Walking in Memphis

Busy season at Deloitte meant Eric was assigned to an audit engagement for Anderson Tully in Memphis for six weeks. He was home only on weekends due to the 3 hour travel time between Memphis and Nashville. But because Deloitte put Eric up at the Hilton in Germantown, we enjoyed a "free" vacation one weekend. I wasn't all that excited to play tourist in Memphis initially, but we ended up having a great time! It was nice to get away and stay in a hotel and eat at good restaurants.

The weather was rainy and cold, unfortunately, but we drove around the city to try to see as much as we could.

We saw Graceland from the street as we didn't want to spend money or time on the tour. At the time Elvis built Graceland it was on a large piece of property in the countryside... now it is in the middle of a really bad section of town with run down public housing projects, laundromats, check cashing businesses and liquor stores. Then you get to the block where Graceland itself is located and it is row after row of cheap hotels, souvenir shops and the official Elvis museum on both sides of the street. Graceland itself is on one side, and the other side is a complex of exhibits and an official Elvis store. A private jet that must have been owned or rented by Elvis is also part of the tour. Maybe if we ever go back and we are truly bored or interested in blowing $60+ we will actually take the tour. The tickets are unbelievably expensive, in my opinion. It's $28 just to see the house -- none of the other exhibits are included!












We drove downtown along the Mississippi and Riverfront Park, past the Pyramid, St Jude Children's Research Hospital and across the bridge to Mud Island to see the fancy real estate available in that section of the city. We drove back into the city and found the Lorraine Motel and the National Civil Rights Museum. The Lorraine Motel is where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in 1968. We were disappointed because the museum closes early on Saturday and it closed 15 minutes before we got there. When we go back to Memphis someday we will make sure we can go to the museum when it's open.














We went back downtown, and went to The Peabody Hotel. Unfortunately, we missed the Peabody ducks march that day. Someday I would love to come back and watch the march! We went across the street and up the back alley to have dinner at Rendezvous, one of the most famous BBQ restaurants in the South. The restaurant is in a warehouse with the entrance halfway up an alley. There is no alley in America that can possibly smell better than that alley did. And I actually ate ribs -- which is probably the first time I have had ribs in 20 years! The food was delicious and we would both go back again. We walked down Beale St which was totally crazy because it was St Patrick's Day weekend and there were thousands of people celebrating. We then went to a famous local bakery called The Cheesecake Corner for cheesecake, one of my most favorite desserts. It was delicious.

We also went exploring in Germantown and Cordova in east Memphis which are upscale areas of the city. We went to a mall in Cordova and I got to go shopping. Banana Republic was having a huge sale so it wasn't difficult to do some damage there, and of course, at Abercrombie. I got a great spring A&F tee and a sweater on clearance. I passed on the new spring polos because Eric would have had a heart attack if he witnessed me drop at least $100 on polos (because there's no way I would only buy one!). I'll buy a couple next time I'm at Cool Springs and alone. :)

We had breakfast on Sunday at a local breakfast place called Brother Junipers near the University of Memphis and drove around the campus a bit.

We did a lot, and we had a wonderful, full weekend! Memphis is not a place we would probably have ever gone to visit had it not been for the audit, but I'm glad we got to go and enjoy a great time.

And now busy season is over and we're very relieved that his next audit is on a client based locally in Franklin!