Civil Rights Lessons

Throughout our travels, we've tried to weave some thematic experiences/lessons into the trip in order to provide some meaning to the places we have visited with the boys. We've talked about the Oregon Trail and "settling" and how this has affected the Native Americans and Mayans (which we would learn about a bit later in our travels) and compared this to what the boys already know about Australia's first people.

Given that we would be visiting Memphis and Greensboro, it was only natural for us to spend some time talking about civil rights and visiting the two amazing museums that they have in these cities. Although some of the information and images was a bit too graphic for little ones, we did our best to explain to the boys how people like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, the Greensboro Four, and others have taken risks to peacefully speak out against the inhumane/unjust/unfair treatment of other humans and how this has a ripple effect for all people around the world.

Both museums were amazing, and although Ollie was "totally done with educational stuff", I know that Elliot had a lot of questions and hopefully took something away from these visits. I know that I did. 

Interestingly, later on in our trip when we visited the Hirshhorn Art Museum in Washington, DC, there was an exhibit by Ai Weiwei of Lego portraits of hundreds of people who have risked their lives or were incarcerated for their work toward the equal rights of people around the world. It was really powerful, and something that even Ollie thought was really cool.

Greensboro Good Times

Going back to Greensboro to show the boys our old home and to catch up with long lost friends was so so good for the soul. Best of all was staying with Jenny and Mike and getting to know their munchkins, Brooke and Rachel and going to the American Ninja Warrior park, playing hide and seek and having a tequila and taco night. The kids got on together so well it was like they'd known each other for years. So sweet!

Paul also caught up with his old boss, and we had a wee CED reunion. We took a stroll down Lee Street and a cruise through UNCG. It was amazing to see how little Greensboro has grown!

Brotherly love

You'd never know it some days, but these two have become the best of friends.

So much fun with the Snellman Mahones

From the minute we drove into Chattanooga, Rebecca, Dana, Amelia and Tate kept us busy with so many funtastic adventures. We boated and floated in Chickamauga Lake. We bowled and shuffleboarded and skeeballed at Southside Social. We took in an outdoor concert, and we cardboard surfed. We hiked to and splashed in a hidden waterfall. Rebecca and I even snuck away for a little girl time on a sunset bike ride along the river. Thanks for such a great time y'all. It was great seeing you again!

Rock City

With Oliver being such a rock connoisseur and budding geologist, we kind of had to visit Rock City when we visited Chattanooga. We winded through the immense boulders, learned the story of Lover's Leap, counted hidden gnomes, visited a birds of prey show and had all sorts of fun.

Beale Street and Memphis Music

It was so much fun introducing the boys to the history of Rock and Roll and giving them a taste of live music on Beale Street (including a funk band, a swing orchestra with couples dancing, and a dueling pianos show where the boys requested Hound Dog and Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire and thoroughly amused the pianists and folks in the bar with their Aussie accents.) Their poses by all the guitars around town were pretty awesome too.

Sun Studios

Sun Studios is just cool. The tour was hilarious, but best of all was pretending to sing on the same microphone and play the same piano and drums that Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and even U2 have used. Such wannabes!!