Two weekends ago, Brent and I went to Memphis for our first-ever getaway since Jackson arrived. This was also our celebration for birthday, anniversary, and Christmas combined. Friday night, we drove to Pine Bluff to eat with Mom and Dad, and they took Jackson back to McGehee with them for his first weekend at Mimi and Pops house. On Saturday, we got up and drove eat and got there in time to enjoy the beautiful fall weather.
We stayed at the Westin Hotel that's right across the street from the Gibson Guitar Factory and the FedEx Forum where the Grizzlies play. It's also around the corner from the famous (or infamous) Beale Street. I was so excited to be out and about without the stroller, but at the end of the night, we decided to go back to the room and relax.
We hung out in the lobby for a little while looking for Miami players. We saw a few, but none of them wanted to be bothered.
Texas de Brazil was amazing. Can't wait to go back and have more meat! You know that's Brent's love language!
It was about 8 pm when we got through with dinner, and we strolled through Beale Street on our way back to the hotel. I wanted to go hear some live music, but since I'm a memaw now, I couldn't resist the pull of being in my PJs. Maybe if we had a group of people, but Brent and I are homebodies. So back to the room we went. I was also amazed (and not in a good way) of the number of kids and strollers on Beale at night. Come on people - take the kids home!
Fun times in the elevator. This is us trying to be cool - just in case LeBron got in. ha!
The next morning, we walked a few blocks to a great restaurant recommended by Sarah and Josh. It's called South of Beale (or SOB). It was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives a few episodes ago. It was great and I wish we could have eaten dinner there. This was brunch and it was delish. I also wanted to try some of their specialty drinks, but having walked there and it being noon, I decided to skip the booze.
When we got back to the hotel, we noticed a big charter bus and people standing around. So since we didn't have anything else to do, we loitered with the rest of them to check it out. As it turns out, the team was checking out of their rooms and heading over to the forum.
This is Mike Miller - he's our age and has three kids. I'm sure a couple of million dollars in my bank account would make up for the fact that my husband was gone most of the time, but still I imagine that it's hard. He was very nice to stop and take pictures.
These are some assistant coaches and the luggage person. I'm fascinated by the logistics of a major NBA team and can't imagine how much work it takes to get them around the country. I'm sure these people are very under appreciated.
Here's three players - not sure of their names. I kept having to have "who's that" lessons from Brent.
Dwayne Wade - also nice guy.
LeBron just blew through the lobby and didn't stop to say hello to anybody. Doesn't he know that's rude in the South. ha! He did sign a few things outside, but he wasn't very friendly. Although after the game, I understand why - everybody was booing him. I wouldn't be nice to people if they were going to boo me later.
The Miami Heat coach is young and super friendly. He stopped to talk to a few kids that were there. Maybe this will be Jackson one day.
After we realized that all of the big names had left the hotel, we walked through the museum shop at the Gibson Guitar Factory and then took a tour at the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum. Both are interesting if you like museums.
The game started at 5, and the doors opened at 4, and there were tons of people everywhere! We were so excited to find out where our seats were.
And they were awesome! Yes, it was in the upper level, but on the first row center court. We could see faces and plays, so it was really pretty good. The only problem with our seats were the drunk rednecks sitting next to us. They kept screaming the F word, and by the 5th time, I'd had enough. I politely told them to tone it down, and they said sorry and didn't use anymore curse words. I'm not a prude, but it was excessive and uncalled for. Luckily we didn't have to get the arena police after them. ha!
How would you like to get paid to be the stretcher for Lebron James?
Tip-off!
It was actually a really good game and the Grizzlies won! They are really good this year, so we're excited to see how far they can go. We are wanting to go back sometime next year and see another game, and maybe take some friends along as well.
I was out the entire next week with Jackson as he had a really bad fever virus, and then I was out all last week with the Thanksgiving holiday. All of that to say, I have a lot of blogging to do and hopefully will get caught up soon. It's taken me two weeks to do this because blogger kept messing up. I almost gave up, but I blog on.
