"Little More Conversation" about Memphis

      There's a bit more I could write about on the trip, but trying not to put you to sleep. Also, my android is getting outdated and pictures not the best so many are on my sister's phone and she'll share with me, but here's a few I had. My older sister and I had to keep reminding ourselves that while we were vacationing, little sister was working. We had to make sure not to be bad influences and keep her up all hours. No problem there as I turn into a pumpkin by 10:00. As you read Friday, we ate well; we drank well too.

     Sunday, arriving about noon and given an early check-in, was a day to check out the scene of downtown Memphis, Beale Street, live music, and many beverages. As the weather wasn't much different than home, we were quite comfortable. Dinner was at Hueys, a Memphis staple with many locations. We had beverages and conversation poolside back at the hotel before calling it a day. 

     Monday got off to a start with my sister going to work then we tourists started our day with a nice breakfast in the hotel before heading off. I'd highly recommend, actually do not miss going to the Civil Rights Museum. In fact, I think every member of Congress, the president and his cabinet, and all Supreme Court Judges must be required to go and view every exhibit before being sworn into office. I didn't take many pictures as I just wanted to read and think. This caught eye. 

     We took our time after the museum, loving the street art. The cable car wasn't running but I saw this station was named for Dr. King. We had a late lunch on Beale Street of gumbo ( yes! No shellfish in it) and shared order of fried green tomatoes, before finding an outdoor patio bar with really good live music. Fellow travellers were three tables from UK and another from Germany. 

My sister caught me totally enjoying my lunch. 

     We met a group of my sister's coworkers who live in the area for Monday dinner at  the Blues City Cafe. I was thinking there was going to be live music but it was more a diner than a club. We walked to a park to see the bridge lights, but there were just colored lights, no light show as my sister said normally occurs. We didn't linger long as the downtown and river area is a bit iffy after dark. 

     Tuesday we walked a lot to see various features near the river. There was an installment of suffrage rights advocates that we made sure to see. After a cool down and water fill up at the visitor center, we walked to Mud Island over the bridge and did the river walk. Lunch was a spinach, feta, and strawberry salad wrap before heading back for a few hours in the pool. We cleaned up before seeing the ducks in the Peabody Hotel, who ride the elevator down in the morning and up in the afternoon. Just silly. We bought a bottle of wine to have a pre-dinner drink on the balcony, that had nice people watching in the shade.

     Tuesday was also the bougie dinner at Flights for my younger sisters birthday. My favorite funny enough was the chicken and waffles (served fancy) but the stuffing for the quail was phenomenal, and the potato croquette with the lamb was melt in your mouth delicious. Wines were good, desserts great. We rolled home. 

     Wednesday we took the car to Graceland. It was a given to experience once. I had heard much about the mansion itself being more like a big house in today's standards and still in 70's decor. I actually appreciated that he chose to try and have a refuge to spend time with family and friends and not a huge cavernous impersonal mansion.

That's my sister in the foreground. 

     The memorabilia and cars were interesting and more focused on his life overall, so slightly different perspective from the various movies. We had fun with the interactive cameras putting you in Elvis ensembles or movie posters. 

Elvis wore this much better.

Do you like my "hang 10"?

     We grabbed a bit of lunch, me an Elvis favorite grilled PB and banana sandwich, shared fries, and then stopped at the Enesco/ Department 56 museum and shop on the way out. 

     I have about a dozen of Kohl's Christmas village pieces and like a good winter scene, so seeing these displays was really impressive. 

     Back at the hotel, we had another few hours poolside before our sister got back and we cleaned up to head to the Casino for the Singo (bingo with songs). While it was loud in the background, it was fun when a favorite came up, particularly on the soul classics, lots of Motown, came on and everyone just naturally sang along.  We had dinner while playing, courtesy of the free food vouchers they sent my sister after a big win a few years ago to lure her back to lose the money she won. We played in the casino and had a little bit of luck, me coming back to the hotel with a whole $62 more than I left with. 

     We had the luxury of not hurrying Thursday morning so had breakfast poolside, while of course, younger sister had a meeting. She had one while waiting at airport to get on board (and one at 3:30 once home). 

     Funny coincidence, my husband's cousin had been on our flight, neither knowing, until he came up to me waiting for the train to bring us from one part of MSP airport to the other. I had just seen him at a grad party but didn't really get the chance to talk so that was a nice added bonus. All and all, a good jaunt tagging along. We did touristy things, got good walking steps, relaxed and swam, and just had good sister time. Two other sisters are joining her September trip. We'll pass our notes on to them.