Graceland and Peabody ducks

Today we were going to be tourists. We had no idea what we would expect for Graceland as we didn't look anything up.

We got there about 10am and it was not that crowded yet. We were not expecting the $60 a person cost (luckily kids were free) but it was something we had to do, even if neither of are huge Elvis fans.

We have been introducing Brandon to Elvis over the last week or so, and he was so excited. He loves the GPS on the car so he knows how close we are (as well as learning numbers and time) and 4 min till Graceland he was so excited, screaming like a young teenage girl at a rock concert.

Graceland the many museums in the area were worth the money. There was a lot to learn about Elvis and career. He seemed to be a stand up, charismatic family guy who loves to entertain. We saw his house, Graceland, his outfits, all his gold records, all his movies he was in, information about his time in the army, and his many cars. The kidney pool that was built looked exactly like my grandparents house.

We had no idea that Graceland was going to take 4 hours and we had to change our day around as we weren't going to see all we had planned.

As of most of the week, it was hot and sticky and thought we could take the kids to a splash pad which was supposed to have great views of the city. Well, we could not find this place, so we ended up going to the Memphis Botanic Gardens.

It was 3pm, the weather was threatening with a storm, and we couldn't drive all the way back to the campsite as we had plans to be at the city at 5. The gardens would normally cost $10 an adult, but the nice lady let us in just to check out the kids tree house and stay for a little bit. The gardens were beautiful and the kids area was fun. There was a cubby house which lots of banging and music could be played. There was slides and holes to crawl through. Cubby houses with alfalfa growing on the roof. There was a tree house that has a slide from it. Inara tumbled down the slide and hurt herself. Between the two kids they have scrapes, and bruises all over their legs and arms from falling and being kids.

We had about 30 min before the storm came down on us as we were playing in the tree house. There was thunder and lightning and hard rain. We got soaked getting to the car.

Our next destination as tourists was the Peabody hotel. This hotel has been around since 1925 and the spectacle of the Peabody ducks since 1930. At 11am the ducks waddle across the foyer on a red carpet from the elevator to the water fountain in the middle of the bar area and back at 5pm. The kids got to sit right at the red carpet as the ducks made their quick exist from the fountain. It was a unique site.

By the time we got back to the campsite, the rain has stopped, the tent was safe and dry inside and we had a lovely spaghetti dinner made by Josh.Read more