Ole Miss visit

MacK pouting because she didn't get a cone

Thursday evening Susie took us for ice cream to celebrate my birthday. My diet said no, but my taste buds said yes. I think we all know which side won.

I came home and got my very first ever flag for Flag Day as a part of my present. I loved it! I also got a new Tervis IU cup (which I will use at Ball State without an ounce of shame- no worries) and a DSW gift card. That lady is a good gifter! :)

MacK and Jack weren't as excited about the flag it seems...

Friday morning we were up with before the sun and on our way to spend the weekend in Memphis. Oh, I'm sorry, is your birthday not a national holiday? Mine is, thus I do not work on my birthday. Ha! (OK, my birthday could be any old day and I wouldn't go to work that day, but the whole national holiday thing is a pretty great excuse for me.) That morning's drive went by really quickly and we were at our hotel in Germantown, TN by about noon Central. We took a few minutes to drop off our stuff in our new home for the next couple of days before hitting the road again. We just couldn't get enough of riding in Jackson's new unit seemingly. As most of you know, a recent audit of my states visited revealed that Arkansas and Mississippi had indadvertedly been missed.

Not anymore. Welcome to Mississippi

While there is not a lot to do in Mississippi, we still had a nice time visiting. We'd heard about casinos but opted instead to visit Oxford, MS home to the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss"). I love college campuses. The campus was large and very pretty on the outside. The football stadium was insanely large. I mean it made some professional stadiums look small. The inside of the buildings hadn't been updated and were very ugly. I was surprised by this.

I'm sorry, you were born to yell WHAT?

We went to the bookstore, of course, and were completely confused by all of the shirts saying "hotty toddy" and other nonsense. As it turns out, Southerns just make up phrases to cheer on their teams. They also dress up for football games. To each their own...(weirdos). We got our shirts- minus weird sayings-and headed for the town square to do a little shopping and have lunch.

To do this we had to first park...poop.

Jackson parallel parking for me...

In Oxford one must know how to parallel park. I am not good at it so I had to get out of the driver's seat and cheer Jackson on from the curb much to the delight of other drivers, I'm sure. ;)

Anyway, Jackson saved the day and we were able to enjoy an afternoon on the square. There were a ton of little clothing stores with adorably, outrageously priced goods in them. None of those stores sold a single thing to me, though. I don't pay $200 for one shirt. These Southerns are really something else! We were unimpressed with the people of Oxford. We actually heard some store associates talking about "colored people" and "the blacks" and "the whites with their hired black help." We quickly left that store afraid that somehow their close-mindedness would rub off on us. Idiots.

Jackson was ready for some Southern Comfort

I was ready for some Lysol...

TripAdvisor almost never leads us astray. It did in Oxford, though. We stopped in at Ajax Diner as it was #1 in the whole city and boasted that Eli Manning (former Ole Miss QB and current top 5 favorite NFL player in my book) dined there often during his time in Oxford. Well Eli, this place sucked. The food was awful and I ended up getting sick shortly after we left. Fear not, TripAdvisor has a new review from us spelling out the dangers of this place. We did get to shop in an old-fashioned department store on the square once I finished throwing up my lunch. That was a positive outcome from a negative situation if you ask me. We still didn't buy anything as the Southerns were still on crack with their pricing. 

Oxford is also home to the original McAlister's Deli. It actually used to be a gas station and then was turned into a restaurant. Now they have hundreds of locations all over the country and is one of my favorite places to dine.

They still lift the garage door sometimes

The old shop door to the patio

The Sweet Tea philosophy is OK by me!

Isn't it cute?!

When in the South, do as Southerners do; I had a 1/2 sweet, 1/2 unsweetened tea from McAlister's to keep me company on the drive back to Germantown. Mississippi had some really pretty areas to drive through and driving was much more enjoyable than dealing with the pesky people in the "big city." I give Mississippi a "D-" mostly because of the racism. That was stupid years ago and makes no more sense now, folks, move on.

Since it was my birthday and all we headed to the Coach store in Germantown to exchange my gift from my Mom and Guy. It seems that when I said I wanted a Coach iPhone cover both my folks and Jackson listened. (For the first time EVER- ha!) I had already opened and started using the one from Jackson so I traded in the one from my folks and got a new wallet for only a $7 difference. Woot! The ladies in the Coach store were so friendly. They gave us tips on things to do and see around Memphis and we were very happy with them. I cannot recommend enough stopping in at the Germantown Coach store.

That pretty much wrapped up our day. We had gotten up extremely early and since I did actually turn *gasp* 29 that day, I was exhausted and needed some sleep. What can I say? Getting old isn't easy. ;)