Memphis zoo

Okay so I'm not a huge fan of zoos, especially having a husband raised by a vet. My husband doesn't like to see animals taken from their natural habitats, locked in cages, and put on display for young children that like to throw things at them and scream at them. I have to admit seeing a lot of those animals makes me feel a little sad inside, I do know that for some of them this is the best place for them because their natural habitats have been ruined or because they have become endangered species. Zoos are for protecting animals, they need to make money to do this so you have to put the animals to work, like making them parade around a caged area for people to see. There are two sides, I think it's when I see the young children screaming and shouting trying to get a tiger to look at them that really makes me the most upset. No one wants to sit in a cage and have nasty little children throwing things at you, hitting your cage, and screaming for you attention. Please if you take young ones to a zoo, mind them, make sure they respect the animals.

That being said welcome to the Memphis zoo, one of only four zoos in the United States that has Panda bears! That was our whole reason for stopping at the zoo, we had to see the pandas, the opportunity doesn't come along often.

This little guy strutting his stuff above, is a red panda, looks more like a racoon but still cute.

Above here are the meercats, these little guys have such fun faces, they look right at you and it makes you think they know exactly what's going on.

And finally the main event, the panda bears! The Memphis zoo had two big black and white babies on display for the world to see. We happened to come by just in time for breakfast, these big babies love them some bamboo in the morning!

I felt the need to relive my child hood I noticed a sign for $5 camel rides, how could I pass that up!

I am quite the big kid at heart, I have plans to never ever grow up, I guess maybe I should be working on finding never never land, ha!

Oh and Buddha's are one of my favorite statues, I honestly don't know terribly much about the religion/belief but I do know that these little guys are so cute all chubby and smiling! You just have to give them a hug and a rub of the belly for luck!

Elvis' fleet

Well of course Elvis had himself a couple of planes, why not?! The man had pretty much anything anyone could ever want.

Above the Lisa Marie, the largest of the planes, also known as the Graceland in the sky.

The setup they have for the planes is very nice, you feel like you are going through the Elvis airport and boarding the Elvis plane!

Inside everything is covered to keep it preserved. It's hard to tell from the photos but everything in the plane is leather or suede, including the table tops that were also covered in plastic for protection.

It's a little hard to tell from this picture but if you look close there is a seat belt across the bed, this is a TSA regulation, but what I want you to see is the buckle of the belt, it's gold! Not solid gold of course but all the buckles on all the seat belts were plated in gold! Also the sinks in the two bathrooms on board were flecked in gold flakes! This plane was definitely for the man that already owns everything.

There was a second plane but of course I forgot to take a picture of that from the outside, here you can see the inside. This was a smaller jet, with just a cockpit and a few chairs in the back. This smaller plane was used for a lot of quick impromptu trips, you know when Elvis was sitting around bored and decided to just head to the beach in Mexico for a few hours, ah why not?!

I can't imagine the up keep on these planes, but the man had more money than he knew what to do with at the time so why not buy some planes and hire a staff to keep them in beautiful working condition. Oh if only life were that difficult for all of us. 

The Graceland Garage!

So of course Elvis had an interest in cars, specifically Cadillacs, we all know the story of the pink one, if not you should brush up on your Elvis history.

Above here was Lisa Marie's car she received from her daddy for her birthday, a pretty little white Mercedes.Not a bad birthday present!

The Rolls, there were a few of these, apparently Elvis liked to be driven in style!

The Stutz Blackhawk, there were two of these in the museum but they were a few years apart so they weren't identical. The story of this car is that it was actually built for Frank Sinatra but Elvis wanted it so bad he offered more money for it.

This pretty pink jeep was actually from one of Elvis' movies, Blue Hawaii, and he enjoyed the car so much he decided to buy it and bring it home.Who wouldn't want one of these pink jeeps, I was drooling over it, granted it would be better if I lived in a warmer climate.

I don't remember the story behind this car but I love the picture that goes with it and thought it was a nice addition to this entry.

Above here are some of Elvis' toys, Lisa Marie tells a story of how her father had several go-carts and fun little cars that they often invited friends over and everyone rode around the Graceland property in these fun vehicles.

The pink caddy! This car was not actually purchased for Elvis but by him for his mother Gladys.

This was one of the limos on display, looked like it was probably a pretty comfy, luxurious ride back in the day.

The inside of the car museum is set up a bit like a drive in with movies of Elvis driving his cars are playing on a big screen. There are plenty of cars that were on display that I did not blog and there are great stories that go with each car, I didn't want to take any of the joy away that you could get by visiting Graceland yourself one day.

The burial

Elvis was originally buried with his parents at a regular cemetary but there was too much of a crowd that they dug him and his family up and moved them to Graceland. This statue was built to honor the family.

Below is mamma Presley

And here is Elvis' twin brother, who knew. Apparently he was born a twin but was the baby brother was still born, this small tombstone is only in honor of the baby brother. The brother was buried in Tupelo, Mississippi where they were born. The family had gone to Tupelo to bring the body back to Graceland however they could not find the body because it was buried with an unmarked grave at the time, so they were only able to place a small tombstone in his memory.

Here lies pappa Presley

Elvis' grave is decorated daily with flowers and gifts that received every day by the keepers of the property.

And here lies Grandma Presley

Elvis' playroom!

This was where Elvis played racquetball and did some entertaining. Here when you first enter you see some old school exercise equipment and an awesome pinball machine.

Here was a nice sitting room where Elvis could play the piano and entertain his guests.

Below this was the racquetball court but it was turned into a trophy room. If you go and check out Graceland you'll see that there is a separate trophy house that keeps a lot of the jumpsuits and golden records.

Elvis had so many awards that they turned a great deal of the property in to trophy rooms, it was rather nice because it the displays gave a great history of Elvis. I did learn a lot of things about him and his family that I did not know before.

Memphis Weekend!

Here is the first post about my weekend in Memphis, TN. I went with my mom, aunt, and cousins, we had a girls road trip! A nice long drive from Northern Kentucky down to Memphis but well worth the trip.

The first day after we arrived we loaded on a bus and headed off to tour Memphis and Graceland, home of Elvis. The morning half of the tour was mainly spent on a bus so I didn't snap any photos of that, however it was an incredible tour, the guides were very interactive and funny, it was the Memphis best tours.

I don't want to give you too much about Graceland because it was well worth the trip so I hope that one day you can make it there too.

The house is still owned by Elvis' daughter, Lisa Marie, she owns the house, the grounds, and all the furnishings. These are the original furnishings, Elvis once sat on this couch in this living room.

This was the bedroom of Elvis' parents that also lived in the house. Elvis' room and Lisa Marie's along with who knows what else is located upstairs which is still closed off to the public. Lisa Marie is keeping that area private because her father spent so much of his time up there. I would imagine it also could have something to do with the rumor of him dying on the toilet of his master bathroom, I would want to keep that private too if I was the family.

Above is the dining room, can you imagine the meals shared at this table with the King himself?!

I love this picture of Priscilla and Lisa Marie, both very beautiful women. I think Priscilla was an admirable woman, trying to manage a family like this.

The kitchen, can you imagine how many grilled peanut butter banana sandwiches were made on that stove!

The TV room, down in the basement. Love this couch, the mirrored ceiling, and the three small TVs in the wall, obviously this was before big screens were popular.

The pool room, check out that ceiling, the whole room is the same material, if you look close even the sofas match!

The world famous Jungle room, Lisa Marie says this was her favorite room, and that chair with bear was her favorite chair.

Do you have a favorite room in the house? 

Some adventures around the cabin

More about our vacation...I know I mentioned the cabin we rented was nestled in 80 acres of wilderness, so here are a few pictures of our adventures on the surrounding property.

 The hubs and Guido ventured in to the stream, after seeing them tense up from the temperature I decided it was best to stay on dry land. The water was running very fast all week which means it was icy cold!

 Here's Guido on one of the trails on the property leading to where the canoes are tied up on calm open pools of water that you can use for fishing.

 I loved this tree, it was shaped like a wishbone! I had to pose, how could you not!

 This is one of the calm pools where you can untie the canoe and pull it in the water and set off paddling towards the river. The fishing was ok, the problem was all the fish were too small to keep :-( but it was still fun catching them, well more fun for my husband than me, haha.

 There were three canoes located on the property, one metal and the other two were a lighter weight material, possibly kevlar. The lighter canoes were the ones we chose to use, they were also a bit more comfortable than the metal one.

 The water was beautiful, it was rather inviting however these streams and pools are connected to rivers. Rivers tend to be homes to snakes and leaches and that is just what was living in there. I do not believe the snakes were poisonous however I don't care to take the chance. I enjoy a good lake swim but after seeing a few snakes pop their heads out and dart quickly across the water and seeing leaches stuck to the bottom of our canoe when we pulled it out of the water we decided it was best to not go for a swim. We did take a day trip to a near by town that had some beautiful sandy beaches, more on that later.

 The view of the cabin from up stream, the amount of water on this property was just incredible. The water and the forestry, the forest was so dense you could not see very far, luckily the trails on the property are marked fairly well, some of them do not get used much and the trails are a bit grown over with grass, shrubs, and such but the markers on the trees make it easy to get where you wanna go.

 The water was icy cold as I mentioned before but it was beautiful!

 Guido took a few swims in the water, I guess when you have a fur coat the cold water doesn't bother you so much.

 Some pictures of the flowers and greenery on the property...being surrounded by so much nature for a whole week was so relaxing. No technology to interrupt you when you are enjoying all this beauty, it was great to cut ourselves off from the fast paced world, no watches or clocks necessary, waking and sleeping whenever we pleased, eating meals when you are hungry not because it's breakfast or you have to take a lunch break. It was a great escape!

Don't worry there are more pictures and adventures to post soon!