Memphis, Tennessee

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Nashville

April 14

Our time in Nashville was really just an excuse to visit our good friends Helene and John, and their daughter.  They hosted us for two nights in their home near the Bellevue section of Nashville, about 20 minutes west of downtown. Emilie and I spent this day tooling around downtown while our friends worked. We had been to Nashville several times but we had never visited the State Capitol building there. We drove downtown and hit two of our favorite Nashville spots, and toured the Capitol.

Emilie’s favorite downtown Nashville spot: Headquarters Beercade arcade bar!

My favorite downtown Nashville spot: Goo Goo Cluster store.  The official candy of Nashville.

We also explored the State Capitol Building via a self-guided tour.  This Capitol building  was notable for a very cool cast iron spiral staircase in the State Library…an impressive room!

We also walked up and down Broadway because you have to when down town Nashville.  It was crazy as usual.

Memphis

April 15

The drive to Memphis was about 3 hours from the west side of Nashville. Once in the city we went to the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid. It’s a huge, cavernous store with a hotel, 3 restaurants, a bowling alley, live alligators, and a tower elevator leading to an observation deck. I’m pretty sure they sell sportsman gear somewhere, too. We explored this over-the-top retail experience for a bit, but the line for the tower and observatory was too long. We figured on trying that again when we exited the city in a couple of days.

Civil Rights Museum

Before checking into our downtown hotel, we went to Sun Studio around 2:30 PM but their tours for the day were sold out. So, we drove a few minutes to the National Civil Rights Museum. We didn’t realize it is at the preserved Lorraine Motel where MLK Jr. was killed in 1968. We bought tickets there with no problem. It was a very good self-guided tour that included access to the building across the street where Ray had shot MLK from.

After about 90 minutes at the museum, we went and checked in to the Canopy by Hilton and valeted the car.  We got BBQ recommendations from the hotel desk person and set out.

Our hotel was directly across the street from the historic and swanky Peabody Hotel, home of the famous Peabody Ducks.  It turns out that we were just in time to catch the famous marching of the ducks from the hotel fountain. OMG was it crowded! Apparently, you need to get there very early for prime, floor level, duck marching viewing. We luckily found a good view from the balcony just as it was starting. It’s quite a production with a lively emcee and a cute kid from the crowd to assist (for a price, of course).  It was all very cute.  The ducks really do march from the fountain to the elevator on cue.

Beale Street

Our hotel was two blocks from the famous Beale Street.  So, there is where we went, for the experience and for Memphis BBQ. Blues City Cafe is where we ended up because they weren’t charging a cover charge to eat due to a band playing at the time.  Good thing, too…these ribs were freakin amazing!!  Our server was great, too.  Our only problem was we should have ordered a full rack. Rookie mistake.

As far as Beale Street is concerned…craziness! But in a good, festive way.  Music and drink flowed freely on the street. We found Beale Street to be more fun than Broadway in Nashville.  Two reasons: 1) We like Memphis Blues better than Country, and 2) The crowd is much more diverse on Beale Street, and so, more interesting.  Multiple ethnicities appeared equally represented here, and all having a good time together.

 

The server at Blues City Cafe recommended that we check out Ernestine and Hazel’s bar. This was about a 15-minute walk up South Main St. It turned out that this street is a very cool and lively street, too, but not crazy like Beale St.  Ernestine and Hazel’s is the ultimate dive bar…I mean it looks like an abandoned store from the outside, with no active abutting businesses. We never would have gone in if it weren’t for the server’s recommendation. Seemed like a place that Martin Scorcese would be filming a gritty movie with De Niro. It was pretty empty at this early time, about  7:00 pm. We had the bar to ourselves, where they served us some beers with a welcome smile.   The people were nice, and they had a working, though apparently haunted juke box, which we took advantage of.  They serve up food from the grill behind the bar, too. It got pretty busy as the minutes passed.  People eating the famous soul burgers from the grill. This place has a lot of local character…a great stop for a beer. Next time we will be sure to go when they have live music.

We walked back to the Beale St. area and tooled around a bit before going to the pro soccer game at Arco stadium, next to our hotel. A bartender at a bar we stopped at earlier had given us free tickets. We watched for about 45 minutes before a sudden thunderstorm called the game.

After changing some clothes in our room, we went for drinks in the lavish and tranquil Peabody Hotel lounge. Very decadent, and very busy. We were lucky to find a seat. It worked out great paying for the Canopy by Hilton while enjoying the amenities of the grand Peabody Hotel next door!

Then, off to bed.

April 16

For breakfast we walked to the famous Arcade Restaurant, which we found by accident the night before since it is right across the street from Ernestine and Hazel’s. We may have sat in the same booth Elvis sat in at one time. This was his favorite restaurant.  Elvis knew his food…the food here was excellent. Em especially loved the sweet potato pancakes. We got there around 8:45 AM and got right in. By the time we left around 9:30, there was a line out the door and down the sidewalk!! Timing is everything.

Sun Studio and Graceland

After breakfast, we walked back to the hotel to get the car.  A few minute’s drive and we were again at Sun Studio to take a tour. We got there at 10:15 AM and got in on the 10:30 tour. The tour was excellent and led by a lively, charismatic guide who obviously loved what he did. The recording studio is exactly as it was back in the 50’s.  I even got to sing into the same microphone used by Elvis.

From here we drove 20 minutes to take our 1:00 VIP tour of Graceland. I bought these tickets a month in advance to be sure we would get in.  We got there an hour before our mansion tour so we toured some of the museum, and Elvis’s airplanes. This access was part of the VIP package.  I didn’t even know there were commercial size airplanes on display at Graceland.  Well, one was commercial size, the “Lisa Marie”, and the other was a smaller Lockheed jet.  The Lisa Marie interior is truly unreal. It includes gold plated bathroom sinks and faucets, gold-plated seat belt buckles, and a bedroom with a bed that has a seatbelt.

In addition to the airplanes, the VIP tour also included a private shuttle from the museum to the mansion, and express line entry. Well worth it. VIPs also got access to a private lounge area which we could use anytime during our self-guided audio mansion tour. Surprisingly to us, the mansion is not really huge. The grounds were large, and there were several outbuildings like the racquetball court but the home itself was smaller than expected…still large, though. The great thing was seeing how the rooms were furnished, and seeing the bizarre jungle room. After the mansion tour, we spent about another two hours checking out the various museum exhibits.  There were endless artifacts. We were there for 4 hours!

Then, back to the hotel. Went valeted the car and walked to Central BBQ for dinner, right next to the Civil Rights Museum. This was good but not nearly as good as the night before on Beale Street. The atmosphere inside and outside wasn’t as fun either. Eh.

Then we caught a few bands back on Beale Street. Our favorite was the Jerry Lee Lewis bar.  The host saw us standing at the door and he whisked us in without asking if we wanted to stay, and plopped us down at a table right in front of the band.  I guess we’re staying!  The band was good and the place was happening.

Then we hit Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar & Grill.  The band here was even better and bluesier.  Good choices.

April 17

We walked around the hotel neighborhood looking for coffee and a quick breakfast. We ended up at Starbucks near South Second Street. We took a few final minutes walking around the area with our coffees before checking out and heading toward Little Rock and Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Before leaving Memphis, we drove back to the Bass Pyramid to see if we could get up to the observation tower without waiting in a long line. We figured Monday morning might be a better time than Saturday. We were right. We got there just as the tower opened so there was just a short line.

The hardest part of getting a ticket and onto the elevator was getting past the “elevator nazi” selling the tickets and managing the flow. We somehow did things right enough, with just one reprimand for Emilie who was one step off of her proper waiting spot.

The elevator with windows on two sides allowed us to see just how vastly large the inside of the Pyramid is as we ascended the 28 stories. There is a restaurant at the observation level and two sides with decks. Views of Memphis and the Mississippi River were spectacular.

From here, our next stop was the Arkansas State Capitol building in Little Rock about 2 hours away.

Next: Hot Springs and Little Rock