Civil Rights Museum, Meet & Greet, and Bullseye ! - August 4, 2008

I wanted to post these faster but for one thing or another it did not happen that way... Anyways here's Monday.

So, Monday, August 4, 2008, I wake up have breakfast and check out of my hotel. Robin picks me up we go get Starbucks and then drive a bit before heading to the Civil Rights Museum. We took about 2 hours for the Lorraine Motel portion of the museum. The other half of the museum is across the street.

Instead of going right at it, we headed to the Madison Hotel and checked in, dropped our bags. The rest of the volunteers were all starting to arrive at the Madison. We dropped a few off at Graceland, then Robin and I headed to drop off her rental vehicle since transportation would be provided for the rest of the trip.

After getting back from dropping off the rental vehicle we had lunch and then took the trolley back to the Civil Rights museum to finish the remaining portion of it, another 2 hours. :) Some people just flew by the museum but we took our time. I know I read most everything and saw almost all the videos they had.

We took the trolley back to the Madison went to our room and relaxed for a few minutes before heading down to meet the rest of the volunteers. It's evening at this point. We do introductions the Bullseye the Target dog came out. We learned some interesting info on how the eye gets colored in and about the trainer. Once all introductions including Bullseye's we had dinner that was catered by the Madison Hotel.

After dinner a group of us met to go down and walk on Beale St. I had a slushy during the walk that got me nice and relaxed :) We sat by a band that was playing, which was actually the band that Billy Bob had played with the night before, then we walked down to a place called Stax for drinks. We went back to the Madison after this.

The next two days would be the tours of Target House, St. Jude, and the events that came with them.

Memphis, Little Rock, and Billy Bob! - August 3, 2008

What a Day!...

So on Sunday, August 3, 2008 I wake up and get ready with no set plans for the day, except to meet a few other co-workers from other locations in the world for dinner at around 7pm. So I figured I would just let the day play out as it may until the evening... I thought maybe I would take a cab to Beale St as several tours depart from that area. Some city tour companies did hotel pick up. Or maybe I would have the front desk arrange it for me.

First things first though, I needed come coffee, but I didn't want to make the one in the hotel room. So, as soon as I was ready I went to the lobby area to see about getting some coffee and continental breakfast. The coffee was mediocre but it would do. The continental breakfast was non-traditional in that aside from the normal continental fare, there were biscuits, eggs, sausage and gravy... Must be a southern thing, I thought. I opted for a biscuit with jam.

Since I slept through the evening instead of going out to dinner with Mariah and Robin, I decided to text Robin to see what their plans were. She called me back and said that she was driving Mariah back to Sherwood, Arkansas where she lives. Count me in for the drive. Sherwood is right around the corner from Little Rock, Arkansas, so we would drop Mariah at her house and then do a brief drive into Little Rock and then head back to Memphis.

The drive to Sherwood was awesome!!! It must be because all I see in Phoenix is desert that I loved all the lush green on the highway. I'm sure to the locals green and lush is just meh, the norm. I took another pic of The Pyramid Arena from the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge. While driving to Sherwood there was a truck towing part of a plane. The houses in Sherwood are so pretty with their red bricks. The drive itself was about 2 hours.

After dropping Mariah off at her house in Sherwood, Robin drove to Little Rock, Arkansas. I took a picture of a HUGE Pentecostal Church. It looked neat... :) Once in Little Rock, we drove by the William J Clinton Presidential Library. I would have loved to go inside, but we had to get back to Memphis as we wanted to go to the Civil Rights Museum. We did however stop for a coffee at Andina Cafe loacated in the River Market District right down the street from the library. We then started heading back to Memphis, but Robin was hungry so she stopped by a Wendy's to get 2 baked potatoes. I got a kids meal and it came with a glow bird from the movie Journey to the Center of the Earth. :)

On the drive back from Little Rock to Memphis I saw a sign from TEXACO. Must be one of the last ones.

Once back in Memphis we headed to the Civil Rights Museum. Took some photos of the outside and then checked that we had slightly less than 2 hours before it closed, so we decided we would go back the next day when we would have more time to take the time to go through the museum.

It was still fairly early so we drove around for a bit then right before 5pm we headed to the river where the riverboats were. We got there just in time as rain started to fall. The sightseeing cruise was to depart at 5pm. So we got our tickets and got in the riverboat slightly wet from the rain. The cruise ended at 6:30pm, perfect timing to go meet my co-workers for dinner. Robin decided not to go nor meet them since she had som homework to finish and turn in so she dropped me off at the location we were to meet at. There I met Cheryl our trip coordinator and organizer, Amy from Seoul, Korea and Naomi from Minneapolis, MN.

We headed down to Beale St. and had dinner at Blues City Cafe. As we were headed out there were 2 other co-workers, Shawna and Tony from MN, having dinner there too, super coincidence. So we all headed out after dinner down Beale St stopped at shops, bars, etc. We stopped at the Beale Street Tap Room where Billy Bob Thornton was playing the drums with a local band.

After this Amy, Naomi, Cheryl, and I had a night cap at The Peabody. I slept really good this night.

Off to Memphis - August 2, 2008

So off to Memphis it is on Northwest Airlines Flight Number 1922 at 7:45am. I had checked in the night before so all I had to do is check my bag in, pass security, and head to the gate from where the plane would depart. No troubles with any of that but I did have quite a bit of time before boarding would even begin, so I grabbed a coffee and sat at a perfect spot to people watch. It's so much fun to people watch at the airport.

The flight was pretty smooth. It arrived in Memphis at around 1pm. The Memphis terminal smelled of BBQ. Took a cab to my hotel. I was slightly early so waited about 30 minutes for my room to be ready then checked in, dropped my bag, and settled into the room.

Later, Robin and her friend Mariah picked me up from my hotel. We headed to Beale St. and had lunch at Alfred's. Walking on Beale St. was great experience minus the weather. It was maybe about 100 degrees which is not a big deal since I am used to the heat in Phoenix, the difference is Memphis' extreme humidity. Traveling in a long sleeve not a good idea. Good thing my flight wear top was the only long sleeve item I took, the rest that I packed for the trip was short sleeve. Also, it would take me until Monday, August 4th to figure out how much product to put in my hair. -note to self: do not visit Memphis during summer

So Beale St.... Not sure at what time it starts, but at a certain time several blocks of Beale St. are blocked off. There are bars, restaurants, shops, etc. and you can walk up and down with your drinks ala Vegas. The majority of the restaurants are BBQ and southern food, sweet tea, BBQ ribs, fried fish, etc. Good luck to vegetarians in Memphis. There is a variety of music at the many bars, blues, rock, karaoke... Of course your souvenir and novelty shops. Beale St. is one of the places you have got to visit when you go to Memphis, TN, USA.

After lunch we drove by the Mississippi River and headed to The Pyramid Arena to take pictures of it. The Pyramid Arena in Memphis was constructed and used for a short period by their NBA team who, based on what most locals said, did not like it and had a different arena constructed, the FEDEX Forum. So it now stands empty and unused with talks of it being converted into a Bass Pro Shop. Sad really that it's empty, but even sadder that it may end up being a Bass Pro Shop. How about converting into a casino, Luxor II, or maybe a museum of art or something more on those lines.

After this they dropped me off at my hotel, I was going to take a nap and then later we were going to meet for dinner. Instead I slept the rest of the evening/night. The flight and the weather did me in.

Photo albums of my Memphis Trip are on my Myspace, Facebook, and Livespace sites.

Why did he go to Memphis?

If you read my May's stuff post, then you know that I was selected to go on an "all expense" paid trip to Memphis. The paid part was the flight, hotel, meals, transportation from August 4th - 6th, however since I chose to fly in 2 days early on Saturday, August 2nd I had to make my own accommodation arrangements for those 2 nights. I chose to go early so I could get in some touring in Memphis, since the other days were already planned with events. I'm glad I did.

Now I didn't elaborate then how I got chosen or what the trip was for, so I'll do it now.

The trip itself was to tour Target House, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and participate in a couple volunteer events. One was a meet and greet at Target House and the other was a festival for the the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. More specifics on those on later posts.

In order to be considered to be selected, I wrote brief essay like answers to 3 questions. What volunteer events had I participated in the past 12 months, what my passion for volunteering is, and why I wanted to participate in this volunteer trip. (Haven't decided yet if I want to post what I submitted) I don't know how many other co-workers submitted for consideration, but I was ecstatic when I found out I was one of the four from our location to participate.

In all it was 35 volunteers, including the event coordinator, that came from various locations. The majority were from Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. I was one of the four from Tempe, Arizona, USA. There was also a co-worker from Seoul, Korea and another from Shanghai, China and a few others from other US cities/states.

So if you did not know why I went to Memphis, now you know. :)

BBQ at Pedro's June 28th

So for some reason I forgot to blog about the get together at Pedro's... So I'll just make it brief... We had a BBQ at Pedro's on June 28th. Good food, great people... Awesome Karaoke and drinks!! :)

i'm back...

So it's back to work today after the couple trips I had.... Memphis was great minus the weather... El Reventon in Carson was great minus an argument between a couple of friends... That's the most of those two I will share, hopefully in the next few days I get a chance to blog about the trips... Overall I had an awesome set of days...