DAY 5 (Wednesday, August 6):
The BIG DAY; ELVIS and Graceland!!!We got there just as it opened, we could choose our parking spot – so we parked under a tree where it would be cooler. Memphis is so hot and humid!
The house was not nearly what everyone was thinking. It was a nice house, a typical large colonial. Walk through the front door and you are met with the staircase going up to the second floor, with a living room off to the right and a dining room off to the left. Behind the staircase is the entrance to the kitchen to the left and a guest bedroom to the right. At the rear of the house, the den (jungle room). The décor is 70’s, but not too God awful. However, the den did have that olive green shag carpeting on the floor and the ceiling. There was a running waterfall on the left den wall.
The basement rec room was decorated in Blue, Yellow and White. It had 3 TVs and mirrors on the ceiling. He had a nice pool table in another room.
The property was large and he had horses, a built in pool, a family cemetery and some out-buildings.
Lots of pictures were taken – however, at the beginning, Laurent had to return the video camera to the car, because you are not allowed to video tape. I was singled out by the bus driver with my camera, since she recognized that it could be used as a video camera – but these days, all digital cameras can take movies – at some point they will have to change their policy along with all the new technology. I think I took 7 pictures. I didn’t want to upset the staff.
We spent a good long time visiting all the Elvis museums where he had his costumes, awards, movie posters, motor vehicles and planes.
We then jumped into the car and headed back downtown to take a ride on the Riverboat Queen. We bought our tickets and tried to find a quick restaurant to eat (Rio Loco) and then catch the boat. It was suffocatingly hot while we were in Memphis – so heavy. We took our tour of the Mississippi River and had a really interesting tour guide. He pointed out many things including Mud Island River Park where they have a ½ mile long model of the Mississippi River that you can walk thru from Cairo, IL, to New Orleans, LA.
Later that evening after swimming in the pool at the hotel, we went back down to Beale Street to get a glimpse of Harley Night with all the motorcycles lining up and down Beale Street. We shopped, took pictures and ate at a restaurant called Café 61. Nice interior; we sat on benches with tons of pillows which allowed the children to lie down and fall asleep. The waitress seemed a little clueless – our table was so unsteady and at one point the table tipped and beer was spilled all over me. I mentioned this to the waitress and she shrugged her shoulders! I was upset and said with a sarcastic voice "yeah, it’s really not all that big of a deal"…then she finally stepped to and tried half-heartedly to fix the table. She was continually saying she was new and she was so tired. We heard about how she has a baby at home who keeps her up all night and she’s worked for the last 13 hours…etc. Several minutes after ordering, she came to tell me that they were out of the fish that I had ordered. I just ended up with the soup.
The house was not nearly what everyone was thinking. It was a nice house, a typical large colonial. Walk through the front door and you are met with the staircase going up to the second floor, with a living room off to the right and a dining room off to the left. Behind the staircase is the entrance to the kitchen to the left and a guest bedroom to the right. At the rear of the house, the den (jungle room). The décor is 70’s, but not too God awful. However, the den did have that olive green shag carpeting on the floor and the ceiling. There was a running waterfall on the left den wall.
The basement rec room was decorated in Blue, Yellow and White. It had 3 TVs and mirrors on the ceiling. He had a nice pool table in another room.
The property was large and he had horses, a built in pool, a family cemetery and some out-buildings.
Lots of pictures were taken – however, at the beginning, Laurent had to return the video camera to the car, because you are not allowed to video tape. I was singled out by the bus driver with my camera, since she recognized that it could be used as a video camera – but these days, all digital cameras can take movies – at some point they will have to change their policy along with all the new technology. I think I took 7 pictures. I didn’t want to upset the staff.
We spent a good long time visiting all the Elvis museums where he had his costumes, awards, movie posters, motor vehicles and planes.
We then jumped into the car and headed back downtown to take a ride on the Riverboat Queen. We bought our tickets and tried to find a quick restaurant to eat (Rio Loco) and then catch the boat. It was suffocatingly hot while we were in Memphis – so heavy. We took our tour of the Mississippi River and had a really interesting tour guide. He pointed out many things including Mud Island River Park where they have a ½ mile long model of the Mississippi River that you can walk thru from Cairo, IL, to New Orleans, LA.
Later that evening after swimming in the pool at the hotel, we went back down to Beale Street to get a glimpse of Harley Night with all the motorcycles lining up and down Beale Street. We shopped, took pictures and ate at a restaurant called Café 61. Nice interior; we sat on benches with tons of pillows which allowed the children to lie down and fall asleep. The waitress seemed a little clueless – our table was so unsteady and at one point the table tipped and beer was spilled all over me. I mentioned this to the waitress and she shrugged her shoulders! I was upset and said with a sarcastic voice "yeah, it’s really not all that big of a deal"…then she finally stepped to and tried half-heartedly to fix the table. She was continually saying she was new and she was so tired. We heard about how she has a baby at home who keeps her up all night and she’s worked for the last 13 hours…etc. Several minutes after ordering, she came to tell me that they were out of the fish that I had ordered. I just ended up with the soup.
Later, my husbands’ sister pointed out that our waitress was dancing on the floor above so he turned to look and she lifted her skirt and not knowingly showed the unsuspecting people below her panties! So, there was a good laugh and when she returned, she slipped (on the spilled beer) and fell into the seat next to me. Jerome said “oh, we almost saw your underwear…oh, wait, we DID see your underwear!”. We explained what we saw and she didn’t seem too upset, she was more worried that her boss would overhear. This was possibly Jerome’s favorite time on the trip.
Comments