walking in memphis...

here is our trip to tennessee....

if you are not family, you may not be interested. and i'll warn you now, this is a long one.

this is our hotel room at the hyatt. apparently it wasn't in the greatest part of town, but it was nice and the people were super nice. jd wanted to stay at one downtown called the gen x hotel...i just couldn't do it. the name just sounded dingy. and i'm quite glad we chose this one when we saw the gen x in real life.

we had a sweet king size bed

a 42" tv with a little sitting area

and a little desk and kitchen area

we went over the border into olive branch misssissippi. if you look really close, this sign says mississippi on it. we couldn't find a better one.

we stopped in downtown olive branch and walked around the one and only block there. they were just finishing up a christian rock festival. the south is so funny.

the mississippi river on the west side of town

here is a little more of the river and the walkway next to it

the orpheum theater where they have a lot of musicals and plays and stuff

we stumbled across this little treasure on our way downtown. no, we are not elvis fans. no, we did not go to graceland. apparently it's expensive and not worth it.

beale st, which is supposed to be the happening place down there. they have a lot of local, live blues music and bbq. i think we were there before the REAL party got going....which is probably a good thing. i think it gets kind of wild. there really isn't a lot to do there unless you drink so we walked around the 2 blocks and were pretty much done. the downtown area was a little disappointing. we decided it was comparable to ogden because there were a few restaurants, but most everything else was vacant. there were also a lot of areas that you cannot go to....especially if you are white and blonde. yikes! we also went to rendezvous bbq that my boss recommended and it was really good. it was a long wait, but good. we had this cute little waiter that was probably 70 and the tiniest little black guy! he was super nice.

the famous memphis sign on beale st

coyote ugly. we walked past and saw the girls up on the bar and bras covering the entire wall above the bar....so we kept right on walking.

this is the bridge over the mississippi. we tried to go over it and ended up on another bridge that took us to west memphis in arkansas. that is not a good area we found out...we were told not to stop there and if you do, don't get out of your car. comforting, right?

we also went to the midsouth fair while we were there. quite the experience. there were not very many white people there. and a special BONUS....boyz II men were performing in concert! i wasn't aware so many people like them still. i do have to say, they perform in style. suits, ties and sunglasses....yes, it was dark.

i'm not sure what is up with my camera, but it certainly was not snowing like it looks like. see how there are no white people in sight?

the close up

we only stayed for a few songs....on bended knee, boyz II men are back, ya know the good ones. we decided to go after a few songs because we felt quite silly being pretty much the only white people. they were probably wondering what we were doing. the next day we found out there was a shooting at the fair! good thing we left! apparently they ruled it an accident...

it was really pretty and green there, which i really like. it was comparable to ny for me and georgia for jd. we both really loved that part. it was also nice weather. a little humid and my hair sucked, but it was about 80. it stays pretty nice through october and november and in the winter it stays in the 50s for the most part. i could definitely get used to that. i'm not a winter girl.

this was from the car, but i thought it looked really cool. jd was the designated photographer because i drove. and in case anyone was wondering, we were really glad we had our gps.

i love the trees. i bet it looks fabulous when the leaves change.

if you've made it this far....congrats! read on, it gets good!

we did a lot of exploring and checking out the area and it was a lot different than we thought. we thought there would be more of a mix of races there. there were not very many white people. it was really strange to be the minority. i know, we don't have a lot of that in utah, but i've been to plenty of places around the country plus living in california and new york. i know about diversity. we have heard from a few people that there are some civil rights issues still, but the other way around. there are a lot of blacks that don't like whites. i really don't have any problem with them, i'm just worried about them having a problem with me! there are also A LOT of people who don't like the mormons. we found some cool neighborhoods and houses, but ultimately decided the night before the interview that we just weren't completely comfortable there. we weren't sure if it was just the reality of everything or if it was real and something we should pay attention to. so, we decided it couldn't hurt to apply to a few more school and we are still waiting to hear from ohio state. after we got back, jd applied to SUNY (nyc), ICO (chicago), and SCCO (fullerton, ca). we want to at least compare it to another school and see how we feel. so, its not off the table, just on hold until we see how we really feel. i think the actual interview part went really well and jd should hear in the next week. this is such a complicated process. it will be so nice when it's over and done and we know where we're going and living. i can't wait for that day.