BIG RIVER AND THE HIGH POINT

Our restaurant of choice for dinner was Big River Grille and Brewing Works. The kids had their fresh brewed root beer and Mac-n-Cheese, Jay had a giant burger, and I had the fish and chips. And we both got samplers, of course. Large samplers... (Everything was good except the seasonal on the bottom middle, which was a sour - I don't like sours. Their seasonal White IPA, bottom right, was awesome - I love white IPAs! Their lager and award winning stout were also really good.)

Since neither of us thought we should drive right after drinking all those 2oz samples and we spent our outside dining experience watching a bunch of people climbing the outside of the building across the street (which Cora, of course, wanted to go do, no matter how tired she was), we headed over to see what it cost. Turns out $17 got you a full day's pass to the High Point Climbing Gym (and they were open for 2 more hours), which was not simply the outdoor climbing walls, but a HUGE gym with 5 large indoor climbing rooms (one just for kids, and two just for adults and bouldering) plus a fitness and yoga room. Cora was beside herself with joy! James followed along as we went through all the instructions and were given the tour, still insisting he didn't want to climb, but as soon as he saw the final room (the Kid Zone) with a Spiderman net and cityscape to scale, he was ready to rent some gear and give it a go.

 

We made it outside at 9:30pm (which was technically 8:30pm Mississippi time, so they weren't up TOO far past their normal bedtime at that point). The outside walls were really hard (most of them sloped outward) and the kids were physically spent by this point, but we had to let them try. It was cool how the light colors behind the walls changed, but I think it added to the difficulty for the kids (it was hard for them to locate the holds, which were further apart than most of the indoor walls they attempted).

 We finally called it when the kids started falling off and laying down for a few seconds... The Tennessee Aquarium was lit up in the background, which the kids knew we were planning to visit the next day, so I attempted to take a photo of them in front of it. James proudly showed me his rock climbing muscles, but Cora could barely keep her eyes open and her hands up. SO VERY TIRED. So many fun adventures today!

DAY IN DAVIS

Our first stop in California (after Grambot and PawPaw's house, of course), was Davis, to see Sophie, Alex, Manu, and Leo. We wanted to go on a Wednesday so that we could attend the HUGE farmer's market put on by the city (and next Wednesday we're heading up the coast towards Oregon). Before the market opened though, we spent the afternoon at their apartment and pool, just hanging out and grilling and swimming. The kids were so ecstatic to see Manu - it was adorable!

Sophie, I apologize for posting a silly face photo of you, but it's the only one we grabbed where you could see all the kiddos at the table. We had grilled brats and corn on the cob - yummy!

These 3 peas in a pod have missed each other so very much...

After lunch and swimming, Sophie brought out the fixins for ice cream cones and you would have thought James won the lottery he was so happy!

I discovered the trick to get a photo of multiple young children at once... give them a treat and sit them in a row. As long as you don't mind Mexican chocolate ice cream smiles, you're good to go!

I don't remember James being so much taller than Manu...

Cowboy Manu and Optimus Prime James, ready to go to the market.

We made quite the parade going down the sidewalk...

A little bounce house fun.

And a little playground fun.

And a little carousel fun (this one is operated by a person pedaling a bike-like pump, so it goes as fast as the operator can move!)

And then a little rock wall climbing fun. Manu had done this previously and quickly scaled himself up to the top of the 30 ft wall, punching the red button, and descending like a pro. James tried quite a few times, but couldn't muster enough confidence to get past the second to last section. Cora took a few tries, but eventually got herself to the top and was super proud of herself!

 We had a very fun afternoon, and would have loved to stay until sunset to watch the Mexican free-tailed bats fly out of the nearby preserve, but the kids were exhausted (and James had an EPIC meltdown in the car on the way home due to it), and honestly, we were pretty tired ourselves after a very long day of travel the day before. We're so glad we had the opportunity to go visit our friends (who we'll be seeing multiple times over this vacation, luckily) and thankful Grambot and PawPaw were willing to share their grandkids on day one of this west coast adventure. And so it begins!