Whenever we visit a new city, we like to check out the zoo and / or aquarium. I had read that the Memphis Zoo was a great one and it definitely was.
The weather was perfect and there were a lot of school groups but it was spread out enough that it wasn't a problem. The zoo is laid out in a big loop which made it easy to start by going one direction and see each exhibit until you ended up back at the beginning. I took notice that there were a lot of places to sit to take a break and a lot of opportunities for rest rooms. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to do all the exhibits including a short lunch break. We walked a little over 4 miles. Below are just some of my favorite pictures of the day.
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I have been to Graceland once before...30 years ago. Of course the house itself is the same but the complex across the street has expanded a lot. We splurged and did the Ultimate VIP tour. This is a guided tour for up to 12 people. The alternative is a self guided tour with audio through an IPad. We checked in and received our lanyard and had a few minutes to wait for the tour to start. Our guide for the tour was Ecstasy and she was awesome. She said there were 4 people signed up but the other two didn't show up so it was now a private tour. Fine with us! We rode over to the mansion and went to a back door area to watch a short introductory movie. Then we went to the front of the mansion. Our first stop was the living room / music room. Ecstasy explained from the beginning that Elvis' father kept everything. Everything in the house is original. The management is always on the look out for original items that ended up in different locations. The white piano was the original piano in the music room and it took some time for them to track it down and purchase it back for the house. She also told us that Elvis loved television so there is always at least one television in every room. The couch seated 15 people and Elvis had that custom made. The next room was the dining room. Again there was a TV in the corner where Elvis could see it from his chair. She told us that the Presley family still celebrates either Thanksgiving or Christmas in the house. The mansion is closed on both of those days. The staff will know what day they are planning to be there and they will prepare the house for them. The next room was Gladys' bedroom (Elvis' mother). After she passed, Elvis had the room kept exactly as it had been when she was alive. Next was the kitchen. Elvis had one of the first microwaves which he purchased for $600. His aunt had a bedroom off of the kitchen area. She lived in the mansion for several years after it had already opened for tours. Our guide said that tour groups would never knew if you may see her in the kitchen cooking. Then we went downstairs to the TV room which our guide called the ultimate man cave. She said that Elvis liked to be there with his friends and had a movie screen that would come down from the ceiling. The room next to it had a pool table where he also used to hang out. It is covered in a fabric that Elvis saw and feel in love with and then had a designer work to put on the walls and ceilings. Going back upstairs, we came to the famous Jungle room From here, we went out in the back to some additional buildings. There was Vernon's office as well as an archive building that houses a variety of different items from throughout Elvis' life. We also went to the racquetball court building. This is where Elvis was on his last day and played his last two songs on the piano in that building. Our last stop at the house was to the meditation gardens. Originally Elvis and his mother where buried at a local cemetery. Due to security issues, Vernon had them moved to Graceland. Elvis father and grandmother are also buried there. There is a marker for Elvis' twin brother. Before we went back across the street to the Elvis' Memphis complex, our guide told us she would take our photo in front of the mansion without any other people in it. It was pretty busy with a continuous shuttle buses dropping people off but she said "Don't worry. We will get it." She basically held up people coming off the bus and waited for everyone else to get inside the door and then she said "let's go." She was great!! She called for our shuttle bus and then we rode back over to the complex. There is so much more to see there. Our first stop was the car museum. This is just a few of the cars and other vehicles there: Our next stop was an exhibit that walked you through Elvis' career. Again, there is so much to see here, including many of Elvis' outfits. My favorite area was a special section for his spiritual music. Elvis won 3 Grammys and they were all for his Gospel music. Our last stop with our guide was a special area only for the Ultimate tour. It was a chance to see some items from the archive collection. We were allowed to hold one of the items as long as we were white gloves. Then we got to see a few more items as well. That was the end of our time with the guide. She was just amazing. We got so much more information from her than we would have received from the audio tour. Our tour ticket got us access to the rest of the complex and also included lunch at Vernon's Smokehouse. We enjoyed our lunch and then spent some more time seeing the rest of the exhibits. We ended up being there for 6 hours! We were tired by the end but it was a great day.
We actually started our first full day in Memphis by driving to Tupelo, Mississippi. It was about a 90 minute drive and we had smooth sailing. We arrived at Elvis' Birthplace by mid-morning. We knew there was three main areas to visit: the museum, the church and the house. We purchased a "grand tour" ticket that got us access to all three. The woman at the ticket counter told us we had an assigned time for a presentation at the church in about 20 minutes. We decided to make that our first stop so we looked around the gift shop a bit and then headed over to the church. The church is the original church that Elvis attended. It used to be about a block away from its current location. The church was sold and a family turned it into a 2 bedroom home for quite some time. Then it was bought by the Elvis foundation and moved to the birthplace grounds. It was restored to look like the church. The only original piece of furniture is the pulpit. We entered at our assigned time and took a seat in a pew. A woman told us the history of the church and told us that we would now see a multimedia presentation. Three big screens lowered from the ceiling, one covering the front wall and two covering the side walls. Little projectors dropped down from panels in the ceiling as well. What followed was about a 15 minute presentation that simulated what it would have been like to attend the church. The side screens made it look like you were seated with the rest of the congregation. The pastor spoke some but it was most about the music. They sang as a whole congregation and they had a quartet sing as well. They also had a young Elvis come up with his parents and sing a little song. At the end, they showed video of the process of moving the church and restoring it. We did not expect the presentation to be like that but we really enjoyed it. We then moved on to see the house. The house was built by Elvis' father and still stands in its original location. It was only two rooms. The front room had a bed and a small sitting area. It was in that room that Elvis was born. Being the only bedroom, it is also the room that Elvis shared with his parents. The second room was a kitchen area and a table with a bowl and pitcher. While electricity was available, the Presleys could not afford it so they used lamps. They also did not have a bathroom. They used an outhouse. Obviously, being so small, it really doesn't take long to walk through the house. There is a volunteer there to ask questions and she provided basic information about the house. Our last stop on the "grand tour" was the museum. No photos were allowed inside. It was mainly some items from throughout Elvis' life and some information about his upbringing in Tupelo. After we were finished there, we walked up to a memorial area called "Becoming." It has two statues of Elvis: one of him as a boy and a second standing behind with his cape spread out as if during a concert. The total time it took us to go through everything was about 2 hours, at the most. It is well worth the trip there. The grounds are well laid out and easy to get around.
We have arrived for a few days of touring in Memphis!
It was a rainy day with scattered thunderstorms in NY so our flight ended up being delayed but thankfully we made it out. Nothing planned for today except to arrive and get settled. We are staying at the Guest House from Graceland which is associated with Graceland. It used to the "Heartbreak Hotel" but it has had a big makeover. We ate at their casual restaurant tonight. We spent today with our friends at Colonial Williamsburg. Colonial Williamsburg is a living history museum containing a combination of restored original buildings as well as reconstructed buildings. Your admission ticket gives you access to various buildings as well as activities available throughout the day. The buildings have trade people actually performing the various trade. There are also other buildings such as the Capitol building, courthouse and Governor's palace. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for walking around and going into buildings as they came along. My favorite of the trade buildings that we saw today was the weavers. There was a woman demonstrating the loom while another gentleman would describe what she was doing and answer questions. There was also another woman using the spinning wheel to make cotton into thread. We took the tours available at the Capitol, the Governor's palace and the coffeehouse. At the coffeehouse, you were able to sample your choice of either coffee, tea or chocolate. I chose chocolate. It was like melted chocolate that was not sweetened. The tours at the Capitol and Governor's palace gave you an overview of each building and what would have happened in each room. You would also get a glimpse into what was life was like in the colonial times. As I mentioned it was a beautiful day and there were so many flowers and gardens to walk through. There is no way you could do everything Colonial Williamsburg has to offer in one day. We enjoyed everything that we did and would definitely come back again. We went to dinner tonight at the Hound's Tale restaurant. Our friends ordered Fried Brussel Spouts and Shrimp Tempura as appetizers to share. Chris and I both had a burger and fries. For dessert, Chris and I shared a piece of S'mores Cheesecake. I did forget a picture of the cheesecake..oops. Everything was very good. And that is the end of our touring. Tomorrow we have about a 7 hour drive back to NY (where it is cold again!). We had a great time. With the exception of weather that was not great for the first half of the trip, everything went smoothly and we liked everything we did.
I always love my trips to Disney, but it was great to do a non-Disney trip. I am already thinking about where we could on another road trip! We have good friends that live near Williamsburg and they graciously took off two days from work to come and be our tour guides for Williamsburg. Today we went to the site of the Battle of Yorktown. Hamilton fans will be familiar with this battle and we made it a point to visit the specific site where Hamilton fought. There were also many mentions and locations related to the Marquis de Lafayette. We started at the visitor's center, watching an orientation movie and then looked at the exhibits there. We also walked around the building to the few outdoor exhibits. We then went to the car to drive around the historic route around the site. There is a map you can reference for different points of interest. There were also plenty of signs along the way talking about what took place in each location. Top on our list of things to see was Redoubt 10, where Hamilton fought. Redoubt 9 was in the same area. We made a stop at Surrender Field, where the British surrendered. Our final stop was the Moore house, where the surrender agreement was signed. There was definitely a lot to see at the Yorktown site. It was also a beautiful day so it was just nice to be outside and soak up the sun. It was late afternoon, so we decided to do a late lunch / early dinner at Pierce's BBQ. I was a bad blogger and totally forgot to take any photos. Chris and I both had the same meal. Beef brisket, fries, hush puppies and cole slaw for me, cornbread for Chris. It was all very good!
Tomorrow we will be exploring Colonial Williamsburg... our last day of touring :( We left Savannah this morning to drive to our 4th and final destination - Williamsburg, VA. It was a beautiful sunny day which made the drive seem so easy - after driving in pouring rain on our way to Charleston. We arrived in Williamsburg after about 8 hours, including stops. I am loyal to the Hilton brand when I travel, specifically Homewood Suites if they are available in the area. For our night in Mount Vernon, we stayed at a Hampton Inn (still Hilton brand). Then we had a Homewood Suites for our other three stays. Twice we had a king one bedroom and once a king studio. We prefer the one bedroom, if we can, so that if one of us is awake and the other isn't, we can shut the bedroom door and use the living room area. We were happy with all of our rooms but our room here in Williamsburg has been the best. It is so big and the bathroom area is also just outside the bedroom, so I can get ready in the morning while Chris is sleeping without any lights on in the bedroom area. We ate tonight at a restaurant called Food for Thought. There is a box of cards on the table with various topics and questions to discuss to give you "food for thought." We liked the ones that gave you a court case to read and decide and then you would turn over the card to see what was actually decided. We started out with a beer flight with local Virginia beers. Then I had the pot roast with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. Chris had a nut crusted chicken with mushroom gravy and fries. The pot roast just broke apart and I especially liked the creamed spinach too. Chris isn't a mushroom fan and he said the gravy had a strong mushroom taste but he liked his meal too.
For dessert, we ordered the apple nachos to share. It looked so amazing that we dove right in and I totally forgot the picture until we were done. I will try to paint a picture for you and show you what remained at the end. There were cinnamon sugar tortilla crisps around the bottom with a large scoop of creamy, rich vanilla ice cream in the middle, and cooked apples around the base of the ice cream. It was super good! Neither one of us could manage the last few bites. After yesterday, we felt we had a good sense of direction about the city and what we wanted to do today was well within walking distance for us (the furthest point was about a mile away), so we ended up not using our second day of the trolley pass. We had it with us in case we decided to hop on, but it wasn't needed. It was finally a beautiful day so we were happy with walking to our locations. Our first stop was the Davenport house, which we had planned to do yesterday and didn't get to. The Davenport family was working class, in contrast to the two homes we saw yesterday which were owned by wealthy families. The story of the house was interesting in that it was not owned by the Davenports throughout history. It had eventually fallen out of the families' ownership and in the 1950s it was a boarding house that was pretty run down. The city was going to buy it and tear it down. But seven women formed together and purchased the house (and eventually created the Savannah Historical Society.) Through the research and restoration process, a document was found that listed the assets of Isiah Davenport at the time of his passing. He died in his late 40s from the yellow fever. It was decided that the house would only contain items that were listed on that document. They were able to recover some original items that had been with descendants of the family but many of the originals were gone. So they use items that are antique and exactly what was listed but they are not origin to the Davenport home. When they removed the many layers of paint from the walls, they found wallpaper. Again, it was not able to be restored but they found a company to make the exact kind of wallpaper that would have been used. The wallpaper was certainly an interesting aspect of the house. Our next stop of the day was The American Prohibition Museum. The museum was very well presented with a combination of actual items, information to read, and wax figures depicting various scenes. There were also costumed employees in different sections that would speak in character about a particular situation. There was a lot to learn in this museum. While I definitely knew what prohibition was, I was not aware of all of the details. I think the museum also did a good job of presenting the ramifications of what occurred not just for the people that lived through that time period but for the history of America moving forward. Towards the end of the museum, you come to a door that is an entrance to a Speakeasy. There is no handle but there is a button to push. There is also some writing on the door that says "Tell them Gus sent you." When you push the button, the eye level window opens and there is an LED screen with eyes looking at you. The voices says "Who are you? What do you want? Who sent you?" You say that Gus sent you. The voice says "Ok, well if Gus sent you, you can come in." And then the door pops open for you to enter. And you enter the Speakeasy, where you can get cocktails that were specific to prohibition time. We had pre-purchased a drink coupon for each of us when we entered, but you can also buy drinks right there. Just before you get to the Speakeasy door, there is a section about the start of the dance the Charleston. There is one part where there is a large mirror with videos playing above it showing ladies doing the Charleston. You are encouraged to try it out for yourself and there are even foot steps on the floor to follow. When you get into the Speakeasy, you find out that it is a one way mirror. So when you are in the Speakeasy, you can watch guests try their hand at the Charleston and they don't know it. It wasn't very busy when we were there but we did see a few people try it while we were enjoying our drinks. After the Speakeasy section, there is a little more to the museum about the repeal of prohibition and a short movie that summarizes everything. It was a very well done exhibit and we enjoyed it. The museum sits right in the City Market which is a few blocks of shops and restaurants so we had planned to walk around there a bit before lunch. We bought some pralines... because you kind of have to.. and some Boyd's cookies. Chris also got peach wine which he wanted to bring home to try. Our next stop was Lady and Sons, Paula Deen's restaurant. In researching, I had read some mixed reviews but we were determined to try it anyway. They do have a buffet and you can also order from a menu. The buffet really wasn't overly appealing to me and Chris doesn't like them in general so we decided to order off the menu. I started with a Savannah Lemonade that was peach flavored vodka, lemonade and a splash of Sprite. They came around with hot cheese bread that was AMAZING! It had to be packed full of butter but it was warm and cheesy and dense. For lunch, I went with my theme and had shrimp and grits. This one was definitely the winner! First it was huge!! The plate weighed a ton. There was a lot of flavor and it had a little kick as well. I only managed to eat half and took half back to the room for later tonight. Chris had a BBQ pulled chicken sandwich which he didn't rave about but said it was good. You can also get one piece of fried chicken as an add on so we got one to share. Wow, it was good! Chris loved it. I had a bite but my meal was so big that I let him have the rest. We were definitely too full for dessert at the moment so we got a piece of pecan pie to take to the room as well. We left the restaurant and decided to walk along River Street to get back our hotel. It was a beautiful afternoon. We passed the Waving Girl statue. The story goes that this young lady was in love with a sailor and when he left to go to sea, she would go to this park daily and wave to the ships coming in hoping to find him returning to her. She did this for 43 years and never found him. We also saw the Olympic Torch monument that was placed in the park because the yachting events for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta took place on the Savannah River. River Street is also a series of a few shops but mostly bars and restaurants. You can carry open alcohol containers on the street here and there were already some folks that had been over served walking around - and it was only 4:30 pm. I can imagine that area gets a bit rowdy in the evenings. And with that our time in Savannah comes to an end. I was a little unsure about it at first because I had really loved Charleston. But like Charleston, I would have liked at least another day here to do some more touring. It is a beautiful city with a lot to see and do.
Tomorrow is a full travel day for us, as we start to head back north. We will be on our way to our final destination (how can this trip be almost over already?!?!) Today was the first of two full touring days in Savannah. We had purchased tickets for the Old Town Trolley Hop on Hop off tour for both days. The Trolley has a stop one street over from our hotel so we hopped on this morning and took it over to the visitor center. We looked around a bit there and then got back on to go one stop to the first thing we wanted to do. Juliette Gordon Low was the founder of the Girl Scouts. Our first tour of the day was at her birthplace and home. As we found throughout Savannah, the houses are available to see by guided tour only. We were lucky to arrive about five minutes before one was to start and there was room on the tour for us. I really knew very little about Juliette Low, who only went by the nickname "Daisy." It was very interesting to learn about her life and the Girl Scout organization. The family was wealthy and the large, open house reflected that. One of the rooms on the tour is a library / education center that is meant to be hands on. The organization wanted to reflect the value of experiences and hands on learning. There were little centers with activities and shelves with books that you are welcome to look through. Any Girl Scout that takes the tour has the opportunity to purchase a special pin that is to be worn on their uniform under their troupe number. We had three girls on our tour. We had about an hour until our lunch reservation but it was only a short walk so we decided to walk there and see if we could be seated early. It was busy but we were able to get in so we enjoyed our meal at The Olde Pink House. The restaurant is housed in an historic mansion and decorated accordingly. I decided to start a theme of trying shrimp and grits so that is what I ordered. Chris had the chicken fried chicken. Both dishes came with collard greens and Chris actually ate them so you know they were good. For dessert we shared the Praline Basket, which was a shell made of praline with vanilla ice cream and berries inside. We enjoyed our meal here for sure. Finishing lunch, the next house we wanted to tour was the Owens-Thomas house. The family was prominent in Savannah and another popular feature of the home was that Marquis de Lafayette stayed in the house for 2 nights when he was touring the US. We did not have as much luck with timing for this house. We had missed a tour so had to wait 40 minutes for the next one. We walked around the gift shop a bit and then rested on a bench. About 15 minutes before the tour, they let you into the Carriage House which had been the slave quarters. There was some information to read as well as going to the upstairs area to look at how it was set up. This tour was very good as well. We were able to see the basement where the slaves would do most of the cooking and other house work. We then went to the two floors of the house to see the living spaces and bedrooms. This house was ahead of its time as it had indoor plumbing and water before even the White House did. One feature that was interesting was that they wanted everything to be symmetrical. So if there was a door on one side, there needed to be a door on the other side. They carried this so far that there were about 3-4 "doors" through out the house that were false doors. They were just there to keep the symmetry of the room. We finished the tour at about 3:45 pm. Unfortunately, most of the house tours end at 4:30 / 5 pm so we didn't have time to get to the third one we had chosen. There are actually many more but we had to pick out a sampling. The trolleys do run until 6 pm, so we decided to walk to where we got off in the morning, which was stop #2, and take it around to the stop near our hotel, which was stop #9. That way we would have listened to the whole tour information - and we didn't have to walk back to the hotel. There are several Forrest Gump locations in Savannah. The bench was in one of the parks but it was vandalized so there is now only a replica in one of the museums. But the church pictured below is where they drop the feather in the beginning. That was the end of touring for day 1. We still have another full day here tomorrow.
We spent a very full day in Charleston between two activities: Urban Quest Adventure and Charleston Food tours. We checked out of our hotel and drove into Charleston. I had signed up for our Urban Quest Adventure before our trip. You basically pay for the quest and then you can do it whenever you would like. If you have seen The Amazing Race, then you have an idea of what our adventure was like. It was all done on a website through my cell phone. We had to get to the starting location and then log in to begin. The Charleston Adventure consisted of 17 questions and about 4 bonus questions. Here is an example of what the questions were like: We really enjoyed the whole quest. We went to places that we would have easily overlooked and quickly learned how to navigate. There were two things that I didn't like. Twice we were lead to get on the free city shuttle to get to a location. It was a waste of time to wait for it and then once we got on, it was not easy to figure out when to get off. We took it once and then second time it directed us to take the trolley, it was only a half mile so we walked. The second problem that I had was that you were supposed to be able to pause it and start from where you left off. It took us longer than we expected and we had a tour scheduled so we paused it, following the instructions to close the browser, and then restarted to finish it up after the tour. But when we got our final results, the time was over 7 1/2 hours so it had never paused. Not a huge deal but it does make a difference in scoring. Here are some locations that the quest took us too: After we finished (after the food tour), we received our score and then you can see where you rank on the leader board. We only missed one bonus question so we did pretty well and finished 7th. Our other actvitity of the day was a food tour. We chose "Savor the Flavor of Charleston." It was about 3 hours long and had 5 stops, 3 of which we were able to sit at tables in a restaurant. Water, soda, tea were included at each stop. You could purchase alcholic beverages. I really liked that we got a sample platter at each stop so it wasn't just one bite and move on, like on some other tours I have done. Our guide was wonderful and gave us a lot of history of Charleston as well as information about living in Charleston today. There were so many things we tried, but my favorite was the raw oyster. They source them all locally and it was fresh with very tasting seasoning on top. I did not take any food pictures. I had planned to but no one else was and I didn't want to look like a dork. :) I really could have used at least one more day in Charleston. There were so many shops and restaurants that we didn't get to look at and I saw a few more tours I would like to do.
We left Charleston right after the tour and drove to Destination #3. Tune in tomorrow to see where we have landed! |
AuthorI have been a huge Disney and travel fan since childhood. I love going to new places and, of course, heading to Disney as often as I can. Archives
May 2023
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