjoyed it, but we need to get a floating toy so we don't have to hold him constantly. He would climb out of the pool, walk along the side of the pool trying to get away from you so he could jump in... of course we made sure he couldn't really do this! :)Another place we went to was the National Civil Rights Museum. This is connected to the Lorraine Motel which is the motel that Martin Luther King JR. was assassinated in. The exhibits were pretty cool... a LOT of reading that we just didn't have time to do though. The coolest part was when we got to go into the hotel and see the room where he stayed (it was set up the way it was found that night). Then we went into a building across the street which is where they assume the sniper was who killed him. They had every single piece of evidence in the investigation of the killing. Some things were the actual bullet they pulled out of him and the physicians report of when he went to the hospital. It was pretty neat, and we'd like to go back and spend more time in that part of the museum. (The second picture is room 306 where he stayed that night and the wreath represents where he actually fell when we was shot)
Another interesting thing when we pulled up to the museum there was a protest stand that said, "Boycott the Civil Rights Museum, it is a million dollar investment that desecrates the memories of Martin Luther King JR." I'm not exactly sure why they think that?!? Interesting....Last, we visited the Memphis Zoo. It was so fun and it is actually a really cool zoo. We saw giraffes, zebras, elephants, monkeys and gorillas, polar bears and black bears, bald eagles and penguins, lions, and HUGE snakes! The polar bear was the coolest because it would swim down right by the glass and you could go right up to him and he would stare at you as he passed by. Jackson really liked him! We went with some friends Heather, Spencer, and their boy Hunter and met up with Corrine, Matt, and their little girl Hailey. It was a lot of fun!