Walking In Memphis

We are back from a little weekend getaway to celebrate my promotion, Marcus's birthday and the unofficial end to summer with the school year starting this week. We chose Memphis as our destination because we knew we wanted to stay in the South and I had never been. Plus it wasn't too far and there was so much there we wanted to do.

Marcus surprised me with booking a room at The Peabody. What a sweet surprise! I would have booked the Holiday Inn and called it a day but not my husband :)

After 4 1/2 hours in the car this girl was grinning ear to ear to be out of a carseat. She rode so well though. Thank you Jesus for portable DVD players and Frozen :) And have I mentioned we are currently Frozen obsessed? OBSESSED. Olaf even made the trip with us.

Secretary Georgia getting familiar with our room. She was ready to do some exploring!

The Peabody hotel is most known for the Peabody Ducks. Five mallard ducks live in the hotel and from 11-5 everyday they swim in the hotel fountain in the lobby. In order for them to get into the fountain they do a "Duck March" two times a day where they walk the red carpet from the fountain to the elevator up to their penthouse on the roof of the hotel. The ducks were Georgia Grace's favorite attraction of course!

We went up to the rooftop to see the views of the Mississippi Delta and the Duck Palace. I'm pretty sure their palace was bigger than our first home :)

When we arrived on Saturday we headed for the notorious Beale Street. My Mom and Stan made the trip with us, it was nice to have extra hands to help and entertain baby girl!

"Walking in Memphis"

The sun was directly in our eyes so this was the best we got. And there's no telling what caught her eye!

We ate dinner at Blues City Cafe for a little "south in our mouth". We all got ribs and they were perfect. 

We found the Fedex Forum and had to take a picture sitting on the basketball. We are probably some of the few Calipari fans in these parts.

We found Elvis on Beale Street too!

We walked down to the Mississippi River to watch the sun setting. They have a neat park and restaurant, and you can board the Memphis Queen which I really wanted to do but we ran out of time. Love this sweet picture of our baby girl. So natural and in her element.

After walking the town we headed back to the hotel to enjoy "Memphis's Living Room" as The Peabody's lobby is referred. It was super swanky.

Sunday morning we got up and crossed the I-40 bridge into Arkansas to see Memphis from the other side of the river. And because I'm a huge Kelly fan and wanted to see a little bit of her state. Sorry Kelly, I wasn't impressed but I'm sure NWA is a different world :)

Sunday was a day devoted to honoring the Kings of Memphis. First up was MLK. We went to the Civil Rights Museum where the Lorraine Motel still stands as it stood the day he was assassinated.

There is a replica wreath like the one that hung following his burial and two old cars are parked in front of his room that were there on the day of his assassination. It's hard to put into words how amazing it is to see this in real life. 

Next up was the King of Rock n' Roll. I was so excited to tour Graceland.

We're looking all touristy-cute in our backpacks, speakers and headphones :) We loved the self guided tour though so you could go at your own pace and hear everything clearly.

The entrance to Elvis's mansion with the staircase leading to the 2nd floor that is forbidden by the public. Only a handful of people have been on the 2nd floor since August 1977. The curiosity was strong but I restrained myself from jolting up the stairs :)

The pool room was covered in 320 yards of fabric! It felt like a big canopy. 

The studio. There was a Q&A video session playing and it felt like he was right there in the room. Very surreal.

Graceland wasn't this girl's favorite stop but she did love the mini boots on the wall. 

The old racquetball room turned awards display room. It was floor to ceiling filled with gold records.

I actually did not realize Elvis was buried in Graceland until toward the end of the mansion tour. His body rests in the Meditation Garden beside his parents and grandmother. There is also a marker for his stillborn twin brother.

And as we were boarding the bus to leave Graceland we spotted Elvis himself... :)

We did the platinum tour so we could tour the car showroom and the Lisa Marie. The automobile exhibit was fascinating! So many vehicles for one person. This was the pink Cadillac Elvis ended up giving to his Mom that he called "Gladys's car". I loved it with the snow covered Graceland behind it.

Touring the Lisa Marie may have been my favorite part of all. It was such a huge plane that probably seated 200-300 people turned into a private penthouse. Gold plated seatbelts, a phone to call out to anywhere in the world, a full bathroom with a getting ready area--I was in awe. The tour told that once Elvis realized Lisa Marie had never seen snow they hopped on the plane to Colorado, got out and played in the snow for a few minutes and then flew back to Memphis. What a life!

It was a short trip but we made the most of our time in the birthplace of rock and roll. We debated about taking this trip but I'm really glad we did. The busyness of fall is around the corner and my new job will be pretty consuming for a little while so this should cure the travel bug until October.