Walking in Memphis

Well today we definitely did some "walking" in Memphis. We saw the Peabody Ducks walk into the beautiful lobby fountain from the elevator. Yes, I kid you not. For those of you who do not know about the Peabody ducks, they have been doing the ceremonial descent down from their roof top penthouse to the lobby for over 50 years (of course they are different ducks because ducks don't live 50 years).

It's really quite a sight. At 11AM each morning the "duck master" dressed appropriately, goes and gets the ducks from the roof into the elevator where they descend upon a rather large crowd of humans waiting to see them. They walk down a red carpet and into the fountain in the lobby of the hotel. They stay there until 5PM when they are then gathered and taken back up in the elevator to their roof top "palace" until the next morning. It's really pretty neat. The hotel is old and wonderful but the ducks steal the show!!!

Then we went walking with "Elvis" at Graceland. What can I say? His home looks like something we all lived in during the 60's and 70's(complete with shag carpets, mirrored ceilings and formica counters). It was amazing. For it's time it was a mansion but now compared to what we have, especially on Hilton Head, it seems rather disappointing. What wasn't disappointing was the memorabilia that the house holds. It was amazing to see all his gold/platinum records and the outfits he wore and his cars. It was definitely worth seeing and gave us a totally different view of Elvis. He actually seemed like a pretty nice, decent human in addition to be being so talented.

Then we walked down a different path on the restored trolley they have running down here. We met this wonderful, kinda lost soul named Tony. He shared with us more history and stories about Memphis than any tour director would have. He was great. We learned more about Memphis in 30 minutes than we had the 2 days we've been here. We saw an old slave auction block, a deserted slave quarters (holding building before the auction), the hotel where Marvin Gaye was killed, the Gibson guitar factory and the where the largest BBQ festival will be held in a couple of weeks. Thanks to all the walking Tony did in his life, we made out. Hope he is taken care on his future paths.

Anyway, we decided, May is the month to come to Memphis and between the blues and BBQ festivals that take place here during the month we will definitely come back again. Anyone care to join us, Walking through Memphis, next year???

It was a wonderful day and as we had our $10.00 glass of wine watching the ducks go home for the night we agreed, life is good!

Love,

Mare and Rich