Memphis, Cali and going on Jam Cruise!!!!!

Hola. Sorry, I've been really bad about keeping this updated. I hope this finds everyone having a nice holiday season. Memphis was a really fun city. I would recommend it to anyone taking a trip down to the south. I think three days would be good. My recommendations include Graceland, the Rock and Soul Museum, Sun Studio, Memphis BBQ (we went to The BBQ Shop in Midtown, but any of it would be good) and of course, Beale St. We also hit up the National Ornamental Metals Museum, the Gibson Guitar Factory Tour, the National Civil Rights Museum, and the Pink Palace. We've also been really good about going to school - trading off and on between GIS and Spanish.

So, the Elvis people really know how to put on a tour. Graceland was presented in a really nice way with an audio tour. You didn't have to listen to real people tour guides and you got to pick and choose what parts of the house you wanted more details about. It was really cool being able to see his house (not the upstairs though because that's his personal space), the property, his trophy house, cars, and planes. The animal room and downstairs billiards rooms were my favorite rooms. I also really liked the car museum. Oh, and if you go there, be sure to not buy any souvenirs right away because there are lots of different gift shops and some are better than others.

The Rock and Soul museum gave a background on all of the musicians that came out of Memphis, minus Justin Timberlake. They included Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, BB King etc. It also included a lot of info on Sun Studios, Stax Records and Hi Records. There is also the Stax Museum (another music museum in Memphis), but we decided to go to the Rock and Soul Museum because it's located close to Beale St. and is open until 7 every evening. Our visit to Sun Studios was short. We decided not to go on the tour because we had learned so much about it already, so we just took some pics and went to the gift shop. We actually liked the Sun Studios products better at Graceland because they used the original rooster logo that Sam Phillips used versus the guitar logo that is now property of the building.

So, Beale St. is pretty crazy. You can always find full bars, live music, and friendly people. I can't even imagine what it's like in the summer. Some of the bar patios are twice as big as the indoor bars, but they were all closed for the season. So, there is no open container law on Beale St., probably because they close off the streets to cars at 11am every morning and don't open them back up til 6am the following morning. So, we had to be sure to collect that street first thing in the morning. Also, all of the bars are open til 5am on weekends and 3am on weekdays. Our favorite bar ended up being Alfred's on the corner of Beale and 3rd I think. I'd also recommend Rum Boogie Cafe, BB Kings, or Blues City Cafe if you want to hear some Blues and eat some Cajun food.

My favorite bar though was just a block off Beale St. on Peabody Pl. and 2nd St. - The Flying Saucer. It's a chain in the south, but doesn't feel like a chain at all. They serve TONS of different beers and you can join the UFO club. To get your name on a saucer on the wall, you have to drink 200 different beers. We didn't have enough time. We've also gotten really in to Team Trivia and have played it at a couple different locations. Hopefully we can find more in Atlanta too.

Right now I'm out in Lemoore with my mom, sister, and her kids, Candyce and Paul. They are so so so cute and I'm so glad I got to visit for so long. I think my sister and I are going out to a bar in Hanford tonight - it's the closest city to Lemoore, so I'll see how it compares! I leave here on Sunday to go meet Emily in LA for New Years. I have no clue what we're doing, but probably something low key since we've decided to go on Jam Cruise! I cannot wait! We leave January 4 and return January 9 from Atlanta. We'll be flying back to Memphis on January 2 and then driving straight to Atlanta.

That's it for now. Oh, and we saw the ducks at Peabody hotel too - really weird tradition. I'll post pics another time. The connection here is really slow and it would take forever! Again, I hope everyone had a nice holiday and I'll talk to you soon! Peace out.

Its One for the Money, Two for the Show

I'm in Memphis, Now Go, Cat, Go.

I've been here for a few days. We're planning on hitting up all of the Memphis attractions, which encompasses ducks, metal, civil rights, BBQ, Gibson guitars, recording studios, and of course, Elvis. We should be done here right before Christmas, at which time I'll be heading to California to see my momma and sis and her kiddies. I hope everyone is staying warm this December and stay posted for more Memphis tales.

And if anyone has the desire to get out of wherever you happen to be in January and February, I'll be in Hotlanta. Ciao.

p.s. Happy Birthday - there are a lot of you with birthdays right now.