The Tennesse Capitol Building

So we dashed during my lunch break on Thursday downtown to the capitol building..we have been spoilt with the Texas one and the California one..it was not so impressive, but the people were lovely and it was good to see it.

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This is the snooker room..it is totally covered in material

This si the coridor leading upstairs from the snooker room, and it is covered, floor and ceiling with this , fairy disgusting, green material, meant to look like grass..we are heading to the jungle room. The green 'stuff' was used to help the sound in the room.as it was used as a recording studio for a while.

the jungle room

Lisa Marie favourite chair

more photo's

His parents bedroom, this is downstairs next to the formal living room

This is the kitchen, where they say it was always producing southern food, as the house was always alive with people

We are in the basement now, this is the TV room. it has three TV's on one wall so he could keep up with all the news channels.his music collection was also down here

On the wall is Elvis logo and motto. TCB, Take Care of Business. he always had a lightening bolt with the initials. He believed in family first and taking care of business. that came through very strongly on the tour

Graceland's

Well, we  made it there, and I must say, even if you are not a huge Elvis fan. it is well worth the visit. so much history, feelings, and just a part of our history now. the world over knows Elvis and it is nice to be able to say 'I have been to Graceland'.

Memphis is not what i expected, it is very run down, and has the unkempt feel to it, down town is sad, boarded up stores, police station, restaurants, littler on the ground and not much foliage about the place. I have spend a few days now in Memphis and it is not coping well with this recession. There is  homeless people and you feel sad at how it is looking, but the tourists sections just keep rolling, although they are not kept clean or vibrant either. so i hope Memphis does manage to pull through and regain some of its vibrancy.
Gracelands, which is named after the aunt of the previous owner. aunt Grace gave the house to her niece as a wedding present, when Elvis bought the house, for $102,500 he loved the name so kept it. It sits on Elvis Presley boulevard, also a badly maintained road, area etc, and across the way is a tourist trap for you all to spend loads of money. in such a small area, it is amazing how many shops they managed to fit in. It is where you get your tickets, ride the shuttle across to the main house, see the cars his two airplanes, and other exhibits to do with his clothing, movie career and Elvis himself.
It was laid out well, and you can get around it all easily, yes we shopped, i of course, got myself a christmas decoration, and then some bits for the kids, but over all we ahd a wonderful time.
I was pleasantly surprised by how small Graceland was. it truly was a  family home and although his money would have bought him much more, from the family videos and notes , you get a feeling he loved Graceland's so much, it was his sanctuary.

i will post many pictures so you can all see, you can not go upstairs at all. that was for Elvis and his close family. It is said still today nobody has gone up there unless they are close family. it is kept private, as Elvis kept it. he never came downstairs unless he was ready to be seen, i like the fact they have kept part of him private.

more Elvis

Elvis statue at the top of Beale street

Elvis photo's

We took many photo's of Elvis memorabilia..so here is some.

and on we went

Our tour guide..he was great

A photo on the wall of Elvis in that very studio

Me with the same mike from the photo above..not sure i have the right stance

Allan also giving the Elvis look a go

So we then went and had lunch..i enjoy eating my way around the world..and enjoyed the hard Rock cafe..got the t-shirt and then carried on walking..down to Sun Studio, where Elvis first recorded. Now that is another great place to go. the tour guide was so passionate about his music history, it is still a working studio, which was fun and although it was only a 40 minute tour..it was fantastic.

We enjoyed the tour, took lots of photo's of rock and roll legends and soul singers..a great time.

Day 3, memphis TN

We arrived safely and had a good nights sleep, then we started day 3 walking, and kept walking all day. It was very cold ( actually as I write this it is -1F or -18 C outside..so damn cold for us, we have become soft while living in Austin) but we loved it, and walking was fun. The wind was bitter and there was not many people around, this is inclement weather for the southern states as well, and cafes and places were closed, but we found somewhere to have breakfast and walked by the Mississippi, discovered the Graceland's is closed on a Tuesday, Mud Island is closed for the winter and that we can adapt to what we can do very well.
Allan and I set off to walk to the Rock and Soul Museum, had a Starbucks along the way, trying to buy the Memphis mug, which was sold out ( the little Rock Starbucks said they did not do a Little Rock one..so bought a Starbucks mug and wrote little rock on the base with the date!!! I will not be thwarted in my quest for mugs!!)
The museum was amazing, really really good, so if any of you come to Memphis, you have to visit it,  we loved it and learnt a lot, enjoyed the history and music.

was about to upload some photo's, and none there..I just uploaded them...ahhh..me and computers so will post this and go and try to find them..what this space