Day Fourteen: Memphis!!

Thomas and Grace's Top Five for June 14, 2006:

1. "Saw Elvis' house!" "Went to Graceland!" I have to admit, as hokey as I thought this was going to be, I really was impressed. The house is modest by today's celebrity standards and very much a "home." The audio tour with personal stories about the house and Elvis by Priscilla and Lisa Marie does a great job of showing you the real Elvis. The funny part to me is that everything in the house is the actual furniture, tvs, nick nacks and appliances. VERY 70 "s...I died laughing in the kitchen when I saw the toaster...faux wood paneled with an orange handle...we had the same one for years!! They also had Lisa Marie's nursery furniture on display and many of her toys and blankets looked very familiar! Thomas was in awe. It turns out that Thomas and Elvis have many things in common...guitars,karate, guns, rock-n-roll!

2. Thomas: "Saw the hotel where Dr. King died." Grace: " I saw the lady on the bus who didn't give up her seat and she got arrested 'cuz she knew it was wrong that black people couldn't sit with white people." Dr. King knew it was wrong too and that bad guy with hate in his heart killed him 'cuz he didn't like his speech." I sat here in awe when she was telling me all this in detail. We took them to the National Civil Rights Museum. I thought they were too young to really understand the museum, but I so wanted to see it for myself. They had this exhibit that was an old Birmingham bus that you actually got on and sat down in. A life size statue of Rosa Parks was sitting in the front of the bus and when you sat down over the speaker you hear the bus driver tell her to move to the back of the bus. Grace loved this. She had 1001 questions and kept asking to go back and sit on the bus. This is really one of the best museums/historical sites I've been to. The museum is in the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was assassinated. They've built onto the back of the motel. The exhibit ends in the motel rooms occupied by Dr. King on April 8, 1968. Then, you walk across the street into the boarding house where James Earl Rey fired the shot. Memphis did this right. Atlanta should take a lesson.

3. "Saw how they make guitars." Scott took Thomas to tour the Gibson guitar factory. The tour was an hour long and Grace barely made it through the 20 minute baseball tour, and the brochure said children 5 and up were welcome. We figured that meant our 15 month old wasn't. So, Scott and Thomas did this one without us. Thomas thought it was really cool, but was a bit disappointed when Scott didn't buy him a $1000 guitar in the gift shop!

4. "Watching the ducks go in the elevator!" While Scott and Thomas toured the guitar factory, Grace, Mandy and I looked around Peabody Place and then headed to the lobby of the Peabody Hotel to watch the ducks go in for the evening. The place was jam packed, but I finally got us a spot. I can't tell you how many people were crammed into that lobby. I looked around and it struck me funny that all those people were fighting to see ducks walk in an elevator! Nevertheless, we stuck it out and sure enough, the ducks calmly walked out of the water, down their red carpet and into the elevator all in time with Sousa's King Cotton March.

5. "Saw Elvis' plane." "His bed has a seatbelt!" We did tour the "Lisa Marie" and the it was quite lavish compared to his home. The buckles on the seatbelts were 24 karat gold plate!! The kids thought the fact that the bed had a seatbelt was hysterical!

Today was a fun day. The kids really enjoyed everything we did here. Memphis is a great city and I can definately see us coming back. We are heading out after breakfast in the morning for the long drive home! We will post again tomorrow night because Scott and the kids want to do top 5 lists for the entire trip and we'll let you know what we've learned from our "Xtreme Vacation!"

The hotel made a mistake and gave us a smoking room. Scott thought it was hysterical that I used Febreze on the whole room.

We looked over at dinner and this is what we saw. Somehow Mandy had managed to get her shirt over her head. Thomas was trying to tell us, but he was laughing so hard he was crying!

Thomas having a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich (Elvis' favorite) at the Rockabilly Cafe.