Another thing we did in Memphis was get a tour of Kyle's Optometry school. I forgot to take a photo of it or of our eye exams inside one of the labs. I could make an excuse of not feeling well (still sick from the food poisoning), but that is really no excuse. I just plain forgot to take photos. It was very interesting to see where Kyle has been going to school for the past two years. Since he has finished his 2nd year, he is now permitted to treat actual patients...hence our eye exams.
After the school tour, I was able to accompany Kyle, Emily, and Milo to Emily's ultrasound where they found out the sex of their new baby. Emily was 4 1/2 months along at the time of the ultrasound. Anyway, I felt very honored to be invited to be there during the reveal. As it turns out, I was not surprised to hear that they are expecting a little girl. Evidently, everyone guessed it correctly - not just me. They are thrilled that it is a girl. This will make one of each sex, which is always nice. Milo will be an awesome big brother.
So, these are photos from the ultrasound. She was sucking her thumb in one picture, just like I did as a child. Who knows if that will continue after birth or not. Can't wait to meet her in a few months.
Later in the week we did a couple of other things in Memphis. One was a tour of the Gibson Guitar Factory. They don't allow children, so Alan volunteered to babysit Milo. Alan is the only one in our group who doesn't play the guitar, so it just made sense for him to skip this event. Unfortunately, they did not allow any photography during the tour, but we were able to take some photos in their guitar store.
I will never look at guitars the same way again. It is amazing to me that they can turn pieces of wood into such beautiful musical instruments. If I can remember my facts correctly, it takes approximately 6 weeks from start to finish to make a guitar. Fun fact - only about 50% of the craftsmen who make the guitars play the guitar themselves. Also, it takes about 3 months of on-the-job training to become adept at making them. There are many stages to make a guitar and each craftsman only does one step in that process, however, some of them do cross-train so they can do more than one step.
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The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, is famous for its ducks that live in the fountain in the main lobby for about 6 hours a day. When they are not in the fountain, they live in their own penthouse suite on the top floor of the lobby. Every day at 11:00 a.m. the ducks are herded into the elevator and taken down to the lobby where they walk a red carpet to the fountain. At 5:00 each day, they leave the fountain, enter the elevator, and go up the elevator back to their penthouse suite. Here is how the tradition started according to a sign in their lobby:
"Back in 1933 Frank Shutt, General Manager of The Peabody, and a friend, Chip Barwick, returned from a weekend hunting trip to Arkansas. The men had a little too much Tennessee sippin' whiskey, and thought it would be funny to place some of their live duck decoys (it was legal back then for hunters to use live decoys) in the beautiful Peabody fountain. Three small English call ducks were selected as "guinea pigs," and the reaction was nothing short of enthusiastic. Thus began a Peabody tradition which was to become internationally famous. The original ducks have long since gone, but after more than 80 years, the marble fountain in the hotel lobby is still graced with ducks. Today, the mallards are raised by a local farmer and friend of the hotel. The ducks live in the fountain until they are full grown and, on retirement from their Peabody duties, are returned to the wild."
This is the Peabody lobby with fountain in the center.
This was taken in the Peabody Hotel also. Cute little Milo.
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One cool place in Memphis is a place called Mud Island. We got tickets on a tram to go over there and the tickets included a museum about the Mississippi River. Milo loved running around experiencing everything he could. He really liked this canoe and kept running up and down it.
Enjoying the Mississippi River
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My family knows how much I love temples. Whenever I am near one, I have to go see it - even if I can't go inside. Well, Memphis has a temple which was kind of on the way to Nashville, so they humored me and we swung by so I could take photos. It is one of the smaller temples. It was closed so I couldn't have gone in anyway, but I thought it was fun just being there on the grounds and being able to take photos.
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