MEM05 - Day 1

The flight to Memphis was uneventful, thank goodness. As we were taking off, I made the comment that maybe I shouldn't have picked last night to be the first time I watched an episode of "Lost." But there aren't too many jungles between Louisville and Memphis, so I figured I was pretty safe.  The flight was smoothe and quick, thank goodness because we had babies in the rows in front and behind us. 

After checking into the hotel and hanging up clothes, we headed a couple of blocks over to Peabody Plaze and had lunch at Isaad Hayes' restaurant.  It was very cool.  It was our first taste of authentic Memphis bbq.  We were entertained during our meal by watching a group of tourists from Europe that were dining there.  We laughed out loud when we saw them tearing into the collard greens and cornbread.

Our fun time at lunch was bittersweet.  Halfway through our meal, a young woman walked in with a little boy, probably 7 or 8.  He had no hair from probably countless chemo or radiation treatments, and he was wearing a surgical mask in order to not breathe too many germs.  We heard them mention to the server that they were at St. Jude, and we both fell silent at our table.  We were bigtime misty-eyed.  We both rtook a minute and thanked the Lord for Stacy's two healthy kids.  As if that wasn't bad enough, they had CNN on all of the big screen TVs in the place, and all we saw was coverage about Hurricane Rita.  We had to get out of this doom and gloom, so we did what any red blooded tourist would do - we headed for Beale Street.  We had a blast walking up and down the street, looking at the cool blues bars and shops.  Of course, we took tons of pictures at anything that we deemed picture-worthy. 

We made our way to the Gibson Guitar factory.  It was very cool.  I saw somethingt something I think I might have to pick up tomorrow on our way back from Graceland.  Heh heh heh. (Like I need another guitar.)  We then hopped the trolley and headed back down to the Peabody Hotel.  We got in the lobby just in time for the infamous duck parade from the fountain back up to their home on the top floor of the hotel.  We'll have pictures of this for you tomorrow, I promise.  We're in the hotel room now, resting up before we get our baths and go downstairs for a big ol' steak dinner. 

Here's a couple of pictures taken about an hour ago on famous Beale Street.  Beale is very interesting.  It's part Vegas strip and part Bourbon Street all mixed together.  We encountered some interesting locals during our Diventure today.  One guy was handing out flowers he probably picked from a nearby park or somewhere, and was giving them away on the street in exchange for "beer money."  Hey - at least he was honest.  I hope he sold alot of them because they're closing off Beale Street tonight, and charging people $20 to get in for a benefit for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.  Somehow I don't think he sold that many flowers.

Until tomorrow, I'll be walking in Memphis.