MEMPHIS

The Memphis Temple is the same temple as the Baton Rouge and similarly hidden away in an obscure part of a suburban neighborhood. It almost becomes just another church building. The cool part is actually the Stake Center with the drive through services.

Beale Street in downtown Memphis is kind of a kiddie version of Bourbon Street – both literally and figuratively; I mean, there are actually kids on Beale Street. It’s similar in that it’s a number of blocks that appear to be permanently blocked off and which are lined with neon signs advertising various nightlife. It’s only a few blocks though and while it has a few bars most of the places are restaurants or Blues clubs. You could hear them singing from outside, so I listen for a bit. It was a cold, rainy evening so there wasn’t a lot of activity.

There’s a Hard Rock Café at one end of the district. There’s also a Rock and Soul museum around the corner, but they didn’t allow photographs. Not much worth taking a picture of anyways - there wasn’t much “rock” to it. It was really just a history of soul and blues in and around Memphis up through the 70’s or so.

And then there’s Graceland. The main attraction is just the mansion, but they’ve made a whole pseudo-park out of it all. There’s more ground space dedicated to gift shops than the actual Presley estate. You pay for a ticket to get onto the shuttle that drives you across the street and up to the mansion.

It’s a fun place, with all sorts of rooms that are designed in a different style and with a different purpose. It’s pretty much all as it was back in the day, but a few of the rooms had been converted into memorabilia rooms.

A shrine to the king. He lies here with his parents and grandma.