Shelby Farms & Memphis Zoo

We arrived in Memphis for capstone week early Monday afternoon. Our first stop was the Nike Clearance store, where we hoped to find Michael a few things for his birthday last week. We took our time there, and he was able to find a bunch of great stuff! It was very successful. After that, we checked into our guest houses we had rented for the week. 

We used Airbnb to get a little house in the Central Gardens neighborhood while we were in Memphis. It was the carriage house of one of the big houses on Peabody, and for the price of a hotel room, we had a living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and laundry room. I knew it would be tough to live out of a hotel room with Paul and this was perfect for us! We were pretty tired once we for settled in, so Michael picked up dinner from Young Ave Deli for us. I was surprised at how fast we ate everything! It was delicious.

On Tuesday morning, Paul and I met Kelsie, Daxon and Iszie at Shelby Farms. I had been asking Paul if he remembered Daxon but he was confused and thought I meant his Knoxville friends (Jackson and Jackson). It took them a few minutes to warm up to each other and then it was no like time had passed at all. They had a blast playing in the sand, sliding and running around together. 

After some lunch and a bit of relaxing at our house, we packed back up and took off to the zoo to meet more friends. We found Katie and Brooklyn right away and walked in with them. When we got to the farm area, we all rode the train, which was a must for Paul. 

As we were making the second loop on the train, we spotted Krystal, Brock and Will! The train went around once more before we got off and met up with them. Once again, Paul and Brock seemed to be up to speed in no time. 

They could not stop holding hands or putting their arms around each other, which is cute but in reality made walking difficult for them. One of them was always falling over or at least in danger of it. 

Checking out the Komodo dragons. Paul saw a statue of one as we were coming into the zoo and got very excited. He said he wanted to see the giant lizard!

I love this one of Brock, Will, Brooklyn and Paul watching the elephants. Also, Will is trying to steal veggie straws from Brooklyn, which is bonus cuteness.

That evening, SCO hosted a reception for the graduating students on the rooftop of the Peabody Hotel. Most of our friends also came and we all had fun eating good food and enjoying the beautiful view of downtown from above.

There was a band playing music and Paul wanted to dance! Brooklyn very much wanted to dance with Paul. Once he was done though, and wanted to dance with Daxon, she just kept chasing Paul around. It was pretty cute.

It was a great way to kick off the week!