Saturday, August 23, 2008

Catching Up

So my goal of writing about all of our various roadtrip stops seems to have fallen by the wayside. We are now at our extended layover in Utah and I haven't written a thing about what we've done thus far. So this will be a catchup post. The Cliff's notes version, if you will. As much as I would love to write detailed accounts of every event, I know that it will never happen. So a summarized version is better than nothing. Here goes.

Our first stop was Memphis where Anton ran his first 50 mile Ultra-marathon at Oak Mountain Park. Of the 80-some people who entered the race, he was only 1 of 8 who actually finished the full 50 miles. I am so proud of him. He wanted to finish the race in under 12 hours and he did it in 11 hours, 54 minutes and 8 seconds. He had to walk quite a bit, but he finished. He was sore and blistered, but he prevailed.

While Anton was running, I took the kids to the coolest children's museum I've ever been to. They had a water play area, real fire trucks, police cars, airplanes, climbing toys, puzzles, and more and more. It was awesome. If any of you are ever in Memphis, you must go there.

The next day we made the obligatory Memphis visit to Graceland. I honestly wasn't too terrible impressed. I think if I was more of a diehard Elvis fan I would've liked it more, but I expected more glitz and glam.

Some of the displays were cool though, and I thought the one on his military service was interesting. But overall, I wouldn't go back again if I was in Memphis. One of those do once things.

We hit up the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch so Anton could get one of the collectable glasses. Then it was off to take a bus tour of town. This was a pretty cool tour in that the tour guide is a musician. They play and sing the songs that go along with what you are seeing on the tour. They also hand out instruments for everyone to play along. It was a lot of fun.

The next day found us at the Pink Palace museum. There was a bunch of other stuff we wanted to do, but found out they were all closed on Mondays. But the Pink Palace turned out to be really fun. They had displays on everything from dinosaurs to the Civil War to circuses to grocery stores. Our favorite part was the section they had on treasure hunting. We played in there so long we missed the IMAX show we were going to go to. Oh well.

From there we headed over to Beale Street for some famous Memphis BBQ. We ate at the Pig on Beale. It wasn't the best BBQ I've ever had. In fact, the stuff my sister made for us the next week was better than what we had here. But it was a necessary stop and we had fun regardless of the fact that the food wasn't that great. Plus, it was really fun watching to servers fighting over who got to serve our table.

And then the heat of Memphis finally got to us. So we went to the mall. It was the only air conditioned place we could think of where the kids could run around and it didn't cost anything. They had a great play space and us adults were able to just relax. Malls are always my favorite vacation stops. :)

So that concluded our Memphis stop. Next it was on to my sister's house in Louisiana. But that will need to be a post all it's own.

7 comments:

Monique said...

I feel like everyone's doing a catch up blog and I am dizzy at all the things you are doing... Go Anton! Go thing 1 and 2... bummer no IMAX... go pink Palace... Fun tour! Did I miss anything? I love me some BBQ! Good thing we are gettin some tomarra.

usmcsedrick said...

Tell Anton He Rocks! It's awesome that he made it 50 miles I'd be lucky to make it 5. I love the kids shirts Thing 1 and Thing 2. I need to know where you got them! I glad you guys are having fun on the long move. I'm looking forward to hearing more. Take care!

Lucy said...

I mean, does anyone even have a clue how crazy that race is?? I mean seriously. I just read a book by the Ultra Marathon Guy. I don't remember his name, but he described to me, a fifty miler. This is not just a good job, kind of a race. It's like a jaw-dropping, ridiculous, don't have anything to say kind of race. I mean really impressive.

Your family is always so fun, doing crazy things, going places, love it!! Will you share some of that energy!! :)

Harmony said...

Hurrah! An Amanda update. You guys are everywhere. I LOVED Graceland--I don't know why! It was so tacky and wonderful.

Ultra-marathon? Your husband is insane. A regular marathon makes me want to break out in hives.

Let me know where you want to clothes sent when you guys get...um, wherever it is I'm supposed to send it to. I can't keep track anymore!

Good luck!

Ariella said...

Omigosh!!! 50 miles! That's crazy! Go Anton. I'm ultra impressed. Forget the olympics. :)

It sounds like you guys are having a ton of fun. No wonder you haven't had time to write.

Loved the update! Miss you!

MeLinda said...

Your edited version of your travel adventures are great, I did love the picture of the kids in the van when you left Florida. You should have seen me and the 5 kids all packed when we left Monterey. I didn't worry about fighting, they couldn't even see each other. I'd love to hear more about the trip when you have time to stop by. Terry just got a new Nikkon for our anniversary. He loves it. When you have time maybe you could help me get a blog started. School started for me on Wednesday and the kids start Monday. So things will be rocking and rolling while I get used to the new schedule.
Hurray for Anton and his amazing 50 miler. I would be happy to walk a 5k..
Hope to hear from you soon.

Andrea said...

Is that an alien in the first picture with Anton? A UFO??? I still can't believe he ran that far. I would have died. I so would not have made a good Pioneer.

Looks like it was a very fun trip in Memphis. I too love that Children's Musuem. It's always on our list of things to do when we get Clayton back. It's a great spot to let out some energy.

Oh, and I can't wai to see what you did next!! hee hee!