2018 Christmas Journey Memphis, TN

Memphis is a city on the Mississippi River in southwest Tennessee, famous for the influential strains of blues, soul and rock 'n' roll that originated there. Elvis Presley, B.B. King and Johnny Cash recorded albums at the legendary Sun Studio, and Presley’s Graceland mansion is a popular attraction. Other music landmarks include the Rock 'n' Soul Museum, Blues Hall of Fame and Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

Today Craig and I started our visit at Graceland. 

Graceland is a mansion on a 13.8-acre (5.6 ha) estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, once owned by the singer and actor Elvis Presley. His daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, has been the owner of Graceland since the passing of her father. It is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the vast Whitehaven community, about 9 miles (14.5 km) from Downtown and less than four miles (6 km) north of the Mississippi border.^[5]

It was opened to the public as a museum on June 7, 1982. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991, and declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006. Graceland is the second most-visited house in the U.S. after the White House, with over 650,000 visitors a year. (Wikipedia)

We were amazed to meet people from all over the world who were huge Elvis fans and made the visit to Memphis to visit Graceland. 

Next stop famous BBQ from Memphis. #1 is Central BBQ downtown. We loved the food and enjoyed the live music as well. 

Next stop the Civil Rights Museum. We learned a lot about Martin L King. A must for every American who visits Memphis! 

At the end of the day went went to the huge pyramid by the river. The Memphis Pyramid, initially known as the Great American Pyramid, formerly referred to as the Pyramid Arenaand locally referred to as The Pyramid,^[5] was originally built as a 20,142-seat arena located in downtown Memphis, in the U.S. state of Tennessee, at the banks of the Mississippi River. The facility was built in 1991 and was originally owned and operated jointly by the city of Memphis and Shelby County; Shelby County sold its share to Memphis in April 2009.^[6] Its structure plays on the city's namesake in Egypt, known for its ancient pyramids. It is 321 feet (98 m) (about 32 stories) tall and has base sides of 591 feet (180 m); it is by some measures the tenth-tallest pyramid in the world.^[7]

The Memphis Pyramid has not been regularly used as a sports or entertainment venue since 2004. In 2015, the Pyramid re-opened as a Bass Pro Shops "megastore", which includes shopping, a hotel, restaurants, a bowling alley, and an archery range, with an outdoor observation deck adjacent to its apex.

We enjoyed a walk by the river for a perfect sunset! Priceless!