Graceland and Fried Chicken

Well, Brock and I got to talking and decided that since this is kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity, we probably couldn't come to Memphis without seeing Graceland, even if we aren't over-the-top Elvis fans.

We made it our goal to have school done and lunch eaten and be leaving by 2 pm, Brock would pause his days' work, so we could all walk across a parking lot to the Graceland Crossing Shopping Center where we could get tickets and catch the shuttle to take us across the street to the mansion.

We just did the basic tour. The shuttle let us off at the front door. Each participant gets their own headset with recorded information. We were allowed to take pictures, but with no flash and no video.

We started in the front room. It was really kind of pretty, very ornamented, kind of elegant.

We then saw Elvis' parents' bedroom.

Penny, for some reason this bedroom made me think of your room at the Appaloosa house. :o)
Isn't that purple close to the shade of your carpet?

Then we saw the dining room which was pretty formal, but the tour narrator said Elvis and his family all really liked to eat basic Southern food.

The kitchen was remodeled in the 70s (as if you couldn't tell! ;o) and really was a funny contrast to the home's formal mansion-type exterior in my opinion.

The basement had a TV lounge and game room. 

Evidently the lightning bolt along with the TCB "Taking Care of Business" was Elvis' trademark. This room had a fireplace with HUGE faux logs.

I think the recording said something like 350 yards of fabric cover the walls and ceiling in the game room.
There was a big tear in the felt where some "trick shot had gone wrong". :O)

After that we saw the jungle room. There was green shag carpet on the floor, walls, and ceiling of the staircase going up to it and just on the floor and ceiling once we reached the room. All the furniture was burnt wood frame furniture which reminded me of a headboard my mom had when I was little. :O) There was a weird waterfall feature, lighted pink on one end of the room.

Next, we saw Vernon's office, but on the way, Lisa Marie's swingset.

We got to see the trophy room and several costumes.

Costume from the '68 special

We saw the racquetball court that Elvis had built on the property which now houses more memorabilia and then went into the meditation garden where Elvis, his parents and his paternal grandmother are buried. They had also put a headstone there as a memorial for Elvis' twin brother, Jessie, that died at birth.

We came away from the visit, I think, glad we'd done it. It was expensive, but it was cool to see too. Brighton cracked me up when he shared that he really liked the style of decor inside Elvis' house and said that was the style he wanted for his house, lots of mirrors and fancy. He said he LOVED the 70s kitchen. I wasn't sure how to respond. LOL

We came back to the trailer where Brock completed his work day. The little boys started getting a little rambunctious so I took them to swing some more at the playground and when Brock was finished up, we decided to order dinner from a Triple D featured "dive", Uncle Lou's Fried Chicken. We got a family dinner type deal with lots of white meat chicken, half regular and half "sweet spicy love"  flavor. It came with really yummy honey biscuits and 4 sides - we chose (hang on to your arteries) fries, onion rings, corn nuggets, and fried dill pickles. It was all pretty good. The price was very reasonable and the sweet spicy love was definitely the favorite. It was a fun authentic Southern experience. (with lots of grease ;o)