"The mississippi delta was shining like a national guitar.
I am following the river, down the highway,
through the cradle of the civil war.
I'm going to Graceland" -Paul Simon
I spent ten hours on the road from Austin to Memphis to celebrate my 29th birthday. So, why didn't I just drive to Houston or Dallas? Why not visit Oklahoma City or New Orleans? Why didn't I fly to San Francisco or Seattle or New York City instead? Why, of all places in America, did I choose to go to Memphis for my birthday? I didn't visit for the history of rock-n-roll where Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Muddy Waters kicked off. Or because Elvis danced and sang around the stages and studios within the city. I didn't go to learn about the Civil War or to take pictures at the famous Memphis Cotton Exchange. No, not even to watch the local blues bands on Beale Street or to walk along Old Man Mississippi Delta. Although these tourist spots were a plus in my adventure, I didn't visit Memphis, Tennessee, because of Memphis, Tennessee. I took that road trip because I have a strange and semi-disturbing infatuation for Paul Simon.Paul Simon's Graceland was stuck inside my head and my heart for multiple months prior to my birthday. I was suckered into his inadvertent subliminal advertising; did Memphis pay Paul to boost city tourism? While the simple movie line, "I am NOT drinking any f*@king Merlot," from Sideways brought the sales of Merlot down in America a huge notch, I'm sure Paul Simon's song brought a whole swarm of people into the gates of Graceland. Or was I the only product placement sucker?
I went on a magical journey "to be received," and although my "traveling companion" was not nine years old, we both acted so. The journey to Memphis consisted of a copious amount of Paul Simon music. And once there, we watched live local bands playing anything but Paul. Between food, music, drinking, museums and site seeing, we had a busy three day journey.
BEALE STREET
Of course, as any typical Memphis tourist, my first stop was Beale Street. Just as Los Angeles has its Hollywood Boulevard, Austin has its Sixth Street, and New Orleans has its Bourbon Street, Beale Street is a tourist party and music strip where locals set the stage for a night of fun. Similar to Hollywood Boulevard's "Walk of Fame" Beale Street's sidewalks are dotted with brass musical notes (rather than stars) engraved with names of famous blues musicians. It feels like a tourist trap on the outside while walking along the newly paved, pedestrian-only strip with hosts and bouncers standing outside and bribing you in with specials galore, but it's a different story on the inside of each bar. Music has been the heartbeat of Beale Street since the 1860s and still holds true to its official name, "Home of The Blues". The local musicians pump out a tangible amount of energy and soul into each song, even on weekday nights when the crowd is minimal. The only downfall? Tourist spots mean tourist prices. Note to self: Ordering a Guinness with a side of Jager Bomb is good on the belly, but bad on the wallet. Also, the Beale Street late night flippers are amazing, so a dollar or two will make them smile. :)
PEABODY HOTEL
As a child, my family and I were shameless in spending our vacation days swimming at a fancy hotel while drinking Shirley Temples, and sneaking back to our not-so-fancy motel down the street by sundown. It was fun then, and surprisingly it's still fun as an adult, especially at the oh-so-fancy shmancy Peabody Hotel, another historic tourist hotspot and home of the Peabody ducks.
I learned more about the world-renowned Peabody mallard ducks than anything else on this trip. Each morning they head down from their duck penthouse suite to the first floor of the Peabody Hotel. There, they walk along a red carpet and hop into a fountain, where they flap and quack until 4pm, and they march back upstairs for dinner and probably a duck movie before bedtime. This daily Duck March, led by a Duck Master, has been an ongoing tradition since 1932. It began when the then general manager and his friend drunkenly returned from a hunting trip and placed some ducks in the hotel fountain as decoy, a silly prank. Jack Daniels seems to bring out some great ideas! Unfortunately all Jack ever brought out of me was my dinner...
Sipping on coffee and duck-watching by a cozy fireplace in the lobby, listening to a romantic piano serenade, or wandering the elegant hallways of the Peabody Hotel is definitely a must in Memphis, even if you're not a hotel guest. ^.~
MISSISSIPPI DELTA
My favorite hobby is walking. I can outwalk anybody for hours either in $2.50 Old Navy sandals in the middle of a Texas summer or wrapped in a jacket in winter. It was soul-cracking cold outside in December, but I wandered around downtown Memphis and along the Mississippi Delta. Parks are stretched out along the river, where history is literally written on plaques, and steamboats scatter the riverfront.
DOWNTOWN
To get a true feel of downtown and do as the local Memphians do without a tourist ticket price, I hopped on the trolley, the local public transportation, heading down Main Street. Watching the city slowly pass through the window inside the vintage trolley, I got the feeling that this city hadn't changed too drastically over the past decades, possibly century. A few high rises are plotted around the city, but you get the sense of traveling back in time. Brick buildings with new business signs are slapped over chipped and faded store signs, once painted bright and colorful. On a typical weekday in most cities, downtown is a bustling center for business workers and shop owners alike; not Memphis. The only challenge of finding a parking spot in the center of the city was finding an unbroken parking meter. I absolutely loved the beautiful and old feel of the city. I enjoyed the simple pleasures of not having the need to rush, local restaurants serving intensely delectable southern food, and having the comfort of southern hospitality everywhere I went. Memphis was filled with hidden treasures, and all that was needed to find them was a little bit of walking. Of course, driving around isn't so bad either.
MEMPHIS MUSIC TOURS
GRACELAND
We all know those annoying people who sit in the parking lot after a concert and blare the music of the the group they just saw ten minutes prior. Well, we were those people. While leaving the gates of Graceland we threw on an Elvis mix on Pandora. Only, we never actually entered Graceland; I opted out last minute to keep the mystery of Graceland's magic within Paul Simon's song.
Of course, as any typical Memphis tourist, my first stop was Beale Street. Just as Los Angeles has its Hollywood Boulevard, Austin has its Sixth Street, and New Orleans has its Bourbon Street, Beale Street is a tourist party and music strip where locals set the stage for a night of fun. Similar to Hollywood Boulevard's "Walk of Fame" Beale Street's sidewalks are dotted with brass musical notes (rather than stars) engraved with names of famous blues musicians. It feels like a tourist trap on the outside while walking along the newly paved, pedestrian-only strip with hosts and bouncers standing outside and bribing you in with specials galore, but it's a different story on the inside of each bar. Music has been the heartbeat of Beale Street since the 1860s and still holds true to its official name, "Home of The Blues". The local musicians pump out a tangible amount of energy and soul into each song, even on weekday nights when the crowd is minimal. The only downfall? Tourist spots mean tourist prices. Note to self: Ordering a Guinness with a side of Jager Bomb is good on the belly, but bad on the wallet. Also, the Beale Street late night flippers are amazing, so a dollar or two will make them smile. :)
PEABODY HOTEL
As a child, my family and I were shameless in spending our vacation days swimming at a fancy hotel while drinking Shirley Temples, and sneaking back to our not-so-fancy motel down the street by sundown. It was fun then, and surprisingly it's still fun as an adult, especially at the oh-so-fancy shmancy Peabody Hotel, another historic tourist hotspot and home of the Peabody ducks.
I learned more about the world-renowned Peabody mallard ducks than anything else on this trip. Each morning they head down from their duck penthouse suite to the first floor of the Peabody Hotel. There, they walk along a red carpet and hop into a fountain, where they flap and quack until 4pm, and they march back upstairs for dinner and probably a duck movie before bedtime. This daily Duck March, led by a Duck Master, has been an ongoing tradition since 1932. It began when the then general manager and his friend drunkenly returned from a hunting trip and placed some ducks in the hotel fountain as decoy, a silly prank. Jack Daniels seems to bring out some great ideas! Unfortunately all Jack ever brought out of me was my dinner...
Sipping on coffee and duck-watching by a cozy fireplace in the lobby, listening to a romantic piano serenade, or wandering the elegant hallways of the Peabody Hotel is definitely a must in Memphis, even if you're not a hotel guest. ^.~
MISSISSIPPI DELTA
My favorite hobby is walking. I can outwalk anybody for hours either in $2.50 Old Navy sandals in the middle of a Texas summer or wrapped in a jacket in winter. It was soul-cracking cold outside in December, but I wandered around downtown Memphis and along the Mississippi Delta. Parks are stretched out along the river, where history is literally written on plaques, and steamboats scatter the riverfront.
DOWNTOWN
To get a true feel of downtown and do as the local Memphians do without a tourist ticket price, I hopped on the trolley, the local public transportation, heading down Main Street. Watching the city slowly pass through the window inside the vintage trolley, I got the feeling that this city hadn't changed too drastically over the past decades, possibly century. A few high rises are plotted around the city, but you get the sense of traveling back in time. Brick buildings with new business signs are slapped over chipped and faded store signs, once painted bright and colorful. On a typical weekday in most cities, downtown is a bustling center for business workers and shop owners alike; not Memphis. The only challenge of finding a parking spot in the center of the city was finding an unbroken parking meter. I absolutely loved the beautiful and old feel of the city. I enjoyed the simple pleasures of not having the need to rush, local restaurants serving intensely delectable southern food, and having the comfort of southern hospitality everywhere I went. Memphis was filled with hidden treasures, and all that was needed to find them was a little bit of walking. Of course, driving around isn't so bad either.
MEMPHIS MUSIC TOURS
Think of singing into the very microphone that Elvis and other famous musicians of his time breathed into. Consider watching the making, the very inception of what glorious guitar solos eventually become, starting at the factory. Get a historical grasp of the foundation of what music has become before walking the streets of Memphis. Leaving Memphis without visiting the Gibson factory, the Rock 'n' Soul Museum, Sun Studios, or Graceland is leaving with an empty understanding of Memphis.
MEMPHIS ZOO
I was never a fan of visiting a city, spending an afternoon at the zoo, as the only culture I get is animal culture. But sometimes the zoo is a caged representation of local culture, and it's a way to escape the city life and hop into animal life. Since it was winter, the kiddie ride park was closed and the giraffes (my favorite animal in the entire world) were nowhere to be found, but they had a tent with an ice-skating rink, blaring 1980s music that was probably hidden from the general public for a reason but the locals seemed to love it. Also, I could sit at the base of the aquarium and stare at the same sea lion circle around for hours. My favorite were the fat pandas sitting on their fat bottoms and eating bamboo. A plus in the Chinese pavilion, across the panda cage, was watching a young man propose to his girlfriend, something I've never seen outside of television. The Memphis Zoo, a local romance scene!
We all know those annoying people who sit in the parking lot after a concert and blare the music of the the group they just saw ten minutes prior. Well, we were those people. While leaving the gates of Graceland we threw on an Elvis mix on Pandora. Only, we never actually entered Graceland; I opted out last minute to keep the mystery of Graceland's magic within Paul Simon's song.
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