Early July required a trip! It was forecast to be 100+ every day, so we decided to pack up and fly west.  We didn't find much cooler weather, though!

First destination, Tunica, MS and Memphis.

I always love seeing the different terrain from the air.

Welcome to Mississippi. I love to type that word!

After some gambling, we drove up to Memphis. Neither of us had ever been - we toured the famous Beale Street.  Some "blues" bands were playing at various venues.  A little loud and "touristy" haha, we were tourists, after all!

Some friends had told us to be sure to go to the old Peabody Hotel.  It truly is a beautiful hotel.  For some reason, there are hundreds of ivory items on display.  I guess they don't know it's sort of "out of vogue" .....

The friends told us to be sure and see the ducks - which is apparently an odd tradition of escorting a group of ducks mid-day from their rooftop home to a pool in the center of the hotel.   We didn't time it well to see the ducks.  I'm actually ok with that.  Ducks inside - yuck!

Like I said, it's sortof touristy....OK visiting Memphis is off the bucket list.  (And a visit to Graceland was never on it, so no worries there!)

Our friends, Cecil and Carolyn invited us to spent July 4th at their mountain house near Cullowhee.
Unfortunately, the Jackson County Airport (closest to them) was closed for repairs.  Instead we flew into the very nice Macon County Airport, about 30 minutes away.

After much chatting and eating, it was time for their fireworks.  The developer of the "Bear Lake Preserve" (where their house is located) puts on a fireworks show every year.  We had front row seats sitting on their screened porch!

I was happy to see that my little camera did a good job photographing the fireworks.

The next morning, we went for a drive to downtown Sylva - beautiful little town, but most of the little shops were closed.  Beautiful courthouse in the middle of town.

Carolyn relaxing one morning!

A photo of their house on the hill!

We stopped at a rustic furniture shop - I couldn't resist posing in this outhouse!  (I think it's meant to be a garden shed, by the way!)

We delayed our departure one day due to some storms - this is the view from the deck - rainy and misty mountains in the distance!

A pleasant visit!  Back to 105 degrees in Raleigh!