Walkin' in Memphis

Lisa:
Whew. What a day! We started off bright and early at Graceland, home of the King. We took a guided tour of the mansion and it was pretty cool. Very retro. The 70s were a very interesting time period for home decor. I'm talking green shag carpeting on the ceilings, mirrors everywhere, and one room with a lightning bolt mural on one wall. And then there was the jungle room. Whoa. More shag carpeting, floor and ceiling, a waterfall, and the crazy carved wooden chairs with animal print everywhere. It was pretty groovy. I think we all learned a little more about Elvis today so it was definitely educational as well as entertaining.

We also saw some side tours of his cars, his airplanes, and one whole exhibit filled only with jumpsuits. Those were out of control. Was anyone besides Elvis wearing jumpsuits or was he alone on this fad? I mean, there were a ton of them and all of them with intricate beading and chains and belts and capes. Capes! I just kept picturing Uncle Jesse from Full House and that music "dun da dun, dun da dun." Maybe that's just me. But they were pretty crazy. And you could buy your very own jumpsuit in the gift shop for the low price of $3700. Practically a steal.

I'm so glad we got to experience that and Tiny Elvis certainly had a ball revisiting his old stomping grounds. I mean, look at that face!

We ate lunch at the Arcade Cafe, the oldest cafe in Memphis and we all got to experience the Elvis sandwich. You know, the fried peanut butter and banana. And let me tell you, the King was on to something with this one. This was a really cool cafe that we stumbled upon by the Lorraine Motel and I highly recommend it.

So we continued on to the National Civil Rights Museum and spent a few hours in there looking at all the exhibits. There was so much information and there was no way we could see it all, but it was a really nice museum. I love when you get to see the actual spots where historic events took place. Standing in the room where Dr. King stepped out onto the balcony and was killed was a pretty intense feeling. That whole museum just reemphasized to me that all of these things really happened to real people. Very cool.

And now on to Batey...

Batey:

So after the Civil Rights Museum, we attempted to go on to Sun Studios . . . attempted is the key work there. We parked in downtown, and started walking in the direction we THOUGHT it was, but we were highly mistaken. We stood on the street corner trying to figure out where we were and in the process became very acquainted with the street folk. Good times. We finally realized Sun Studios was too far away from where we were and decided we would postpone it until tomorrow.

So, we found a fun little coffee shop and got some drinks and pastries and just hung out, rested, and talked for a while. I really liked this coffee shop and it had some really cool paintings of different places around Memphis. Amber and Lisa both bought a really cool print of one (which I kinda wish I had bought, too)

After the coffee shop, we went to a Crepe place to eat dinner and it was SOOO good. It was my first experience with crepes, and I was thoroughly impressed. After dinner, we were all pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, our goals are to see the ducks at the Peabody hotel, Sun Studios, the Rock n' Soul Museum (oh yeah), and then head on to Nashville!! Music City here we come!!