Memphis City Tour

Today we toured Memphis where we got to see some of the downtown area and the Mississippi River as well as a glimpse of Mud Island. It is not really an island but instead a small peninsula crated when the river was diverted in 1960. Today it houses a museum, resturants and an amphitheater. It is accessible by monorail, by foot or by ferry.

We drove by Victorian Village, a street where in the mid 19th century a few wealthy lawyers, bankers and cottom giants etc. built victorian style homes. The homes have been maintained or restored to their original glory and some of them offer public tours.



We made a stop at the famous Beale Street named birthplace of the Blues and Rock and Roll. It has many bars, resturants and of course Schwab, a 120 year old general store.


We drove passed the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assinated on April 4 1968. It has been kept exactly the same as it was when he was assinated and is now part of the National Civil Rights Museum. A wreath hangs on the motel's second floor balcony where Martin Luther King was standing when a single bullet claimed his life.

We passed by the Pyramid Arena ahich has been a focal point of the city's skyline since 1991. The arena, guarded by Ramses a 20 foot statue which stands outside, is 32 stories high, holds 21000 people and has a stainless steel exterior. Sadly it is being used less and less but plans are underway to breathe new life into the Pyramid.

We were treated to a special performance by the Peabody Ducks. The story goes that the owners of the Peabody Hotel went duck hunting using live decoys for the hunt. After the hunt was over and being pretty full of Tennessee Whiskey the "Boys" thought it would be pretty funny to put the "live decoy ducks" in the hotel fountain which was in the lobby. The hotel patrons were so thrilled whth the spectacle and so began a tradition of having ducks in the lobby fountain. At 11:00 AM each day the ducks are brought by elevator from their penthouse suite in the hotel to the lobby fountain where they spend their day and then at 5:00 PM they get out of the fountain and march along the red carpet to the elevator which again takes them to their penthouse suite. The ducks "work" 7 days a week but after 3 months they are able to retire and do what ducks do for the remainder of their lives.