Whirlwind trip

Heath and I just got back from a mid-week Valentine's Day getaway to Memphis. It was our first trip that had no purpose other than to just spend time together and have fun. And we so did!

We spent Valentine's Day afternoon and evening with the boys--we went to Pirate Pete's, had dinner, played games and played Lazer Tag. When it was time for them to go home, we headed to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. We did not get in until really late, but since we are pretty much nocturnal, that did not matter to us.

Our room was gorgeous. We ended up in a King Suite, which was a nice surprise. We had a really nice night, and slept in on Wednesday morning. The weather turned rainy and icky during the day Wednesday, but we did not care. We went to the Gibson guitar factory and learned how they are made--which was really interesting. It takes 3-4 weeks to finish one guitar and they are almost totally made my hand. Heath loves music, so that was his pick to do. After that, we went to the National Civil Rights Musuem, somewhere I have wanted to go for years. We both were fascinated by it, and wished we had more time to study it. It was very moving though--everyone should see it.

Since we were all cultured up, and it was approaching evening, we took the rest of the day off from learning things and moved on to just having fun. We made a pitstop at the Rum Boogie Cafe on Beale Street, then went back to the Peabody to get ready for the evening.

Our next activity was dinner and music at BB King's. That was one of the points of our trip, and even on a Wednesday night in the rain, it was packed and the music was great. We did not want to miss anything though, so we picked out the best places on Beale Street and hit them all--some of which were downright hysterical. We had hurricanes at Hard Rock Cafe, and saw some unfortunately employed Coyotes dance on the bar at Coyote Ugly, tried some funny concoctions at Wet Willy's and wound up our evening in the lobby bar back at the Peabody, by the Duck fountain. As we always do, we ended up alternating from serious conversation to laughing at something stupid, and really enjoying ourselves. We always do, but it was really nice to not have the distractions of having to stick to a schedule, or make sure some piece of work got done before dark--we did not have to do anything we did not want to do, so we did not. It was great.

We slept in again today, until it was time to see the Ducks come down from the roof and get in the fountain, then started the long trek home.

It was a wonderful way to spend our first Valentine's Day. We have a lot going on in the next month, so it was extra special to get some time away together.

Life sure is good around here