Walking in Memphis

Sorry about the delay in posting! Once we got back from our first trip, there was a day of work and then lots to do and catch up on, and my sabbatical work to begin, before we left again on Monday.

So I'm going to do a few posts tonight to try and catch us up more...

First up is our trip to Graceland. Both Rob and I were amazed by how much there was to see there. We'd anticipated spending a couple of hours touring Graceland and then taking a shuttle to Beale St. and that area. To our surprise, we ended up being at Graceland the entire day. It was really an experience. I took tons of pictures, inside the house and of costumes and records, that I'm thinking about putting up somewhere else eventually. For now, here are a few of the highlights.


The house itself is relatively modest, when you consider how rich and famous Elvis was. He bought it in 1957 at the age of 22 and lived there until his death in 1977. The top floor is not open to tours, as it was always Elvis' private area where guests weren't allowed. But the main floor and the basement, as well as several out buildings are included.




The final stop on the tour of the mansion is the meditation garden, which includes this fabulous fountain. In front of it, are the graves of Elvis, his mother, father, and grandmother as well as a memorial plaque for Elvis' twin. Here, Rob and Matt pose in front of the fountain with their audio equipment.

Elvis' grave. The flowers and souvenirs are both sent and brought to Graceland and are put out, whether the flowers are fresh or silk. They are left there until dead or faded.

After our tour of the mansion, Matt was hungry so we stopped at Rockabilly's Diner for lunch. While Matt and I had more traditional fare, Rob opted for the grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich. I have to admit, it was quite tasty!

After lunch, we hit the car museum and toured Elvis' two airplanes. All of which are summed up in this one picture. The guys insisted that my picture show up *somewhere*.

Having been unsuccessful at finding a pig for Lisa at Graceland itself, after we finished with all the official tour stops we headed to a souvenir shop across the street. On the way, Matt and Rob pose in front of the sign for Graceland (which is actually across the street from Graceland itself.) Just so you know, I was successful in finding a Memphis pig.

Here, Matt poses in front of the open gate to Graceland. The gates are closed at 6 pm and we were outside shortly before that. The grounds are beautifully lit at night, as we saw from the limo we took to and from dinner that night. One of the local restaurants, Marlowe's, will pick you up at your hotel or campsite in a pink limo and take you to the restaurant. This seemed too good of a deal to pass on so we opted for it for dinner that night. Great barbecue, too!

The historical plaque that is placed in front of the wall surrounding Graceland. Notice that the rocks of the wall are almost completely covered by names of people who felt compelled to note that they'd been there.

Great Smokey Mountains National Park

On Friday, we all piled into the cars and headed up to see some waterfalls and do some hiking in the national park. Our first stop was the road to Cade's Cove, an old settlement in the park.

Our first stop was the cabin where the original settlers, John Oliver and his wife Lureen, lived. Olivers lived in this house, with no electricity or water, until the latter half of the 20th century.

As we left the Oliver cabin, we spotted this deer in the field across the way. There were two of them, peacefully enjoying the day.

This fellow crossed the path in front of us in the cemetery at the Primitive Baptist Church in Cade's Cove. He was *huge*. And fast. And that's an accurate depiction of his size.

After we finished in Cade's Cove, we headed deeper into the park to visit some waterfalls. Here, several of us gathered in front of one of the falls visible from the road for a picture. Looks like we're missing Rob, Chase, Tim, Staci, and Brandon at the very least. Still, it's a nice looking group.

Final destination for the day was the hike to Grotto Falls. I was having major problems with my knee and opted to stay behind to chat with Mom. Rob and Matt posed for a picture on the ledge that leads behind the waterfall.

Matt enjoys Pigeon Forge

One of the highlights of the trip for Matt was a visit to the Dinosaur Walk Museum, which contained a number of life-sized dinosaur recreations.

Brandon and Matthew had lots of fun upstairs. One of their activities was the creation of a huge pillow fort. Here, they're gathering pillows and blankets to create a fort around the pool table.

One night a group of us went to Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure Adventure Golf. Here, Matt is quite serious about lining up his shot. I was sure he was going to have a better score than me but I squeaked out a win. Just barely.

After family pictures on Thursday, the entire family piled into cars and headed to Corkey's for some fine Tennessee barbecue. If you're ever there, I *highly* recommend the turkey. It is fabulous. And where else can you ride a pig???

Chase and John bought some fireworks while we were there. They didn't forget the little guys and bought plenty of sparklers and spinners. As you can tell by that smile, Matt had a great time!

Dollywood's Splash Country

After our whitewater rafting adventure, we decided to have a somewhat calmer adventure on Wednesday and headed to Dollywood's Splash Country. Since Matt isn't quite ready to tackle the big slides yet, Rob was thrilled to have the "big boys" to play with. As Matt and I headed off to The Cascades, he asked where his dad was and I told him that I didn't think we'd see a lot of Dad that day. :)

There were two raft rides that pretty much everyone went on. Here you see Rob at the bottom of the first one, with my niece Angela (on the left) and my sister Sherry (on the right). My great-nephew Brandon had chosen me to ride along in his raft and Matt chose his cousins Shane and Chase to ride in his. It was a wild ride!

Here, Rob waits in line for one of the raft rides. Isn't he handsome?

Why walk when you can get someone to give you a ride? Brandon convinced Shane to carry him while we waited in line for the raft. Amazing how a 4-year-old can wrap everyone around his finger...

Here are Matt and Rob, with my nephew Chase, arriving at the bottom of the second raft ride. Again, it was a fabulous ride and if the lines weren't so long I'm sure we would have done both raft rides multiple times.

The Cascades area had some perfect kid-sized slides and the pool topped out at 3.5 feet. Here Matt's about to splash down the end of the slide into the pool. He had a great time in this area.

Aunt Deb gave Matt some swimming lessons in the pool. He's practicing his swimming strokes here. He just needs to get a little more confident in the water.

The wave pool was another big hit. Here Matt braces to battle the waves.

Still to come: Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure golf, family pictures, and hiking in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.