Memphis - October 13, 2019

Jenny and I woke up at 5am fresh as daisies - probably due in part to a bit of jet lag! We left Catherine sleeping while we went down stairs and eventually rustled up a cup of coffee. There's free wifi here in the hotel, so we answered e-mails and looked up information about places to see in Memphis.

Around 7am we decided to wake Catherine and go for a walk to find some breakfast. After all the sitting we'd done, it was great to get out and stretch our legs. We saw some lovely positive statues and signs along the way ...

Prosperity

Peace

 .... And some signs that clearly set out behaviour expectations ....

We walked several blocks looking for a place to sell us some breakfast, but most places either opened at 9am or 10am. Then we saw the Peabody Hotel. We'd been told about this place yesterday. Here's the story:

So we decided to have breakfast and hang around to see the ducks at 11am. We were waited on hand and foot by a very knowledgeable waiter who knew quite a bit about Australia much to our surprise. The food was great. I tried some grits (It was like porridge) along with scrambled eggs, their style of sausage (which looked like a small hamburger) and a tomato salsa. All really yummy. Then it was time to line up to see the ducks. There were well over a hundred people and at least half as many again children, all lined up to see the ducks come out of the elevator. In many ways it felt like we were part of a circus performance.  Finally the lift descended from the top floor where the ducks live. The audience counted down as the lift reached each floor. Finally the doors opened and the ducks whooshed out so fast my camera shutter did not have enough speed to get a good picture. But the ducks will spend the rest of the day swimming in the hotel's lobby fountain, and they didn't look too unhappy about that!

The next event for the day was visiting Al Green's Full Gospel Tabernacle Church. What a treat!!

I expected the church to be much bigger than what it was, but as Al pointed out, everyone who was there, was there by divine appointment.

There was lots of praising, worshipping, singing, smiling, and encouraging while the great man himself sat in a large leather chair until it was time for him to preach - just like he has for the last 43 years. It was a wonderful sermon about how the lovers of money are dealt with by God, and how the lovers of God are set free - based on Acts 16 and 17. At one stage Al started singing "One Day At A Time Sweet Jesus" and interrupted his message to say "Someone told me "That's not a gospel song!!" and I said "It is now, cos I just sang it!"To which there was lots of laughter.  By the end of our time there, I left feeling so encouraged.    

                                                                                                        The next stop - not far at all from the church - was Graceland! 

 

I walked away with a far deeper appreciation of the wonderful guy Elvis was. It was a real education!

There were so many gems of truth scattered around the building ... like this:

Not only was Elvis's presentation unique, but his music was clever too, because it was blend of all the music styles apparent at the time he came to stardom:

There were limitless Elvis merchandise for sale, countless gold records; encased performing costumes that were nothing short of spectacular; but the most beautiful part of the whole place was the Memorial Garden, where the whole family (including Elvis's deceased brother) lay. I was surprised to learn that his mother had Jewish roots. There was no denying they were a solid Christian family.

You could literally spend days there, but our legs were getting weary, so we caught a cab back to Beale Street to try some Cajun food. We had the Cajun Feast for 2 and a chicken caesar salad. 

  Vegetables don't seem to be things that people consume in the quantities we're used to in Australia. We really enjoyed everything except the Etoufee which was spicy but bland.

With full tummies, we prepared ourselves to catch the trolley bus back to the hotel ... and soon found out it wasn't running in the evening. So we walked back to the hotel instead, passing some interesting shops. One was a candy store with a couple of cute signs:

The last Memphis landmark we saw before entering the hotel was what the locals call "Dolly Parton Bridge" ... you figure out why!

There's still so much to see including the Civil Rights Museum, the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum, and hopefully a ride on the Mississippi River.

Thanks for travelling with us.