10:00 am – Rise and shine!

10:30 am – Problems with Lyft app…couldn’t do ducks at Peabody 🙁  However it was going to be 90 degrees outside, so nothing wrong with a beautiful day in Memphis!

11:00 am – Arrived at Beale Street. Walked the couple blocks to see all of the restaurants, shops, and music bars. We saw a WC Handy Statue, FedEx Forum (where the Grizzlies play), and kids on a school trip.

11:30 am – Happened upon the Gibson Guitar Factory! Awesome! We got tickets for the 12 pm tour and walked across the street to the Rock n Soul Museum. Checked out the site and got a tourist map.

12:00 pm – Gibson Guitar Factory Tour. No photos unfortunately, but understandable. The tour guide, Sam, was really fun and informative. This factory produces totally custom and hand-made guitars. We saw employees at work at every stage of the tour and got to understand the guitar-making process in-depth and firsthand. Such a phenomenal experience. Sidenote – we ran into a man who grew up in Livingston, MT, revealing himself after we learned about the Gibson Factory in Bozeman, MT! (Did you know about that, Uncle Robbie?)

1:15 pm – Walked a short distance to get lunch at Gus’ World Famous Fried Chicken. One of if not the best fried chicken I’ve ever had, and also up there on the list for Alex. We each at 2 breasts and a wing, with a side of mac n cheese and something else. Wow, this was SO good! (Thanks for the recommendation Julia!)

2:30 pm – Graceland. There’s just way too much to say about this unforgettable experience. Worth every cent. The self-guided iPad tour of the mansion, done by John Stamos, was beyond informative and entertaining. It’s a piece of history frozen in time. We saw extra exhibits including pictures, pieces from the Graceland archives, Hawaii movies and memorabilia, and the Lisa Marie airplane. Later in life I might regret not writing every single detail of what we saw in this blog post, but I think I’ll be able to recollect almost everything. For anybody reading this – besides the National Parks we’ve done this was perhaps the single best touristy event I’ve done. And I’ve been on the road for 51 days in almost every continental state, so I hope this recommendation carries weight.

6:00 pm – Arrived back at our hotel. I took a much-needed nap and we both got to relax before going out.

8:45 pm – Central BBQ in midtown for dinner. This is rated as the best BBQ place in Memphis. The pulled pork, mac n cheese, and potato salad were phenomenal, and I got the meal for a more then reasonable price. Side note – all of our Lyft driver were super friendly and informative about sights to see in Memphis. We split cheesecake for dessert. So delicious.

9:30 pm – We realized we took the long way, but we walked 15 minutes to Cooper Young district. There were some bars and restaurants open, but it was much more low key than we expected. We passed by some bingo fundraiser which was kind of cool.

10:00 pm – Walked 20 minutes north to Overton. Made a restroom pitstop along the way.

10:30 pm – Overton was much busier and full of cooler stuff than Cooper Young. We peeked in Lafeyette Music Room, but weren’t sold on the act. We got a drink next door at Bar Louie, and poked our heads into Zebra lounge too.

11:15 pm – Back to our hotel to relax for the night! Tomorrow – Pyramid Bass Pro Shop, Peabody Ducks, Stax Soul Museum, National Civil Rights Museum, and nightlife on Beale Street!

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