Walking in Memphis

Early morning rise and the sun was shining, the skies completely blue and a packed agenda of things to do and see.  

We started with a Southern breakfast in Miss Polly's Soul City Cafe on Beale Street where Steve went for the biscuits with some weird icky white stuff and I got a massive big omlette with everything in it - delish!  

After breakfast we walked to the National Civil Rights Museum which is essentially built around the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.  The way that they have built the museum is incredibly well done as you are taken through the history of civil rights in the US and the struggle against segregation.  Some of the stories of the young men and women who stood up against such oppression was incredibly inspiring, and emotional.  The exhibits went through the history of slavery, then into the abolishment of slavery and the introduction of segregation, and then the many many fights to over rule this by proving that separate is NOT equal.

This ended in the motel room Martin Luther was staying in and behind the door of the room he was staying in when he was assassinated.  So tragic - incredibly educational and this could not be more thought provoking a place to visit.

We headed back to the hotel and picked up the car to head out to Graceland to see Elvis.

This place was amazing - it seemed like it would be quite small at first but then the house tour was bigger than expected - the decorations were wild!  The exhibits on his costumes/ trophies / platinum and gold records etc were really interesting.  I thought it was well laid out.  We also saw his plane, the Lisa marie and got to walk inside it.  All in all it was pretty cool.  A bit sad at the end as Elvis, his parents and his Gran are buried onsite also - he clearly loved his family and to have died so young was tragic.

As this was also Steve's birthday we went back to the hotel to get ready and went down for a few cocktails before heading out to Lafayettes Music Room for dinner.  This place always has live bands on and tonight's performer was Ashley McBride - she was pretty good and had this cute little thing where every 3 songs she would ask the audience to HOLLER.......and Swaller (drink!).  It was a fun place and a fun night.  we ended up back at the Hard Rock for a cheeky cocktail and I made my Hard Rock Memphis shirt purchase.  Cool end to a fantastic day!