We went to The South!

Oh my. Can confirm, DEFINITELY armed.

We made some besties back in our Minneapolis days and they up and moved to Memphis on us. They currently have four babies aged five and under (Oh. My. Lanta!) and we’d only met Babies #1 and #2, so when The Husband had a work trip to Nashville, the kids and I were more than happy to meet him there and then pile in the car to descend upon our friends.

(Oh Emmanuel peeps – I know you are SO jealous!)

Priority number one was good old fashioned “hanging out” and we got to do that in spades.

And there was baby holding. So much baby holding!

We also got to see Memphis at its finest. First, the National Civil Rights Museum. It was truly amazing and humbling and I cried and there were Freedom Buses and lunch counters and emancipation and THE hotel balcony.

(And I left feeling inspired and self-congratulatory and “phew so glad that’s in the past” and then I turned on the news this week and oh my there is still so much to do….)

We ate the best fried chicken in Memphis – Gus’s!

And then we left the kiddos behind and did some grownup hanging out on Beale Street.

Followed by more grownup (plus one nursing baby) time at a beer garden on a beautiful night with great music.

Did I mention the baby holding?

There was also pretty much the craziest destination I’ve ever visited. Imagine if The Luxor hotel in Vegas and Cabela’s had a baby:

That baby would be the “Bass Pro Shops” in Memphis. (Plus bonus Ducks Unlimited heritage centre.)

Oh. My.

Hmm, which gun should I buy?

There’s even an observatory at the top (complete with restaurant, natch).

See that little island just to the right of The Girl? That’s Mud Island, and that’s where we finished up our weekend jaunt with some wading in a scale model of the Mississippi (plus just getting dresses and shorts wet for the under-five set).

We packed a lot in, but the bestest of all was just catching up and watching our kids delight in each other just like the good old days. Thanks, Memphis BFFs for your Southern hospitality! And your babies. Always your babies.