DAY 8
Sunday, July 20, 2014Memphis, Tennesse, USA to Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Weather: Sunny, 28 celsius
Drew's friend Jodie recommended the Beauty Shop on Cooper Street for brunch.
It's located in an old beauty salon in mid-town Memphis.
It's located in an old beauty salon in mid-town Memphis.
They have a long "community" table near the front, and individual tables and booths in the back, along with some 50's inspired decor like vinyl-covered stools and hooded hair dryers.
The Eggs Benedict with proscuitto and arugula is heavenly!
Even the bathroom has a 50's vibe, right down to the red tin garbage can.
After brunch, we headed downtown and found the Gibson Factory.
This lovely blue piano is in the lobby. Unfortunately it has a sign reading "Please do not touch the piano" so I didn't have a chance to play it.
Beale Street - downtown Memphis.
We walked by the A. Schwab Museum & Store and decided to pop in.
They have mountains of interesting things to see. When you enter the building, the front is set up as the store, with trinkets, knick-knacks, old games and items that were probably common in the 50's. As you make your way to the back of the building and up the stairs, you can find antiques and other furniture as part of the museum.
They have a big collection of post cards at the store and we found one with a photo of this machine. It still works when you insert a penny but it seems there is only one fortune that pops up: "Your early years may be disappointing but later very happy."
Elvis is still the King of Memphis and we found a boatload of Elvis pharaphenalia here. Check out this postcard with a recipe for one of his favourite dishes: Banana Pudding
Here's my favourite Elvis song from one of his movies.
On the other side of the store on the main level, you'll find a milkshake bar where you can order an authentic milkshake made with old fashioned ice cream and soda. They also have other yummy snacks and nibbles, and several shelves selling classic candies.
Salt water taffy is hard to resist. The first time I tried it was many, many years ago, when my parents brought some home from their trip in the southern USA. Shortly after, I was excited to discover that you can find salt water taffy at Maple Leaf Fudge on Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The shape of the taffy you can find in Niagara is shorter and rounder than the ones I found here. These flavors are banana, cotton candy and cherry.
Here's Javier looking handsome and waiting patiently as I take a million photos. Actually, sometime during the day, our camera lens jammed and we couldn't fix it, so the rest of the photos were taken with our cell phones.
Along the sidewalk you can find the Beale Street Brass Notes, memorials dedicated to various famous musicians and artists. Javier is standing beside one of his favourites.
Further down the street, we came across this legend, just outside the BB King Blues Club.
We heard they have good eats, so we decided to check it out.
They have a nice selection of drinks and I picked this one called the "Juke Joint."
You can find another good snapshot of the scene right here.
There was a live blues band performing this afternoon. They were amazing! 
They made it look easy and it also looked like they were really enjoying themselves.
The singer had a gorgeous voice. I could have listened for hours.
After the set, a lady came up to put a tip in the bucket on the stage, and the band announced that it was the granddaughter of BB King. Here's a blurry photo of her (in white).
I had to take a quick bathroom break. Javier told me later that he was talking with the band while I was in the bathroom. We were both too shy to talk to BB King's granddaughter.
In Memphis, Tennessee you can find Graceland, the former home of Elvis Presley. It's about a 15 minute drive from downtown Memphis. It was getting late in the afternoon, and we all felt like we had received a sufficient dose of Elvis from the Schwab museum, so we decided to skip Graceland and continue on our trek south. We also figured that skipping Graceland would give us a good reason to return to Memphis again.
So we hit the road, headed for Little Rock, Arkansas.
The drive was pretty uneventful, which is always a good thing when you're on the highway.
We arrived in Little Rock around 7pm, booked a room at La Quinta and stopped at a restaurant for dinner. I ordered a chicken fried steak, thinking it was a chicken dish. Oops. Sigh. This was the most disappointing meal of the trip, so disappointing that I didn't even take a photo.
No comments:
Post a Comment