Spring Break Trip 2015: Birmingham, AL

I am quick to lament that I never made the right decisions in college where spring break was concerned. I ignored the compact that every coed is under to spend at least one week of your four years on a beach being responsible with everything but one's SPF lotion. But noooo. I had to outdork myself so hard that one year I even went NORTH. North from Meadville, Pennsylvania. I spent spring break in Buffalo, the winter depression capital of the free world. Adding insult to injury, the boy with whom I was in an ill-advised relationship broke up with me on that spring break service trip to Buffalo. My colleague said the name of that story is Rebuffed in Buffalo. An accurate title indeed.

Anyway. Rebuffed on this spring break trip I would not be!  Our southern voyage took us this time to Birmingham which is truly a diamond in the rough where university towns go. They don't quite have bike lanes yet but they do have a Trader Joe's coming soon. Birmingham is on the rise, y'all.

A highlight of the trip was seeing the rad rainbow accent work on some of the bridge underpasses. I'm sure there is more of a story of this urban art concept but the story our kids will tell you is that their gypsy hippie parents made them put on clothes at 10 p.m. to go run amok under the rainbow lights in Birmingham during a rainy evening in March.

Behold, the rainbow tunnels of splendor.

Walking in Memphis

Memphis is the kind of city that you can fall hard for, and even though it will take a lot of gritty work, you can see a long relationship if you both do your part. Memphis is not like a Charleston or a Malibu or a Newport, the kind of cities that make you swoon, the kind that give you butterflies and the notion that life will always be this easy and beautiful and well-lit. Even though you know it won't, because at some point the vacation ends and real life in that town begins.

Memphis is more like a Detroit or a Cleveland or a Savannah--cities endowed with natural beauty, but which are a little more weathered because of what they've seen. A little less polished because of how they've been treated. But still you know that with a lot of care and investment, this could shape up to be a beautiful love story....

*** I fell hard for Memphis  and I don't care what anyone says. The neighborhoods of Evergreen, Overton Park, Cooper-Young, Midtown rose up to meet me and the sun shone warmly on my back. We scored a great little AirBnB cottage that was perfect for our family of 4. Seriously, fabulous. Message me if you want to know which.

Beale Street enchanted me mid-day.  Graceland ravished me with secrets about the King. Butler Park romanced me, the ducks at the Peabody Hotel enamored me, the National Civil Rights Museum enthralled me, and Muddy's Bakery melted me in every way. The Neighborhood Church still has my kids singing all the songs (shout-out to Meredith--you are SUCH a blessing). The Memphis Zoo is fantastic (really well-manicured and a good number of exhibits--could have done without the bats, reptiles exhibit. Still can't get the smell out of that place from making me viscerally gag. Ack.). I'd like to explore the Main St. area more and I'd definitely like to go back and check out the CMOM and do a tour of St. Jude's.

Overton Park

Looking out at the Mississippi

Exploring Downtown, Main St. 

National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel

Muddy's Grind House - recommend everything. The cupcakes were reeedonk.

The beautiful Peabody Hotel and their beloved fine-feathered guests

Memphis has soul, it's been said, and now I understand why. Memphians greet you with wide smiles, open hearts, and quick laughs. Marc Cohn, I get you now, bro. I totally do feel the way you feel.

The FamiLee visits the Lorraine Motel

We took the kids to Memphis this week. I'd like to pat ourselves on the back for doing a bang-up job of priming them for why Memphis is such a significant place in shaping this country's history. In particular, we took the kids to the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. As historical showcases go, the museum is just phenomenal. Interactive media, gorgeous photos, and very memorable displays that take one through the history from slavery to the civil rights movement, even ending with a segment on human trafficking.

The tricky thing is that we waited until the 3p entry because Tennesseans need only present their state-issued license to get in free on Mondays! The kids were a little over-hyped by that point. We didn't want to be those parents harping the whole time; we have realistic expectations of how a 6 year-old and a 4 year-old behave in a museum about topics that are way over their heads. Example: they got on the bus with a replica of Rosa Parks and the bus driver chastising her and they were spooked. Dude. Why isn't she moving? Oh. It's a statue. And also, it's Rosa Parks. Complexity.

The part of the museum that takes visitors through a reconstructed room #306 is just very special. You peer into the last place where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rested his head before he walked out with his brother and friends and was shot on the balcony by James Earl Ray. You see the books that were tucked into King's suitcase. The passage is cloaked in blue and the music playing is beautiful, funereal and the whole mood is reverent.

As we approached the window to peer in on room #306, my little man said loudly, "Shhh. We're about to meet Elvis."

Memphis, y'all.