Blues and Memphis

Our full day in Memphis: did some shopping and then we hopped onto a Backbeats Bus tour of Memphis where we learned about Elvis, BB King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and other famous Blues artists. We also drove past St. Jude's Children's Hospital and the site where Martin Luther King Jr. Was assassinated. After our tour, we went to Sun Studios, the recording studio where Elvis, Johnny Cash, and others all started out. That was loads of interesting. This is a shot of one of Elvis's guitars. We got to hold and take pictures with a mic that Elvis recorded with at Sun Studios!! Our two tour guides for the Backbeats Bus Tour and Sun Studios Tour were excellent.

When we got back to Downtown Memphis we went to the Hard Rock Café where the host said we could get up on stage to take a picture. Mama jumped right up there and then Liz and I followed (me, reluctantly bc I'm a chicken). He even let us pick up guitars! And the burger that I got was delicious.

Next we went to the Peabody Hotel to see the Peabody Ducks. The story goes that two men staying at the hotel 80 years ago went out hunting and brought live duck decoys and a bottle of Jack Daniels with them. After a while they didn't catch any game but they did get a little twisted and decided that it would be a good idea to sneak the ducks into the hotel and put them in the fountain. When one of the men woke up the next morning, he went down to the lobby to apologize for their prank and in the process noticed that the ducks hadn't been removed from the pond, but were surrounded by guests and tourists who liked seeing them there. Eventually it became a tradition to have trained ducks march down from the 12th floor of the Peabody Hotel, into an elevator, onto a red carpet, and into the fountain in the lobby at 11am. Then again at 5pm the ducks are marched back out the same way, every day. This is a big attraction in Memphis. Richest ducks in the world getting to live in a gorgeous hotel, on the top floor in their own suite.

After that we took it easy and then headed back to Beale Street for one more walk while the Blues bars were hoppin'.