Opry Mills

As much as I love visiting in the house in Franklin, there is only so much time three little boys can spend sitting still. Eventually, they need to get out and run around the yard, or be taken to the park. Since the weather was rainy a lot of the time during our trip (and almost every second Jamie spent behind the wheel) I took us all to the Opry Mills Mall. Well, not Aunt Betty, because she was tired.

I know. I know. The mall. But hey, this is not a small mall. It's got really, really high ceilings and huge stores. The food court not only has a carousel, but a rope challenge! I thought Andy would have trouble with that, though.

Then we visited the Stingray Reef, where we paid money to touch stingrays. Really. There was this huge swimming pool full of stingrays. The very tip of it was limited to baby stingrays, and we were allowed to pet the baby stingrays. I touched one. I even made my boys touch them. Because we were there, and the stingrays were there. But Jamie refused. Did you know he's afraid of fish? He is. It's funny.
I also paid $2 for "Stingray food" which turned out to be three peices of shrimp, which I was supposed to hold between my fingers while allowing a full grown stingray to envelop my arm. I tried. But those suckers and as big as bathtubs. I closed my eyes, but even so, I felt the fleshy wing of one on my arm and I couldn't help thinking my whole hand was going to disappear. So I screamed and yanked my arm back. One of the employees came over to show me how easy it was, and she held out the shrimp, and the stingray bit her! And she was bleeding. Ha! So we rode the carousel that belonged to the Stingray Reef,

and then moved over to have lunch at the Aquarium Restaurant next door.



While we were there, Jamie pointed out that a stingray killed Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, and that I had taken the word of a ten-year-old stranger that the stingers had been removed. I must have lost my mind.

It was fun. I had a great time. I think the boys (including Jamie) did, too.