Week 3 - Still in Memphis

This flooding is crazy as I'm sure you have all seen on the news.  The Mississippi is now 3 miles wide, when it is usually 1 mile.

This has been a busy week for us.  We took a boat ride on the Mississippi River which was eerie.  The river is now a huge lake, so you can't tell what's underneath you, and you are riding beside the tops of the trees.

wow

high waters on the Mississippi

Greg ready for the boat ride

We spent a day at the Memphis Zoo, which was a great zoo (we are zoo people).  Lots of nice cages for all the animals and we got to see them feeding the polar bears and the panda bears which was cool.  Never saw grey wolves in a zoo, but they had four.  Fun day.

Spent another day at a Greek Festival.  Let's say it was interesting food, although the pastries were to die for so we had to buy a sampler package to take with us.  Lots of fun music and dance.  Who would have thought Greek in Memphis.
We drove down to Clarksdale Mississippi which is a small town with big blues.  Spent the day at a small blues festival with some great bands.  If we lived here, we would be attending these festivals which occur every weekend - amazing.

We didn't have Graceland on our list, but when in Memphis........   Turned out to be an interesting stop.  The mansion isn't a mansion by today's standards, but the rooms were decorated nice and the grounds were pretty.  Nice museums giving a lot of Elvis history which was good for us since we never followed his life.

Living room - peacock stained glass - beautiful

Guess who?

TV room - great colors

Gravesite - right on Graceland property

We went to the Memphis Redbirds AAA baseball game since the stadium is right in town and a few blocks from Beale Street.  Awesome stadium - even served Yuengling beer.  Great seats right behind home team dugout.  We even brought them a winner.  Here are some pictures of Beale Street at night.

 
Jackson Browne was in town at a local theatre, so we went there after first sampling some great southern fried chicken.  We love this town!  The good music and food are never ending.

Last day here was spent at the BBQ Festival which was what we were waiting for.  It was moved to the fairgrounds because of flooding and was huge - biggest one we ever attended, but very different from those at home. Unless you knew the folks BBQing, you couldn't sample anything.  We had to walk around watching everyone partying.  We did join the Peoples Choice and sampled many kinds and then cast our vote.  I am addicted to BBQ pork nachos.  All the booths had great names like "Pigfather", "Pig Fiction", "Pigapaloosa" and many more.  Here are a few pictures.

Our Favorite