Origin: Memphis, Tennesee
States traversed: Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana
Destination: New Orleans, Louisiana
We started the day by grabbing some breakfast at the hotel before once again hitting the road. Before we left Memphis, we had a few things to see - unfortunately, much of the city seemed to be closed or sleeping until noon on Mondays, so unfortunately we weren't able to see the Stax Museum of Soul Music. We did see most everything else we wanted, however!
First, we made a trip to one of the more hip neighborhoods in Memphis: Beale Street. We bought some gifts for the folks back home and toured a small gallery filled with pictures from the civil rights era. The guy working there was seventeen when King was shot, so it was interesting to get a southern perspective on that time in the nation's history.
The Stax Museum, sadly, was closed until one
After looping back to head to the record shop, Shangri-La Records, we started to head out of town. However, Graceland was one of the major beats for the trip, so we decided to end our time in Memphis by visiting Elvis' old digs. It was an interesting experience as we plunked down $32 apiece to tour the mansion, parked our car, and took a short bus ride across the street to Graceland. As far as mansions go, Graceland was reasonably modest, especially for someone as famous and infinitely rich as Elvis Presley.
The tour was guided by those new-fangled MP3 player tour guide gadgets, though I thought that the tour program was excellently done. After all, a traditional tour guide wouldn't be able to mix in so much of Elvis' music or his own words as seamlessly as the program did. I took a ton of pictures, but I won't post them all here; the rest will be in the Facebook album.
All decorated for the holidays
Old TV set
The pool room
A view of the front of Graceland
Elvis' grave
After Graceland, it was only a couple minutes before we entered Mississippi. We were driving the state from top to bottom and it would take most of the day, so we hunkered down for the long drive as the sun began to set. On the way, we stopped for gas and snacks, and a nearby man commented on how weird they must sound to us when they talk. I assured them that we were the odd ones out, and we compared our Thanksgiving plans and various other topics as he sipped on his coffee. Bidding him goodbye, we continued on our way. We passed through Jackson, MS, where I snapped a quick picture of the capitol building.
After forever driving, we passed into Louisiana and skirted the lakes around New Orleans, including Ponchartrain, the lake famous for causing a lot of the Katrina flooding problems in 2005. Our intention was to wait until we arrived to grab dinner, something we didn't regret in the least. We took the suggestion of one of Dana's friends and headed to the Acme Oyster House, in pretty easy walking distance from our hotel. Dana had a po'boy and I opted for the jambalaya and it was probably the best I've had. After dragging ourselves back to the hotel, we retired for the night.
Day Four, Tuesday, November 20
Days four and five were to be spent completely in New Orleans, giving us plenty of time to walk around, explore, and enjoy the sights and food of the city. Our first stop today was the Court of Two Sisters, where Dana had reserved a pair of seats at Jazz Brunch. The food was pretty good and the atmosphere was great, with a three piece jazz band playing tunes while we grazed.
Ahhh, tropical-looking trees!
Shortly after brunch, we got the car out of the valet parking and drove to the New Orleans Museum of Art, the largest art museum in the state. They had a good mix of artifacts, classical and modern art, and of particular note was the LIFELIKE exhibit. This temporary section showed off works from artists that specialized in very realistic sculpture and paintings. Of note were sculptures looking like a gigantic version of an aluminum chair-and-table set, some weeds growing up from the corner of a room made from wood and painted perfectly, and a sculpture of a boy kneeling down that looked extremely realistic. After poking around in the museum, we strolled around and looked at some of the interesting sculptures and trees that surrounded the NOMA before heading back to the hotel.
The Embassy offers a manager's reception every evening from 5:30 to 7:30, so we stopped by to grab a few drinks before we headed back up to our room. We had planned to head out and explore the city a little more at night, but Dana was feeling a bit under the weather, so we decided to take it easy. We ordered a pizza from room service and settled in for the evening.
Tomorrow, we're planning to take an airboat tour of the swamp and hopefully do a bit more wandering. Then, sadly, Thursday we must move on. Hopefully we'll have gotten our fill of New Orleans by then!
