One last drive

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. We have been having a great time and there hasn't been time for blogging. We are currently in Little Rock and are headed home. Aunt Ruth met us in MS and is helping us drive back. Yeah!! We have one last drive today and will be back with our daddy tonight. We miss him! Next week, I will post more stories and photos and tell you all about our trip. 

Memphis

The kids and I were in downtown Memphis on Thursday night. We found a Ruby Tuesday for dinner and my boys attacked the salad bar. The next morning we went to check out a place called Mud Island River Park. I had never heard of it, but John said to take the kids. Here is a description from their website:

So basically, it's a MS River replica that is five blocks long that you walk along. You are allowed to walk in the water, which the kids liked. The Riverwalk area helps you to get a bit of an understanding of just how mighty and important the Mississippi is. There are many information stations along the way to explain where you are and what you are looking at. The kids loved walking down the river and following leaves that were flowing in the water. 

We started with a ride on a monorail over to Mud Island. 

The dark gray area on the ground represents a city. They keep with the scale they used for the river to show city size. 

Info station:

The city of Memphis:

These bars represent car bridges that cross the river:

Here is an area where another river is joining the MS. 

Lake Ponchatrain, LS and the city of New Orleans:

And finally, we reached the Gulf of Mexico. It's a one acre sized pond that you can go paddle boating on (which I didn't tell them).

We then rode the monorail back over the river and checked out of the hotel. We had a 5.5 hour drive to John's parents' house in Poplarville, MS. This drive also went very well. We stayed Friday night and all of Saturday with Grandma and Grandpa and left Sunday morning. We had a very exciting day, which I will tell you about next time I blog. 

We did it!!!

We made it to Florida! More to come later, but wanted to let everyone know we have arrived safely. 

Saint Louis

We made it to St Louis in a little under seven hours. The kids did great and I didn't have to deal with any issues. They really are good little road trippers. After checking into our hotel, we headed out to dinner. We were happy to have a Red Robin nearby. They are one of the few places that offer gluten free buns for their sandwiches. We don't like the places that tell you to just order without the bun. I still pay the same price and then my kids are hungry afterwards. Restaurants never want to make up for the lack of bread with any kind of substitution. The kids to get the bacon aoli sauce on their burgers. 

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed off to see the Gateway Arch- but not before having their first experience with Tom and Jerry. (They thought it was a hilarious show.)

 It's ironic we should see the Arch this week. This week's history memorization is about the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark. The arch is a symbol of that purchase and of America's westward expansion.  The kids did not know you could go inside it, so they were only hoping to see it. When I told them I was taking them inside, they were quite excited. 

(Playing in the Mississippi River by our parking space on the levee. )

Unfortunately, there was very little visibility from the top of the arch today. But they were excited nonetheless.

(Riding the tram up to the top)

(At the top)

We checked out the museum before we left. 

I saw a quote in there I found interesting. 

From there, we drove four hours to Memphis, which I will talk about in a separate post.