Day 1 - The Flights & Memphis, TN

Today started off with a short bus ride to Bradley where it seemed like minutes to get there since we were all catching up and chatting away about the summers events so far. That is the great part about this program, the Teaching American History Grant, we're all from all around the state and get to have these amazing experiences together. When else am I going to say I've been to Idaho or Washington state. These trips give teachers a chance to experience the history they will be teaching about in their classrooms.
The first flight to Charlotte, NC was uneventful, except for the fact that the woman checking me in at the gate, forgot to give me my tickets. She gave me my baggage check ticket, but no tickets.... So when I went to start the security process, the guy looked at me like I was an idiot.... "Where are your tickets Ms.?" Me - "I just gave them to you". Security guy - "Ms. This is your baggage claim ticket, not your boarding passes!". Me - "Oh! Guess I need to get those..." When I get back to the ticketing area, the woman goes, I can't believe I let you leave without your tickets... Then again, I also love how I didn't even check. I just took what she gave them to me and I left! It's all good though!
The flight itself was smooth sailing all the way. Here are some great pics from my window seat
What was interesting however, was that although I was set with my seat on the first flight, the second flight was over sold... How does one do that... There are only so many seats on a plane. How do you sell more than you have? Somehow that can't be legal! After about 30 mins of waiting and wondering... Hmmm will I make it on the flight... It all worked out in the end! I made it on the flight. Yay!!!
Once we got our luggage, we got on the bus and headed to our first sight - Mudd Island Park and River Museum on the Mississippi River. We took a pretty cool monorail ride over the river to get to the museum. The great part of this adventure was how they made a scale model of the Mississippi River and all of the states it runs through. It was also an elevated model, so you see not only it's depth, but how wide it was in places too!




Inside the museum we learned a lot about the history of the river and what changes the area has seen over the years. One of my favorite parts of the museum was the steam boat replica. We got to go on board and walk through the boat. It just all seemed so real. They even made sections of the boat slope downward, so you felt as if the boat was actually moving. Our pictures are fun too!!!



The rest of the night we had on our own, after we checked into our elegant hotel! This place is gorgeous!!!! We felt like royalty just walking into the Peabody Hotel. And of course I loved the live music that a gentleman in a tux was playing in the lobby......!
We did dinner at a BBQ place that had such a cool vibe! We had some of the local cuisine which was amazing. Our waiter even shared with us a lot of the history of the neighborhood, like where we were was down the street from where Dr. King was assassinated.
From there we headed down to Beale Street which is like a milder version of Bourbon Street. It is a really cool artsy area.



Well that's all for now! I'm falling asleep as I write, so I'm calling it a night!
Night all!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:S 2nd St,Memphis,United States