Days 11-12: Walkin' in Memphis

We were not impressed by Kansas City. We very quickly grew to like Memphis. Between its Mississippi Riverfront setting...

One of several historic paddleboats

...to it's very nice and well preserved old architecture...

The Peabody Hotel

Not the Peabody ;-)

Court Square

...to it's funky old street trollies...

All are different

...to Beale St., the Bourbon Street/Crescent Street/Red Mile/fill in your town's party street name here of Memphis. But this one's better because it's the home of the Blues. And of bikes, on Wednesday nights.

From one end, 5:30 PM

From the middle, 7:30 PM

Turns out Memphis has an NBA team, and coincidentally are in the playoffs, and coincidentally were playing a do-or-die game 5 that night. So in honour of my my friend Edwin, we decided to go to the game. Besides, the NBA puts on one heck of a show. For starters, every seat (all 18,000) had a t-shirt and an orange towel on it for the fans.

A whole lotta shirts

...and they have dancing girls...

Long hair must be waved 

Uniforms must be changed

It was a surprisingly one sided game, given that Memphis had lost 3 of the last 4. We were up 20 most of the game, and when we slowed down (as teams so often do when they are ahead near the end) they came back within 6. But we prevailed.

Griffin & Gasol battled it all night

Elvis --and thus Graceland -- doesn't interest me (in fact most blues music doesn't excite me), but we did tour the Gibson factory...

Neat place, but you can't take pictures inside the factory

...and see a flying fish. Literally.

On the Flying Fish restaurant.

We would come back to Memphis in a heartbeat. Still, it's off to Atlanta in the morning.


My report on Memphis BBQ after dinner tonight.