Memphis, TN Graceland Edition

Ok, so why haven't I posted about the rest of our trip? Because I don't have pictures! I left the memory card for my camera in the computer at the hotel room, and had already paid to park at Graceland when I discovered it. I thought I'd be able to buy one in the gift shop, but they don't sell them. I did see (after we had already toured the house) that they did sell disposable cameras. Paige did take LOTS of pics with her cell phone, but I haven't seen them yet. Sooooo, I guess you will have to use your imagination when I tell you about the trip.

It was really cool! We got there shortly after 10, so the tours had just started. It wasn't hot at all, and the line went pretty quickly. They have this whole complex across the street from the actual house. You get this headphone set up so that you can hear an audio tour guide. You can replay it and go through pretty much at your own pace. You ride a shuttle over to the house. Graceland was prettier than I thought it would be. It's stone, not brick. They let people in kind of in shifts, but that went pretty quickly too. You can not go upstairs because that was always his private quarters and he never had guests upstairs. You see the living room, his parent's bedroom, the dining room and the kitchen. The kitchen wasn't any bigger than mine! And it had some funky looking carpet in it! Then you go downstairs into the basement and there are mirrors on the walls and ceiling of the stairs! We gotta do that in our basement! Downstairs you see a family room and a pool room (pool table, not swimming pool). Then you go up the back stairs into the famous jungle room! There is green shag carpeting everywhere...including the ceilings! And lots of wood carved furniture that made me think of tiki huts. Groovy. From there, you go outside into a converted garage type building. This was his dad's office/the business office of EP Enterprises. In there, was the coolest thing I saw the whole trip...my Granny's living room carpet! The carpet was the exact same carpet she had in her living room when I was a little girl. Wow, Elvis and Granny had the same taste! From there you went into the trophy room. This was a whole other building full of momentoes from when he first started out through his whole career. It was set up pretty much in chronological order. There was a hallway about as long as my whole house covered floor to ceiling in gold/platinum albums and awards...even some Grammys! (and I think Paige took a pic of each one!) Then you went through part where you saw things from his movies and his and Priscilla's wedding clothes, etc. One really cool thing was 40 cancelled checks for $1000 each to different charities. What was so cool about it was they were all written on the same day. Apparently he was very generous...and not just with Cadillacs. From there you went into another out building that was a rec room of sorts and what used to be the raquetball court. It is now a room 2 stories high covered floor to ceiling in the awards he has been given posthumously. There was one given by RCA, I think, that had to be 6 feet tall, 3 thick panes of glass, awarded for being the greatest entertainer of all time. And after seeing all the stuff he accomplished, I believe they may be right. In this room was a video playing of that famous concert with the white jumpsuit and he was singing the American Trilogy. There were several of the jumpsuits on display in there. And it was eerie. Everyone was quiet, and you could see him performing Dixie, and Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, and there was no way you could walk out of there not an Elvis Fan. It gave me chills...hunka, hunka, burning love! From there you went out to where he and his family are buried. That didn't do much for me, because I know that people aren't in graves.

I'll stop for now...I figure I should drag this out at least as long as I drug out the Road Trip of 09. Besides, you know the most important thing...He had the same carpet as my Granny!