Wednesday
Memphis is known for two things. Music and Barbeque. Our first afternoon, we ate lunch at a barbeque rib joint called Corkey's. We had to get our ribs dry ("memphis style") which at first I wasn't too excited about but they turned out to be really, really good. After lunch we went and bought all the essentials to a perfect thanksgiving meal and spent the night just hanging out at my sister's new house, watching movies and talking.
Thursday
We got up really early to go run in our first ever "Turkey Trot." The "Turkey Trot" is a charity event where all participants run 4 miles in an effort to raise money for a charity. to be honest, I forgot who we were raising money for (woops). My sister and brother-in-law and I ran it together, while my parents took it easy and walked it. We ended up taking it pretty easy ourselves but marked about 5 people in the crowd that we had to beat (and we did). We crossed the finish line after about 46 minutes. At the time I felt pretty good but little did I know, my legs would be killing me the next two days. After my parents crossed the finish line at one hour and 6 minutes, we went home to rest up for the big dinner. My mom and sister spent pretty much the rest of the day preparing the food, while my dad, brother-in-law, and I watched football. At about 6, the meal was finally ready and we had a feast. Everything was good, from the Turkey to the pumpkin pie. My personal favorite part of the thanksgiving meal is the stuffing. After we ate and did the dishes, we were all really tired,so we watched a movie and fell asleep at around 9:45 p.m.
Black Friday
After not being able to sleep-in in a couple days, I was very happy to sleep right through all the early morning shopping that my mom and sister would be joining in in. They left at about 7:30 (apparently late for black friday) and us guys slept the morning away and got up around 10. My sister and mom still wanted to shop for a few more hours, so we decided to go visit the STAX Museum near downtown memphis. STAX used to be a world famous recording studio until the 70's when it went out of business. STAX is known for producing some of the greatest soul songs and artists of all time. My dad, being somewhat of a music buff, really enjoyed the museum and could have practically given us a tour of the museum himself.
After the museum we met back up with the rest of the family and spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out at the house. That night we finally had enough energy to go out, so we headed down to Beale St. to listen to some authentic memphis live music. My sister brought us to her favorite restaurant/bar called the Rum Boogie where James Govan plays live music every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. He apparently has played there every weekend for the past 15 years. The music was awesome and it was an atmosphere very different than anything you see up here in Wisconsin or Minnesota. The real, live music was so much more enjoyable than what you hear in bars in Madison, which is normally just some rap song blaring as loud as possible.
Saturday
My mom woke up in one of her "work modes" so there was no sleeping in that day. I was drug out of bed and sent out to the lawn to rake and bag leaves all morning. I wasn't too thrilled about doing chores at my SISTER's house but I put up with it and we were done in just a couple hours. That afternoon we drove down to Tunica, Mississippi to do a little gamblin'. My dad and I are really into casinos and table games and my sister and mom aren't ones to shy away from the slots either. My dad and I did the winning for the family after a great craps run and a good stint at blackjack. Unfortunately, my mom and sister lost their money at the slots so we decided to head back home after just a couple hours of gaming. We met back up with my sister's husband and went to another staple of Memphis that night for dinner. The Rendezvous. Another rib place. These ribs I thought were even better than the ones at Corkey's. Being that we were already downtown, we headed over to BB King's to listen to some more live music and to have a couple drinks. The BB King All-stars were playing that night and I thought were almost as good as the James Govan band. They played strictly covers (per request) so the set list was of course filled with classics. After a couple hours of music, we headed back home to rest up for an early flight in the morning. The trip to Memphis was a blast and it was great seeing and spending time with the fam again. The week made me that much more excited for winter break and my long break from the books.
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