Travel Tennessee (March 20 - 22, 2014)

Over the past week-end I was fortunate enough to take a trip to Tennessee with Tom (my boyfriend) and his Daughter Katlyn.  We’ve all been studying hard and spring break couldn’t have come sooner.

Our plan entailed leaving Wisconsin on Thursday, March 20th and driving straight down to Memphis, which is approximately 12 hours (with Tom driving 10 hours – hang on folks!)  We were lucky to get a reservation at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Memphis for a reasonable rate of $63.00 per night through Priceline.  I know, great price!  The hotel itself was very nice (and clean), the front desk staff not so much.  Let’s just say they weren’t as excited as we were checking in.

Once we made it up to our room it was time to take a stroll through downtown and have dinner. We found a great BBQ place, The Rendezvous Restaurant. We enter the restaurant through a back alley that resembled the alley from an old gangster movie. Once inside the ambiance was great. The walls were covered with tons of customer and celebrity photos and signage; the tables were covered with picnic table clothes and a piece of Plexiglas that covered them menu. Tom and I ordered and shared the Pork Ribs & Shoulder Combination. Served on a large oval paper plate, the slab of ribs contained 6 - 8 bones on one half of the plate and a huge mound of pork shoulder served one a slice a bread (that I didn’t even know was under there until we ate our way to it). This meal easily fed us. The ribs were seasoned perfectly with the house rub and the BBQ sauce on the shoulder was to die for.  Katlyn enjoyed the chopped chicken sandwich, basically a shredded BBQ chicken sandwich. Oh, I almost forgot, the beverages were served from a pitcher into a Coke glass. Each of us had our own pitcher and I have to say the sweet tea was delicious. Great atmosphere, reasonably priced, great staff (I feel like a food critic writing a review!). This place is definitely a must see if you are ever in Memphis.

For day two of our trip we head to, yep you guessed it, Graceland home of the King.  Graceland is located about 20 minutes from downtown Memphis.  We were surprised that the area surrounding Graceland was a little (OK a lot) run down.  Parking at Graceland was $10, which personally I was disappointed we had to pay for parking.  We arrived early thinking we would beat the crowds but to our surprise there were about 200 elementary aged children eagerly waiting to be shuttled across the street to Graceland.  Of course, just our luck.  The ticket packages at Graceland ranged from $20 - $70.  We purchased the $35 dollar package which included an audio-guided tour of Graceland Mansion.  The Graceland Mansion tour included Elvis’ living room, his music room, parents' bedroom, dining room, kitchen, TV room, pool room and the famous Jungle Room.  We also had access Vernon Presley’s business office, Elvis’ racquetball building and trophy building.  The last part of the tour the Mansion was Meditation Garden where Elvis is buried.   Also included in our package was a visit to Elvis Presley Car Museum, Elvis’ Custom Jets, Elvis Live from Vegas and Elvis’ Hawaii.  Whether you are a fan of Elvis or not, this is a must see attraction if you are in Memphis. From the moment you walk in the front door, to seeing his hometown, visiting the ice cream shop, his airplanes and collection of cars it gives a wonderful perspective of Elvis's life.

Day two also included a three hour drive to Nashville.  I had heard great things about Nashville and was excited to finally get to visit.  Not sure what was going on in Nashville but all the hotels close to downtown were sold out.  We ended up staying at the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Smyrna, TN which is about 20 minutes from downtown Nashville.  As you can imagine, at this point we are all exhausted from being on the run.  Our plan was to rest for a few hours and then go downtown to sight see.  Yeah, like that’s going happen.  Katlyn and I were too excited to even think about sleeping so after a few minutes of begging we were able to convince Tom that we should head to the big city!  How do I explain Broadway Street in downtown Nashville…how about AMAZING!  Lower Broadway consists of 4 blocks filled to the brim with live country music venues, restaurants, and businesses with all of the buildings having some historical significance.  These 4-blocks provided live boot-scooting country music, dancing, and plenty of drinking.  Believe it or not, you can walk down the street with an open beer or drink without a problem.  It was weird to walk out of the bar with a drink in hand.  This was the perfect place for Katlyn and me to wear your western outfits.  We were also able to pick up a couple new pairs of boots from Boot Country where you can purchase 1 pair of boots at regular price and choose 2 more pairs of boots for Free!  Amazing deal and trust me these boots are the real deal.  To finish our night off we headed over to the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge which is within walking distance of Broadway Street.  The Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge is one of the more unique pedestrian walk ways and event locations in Nashville.  There is no cost to use the bridge and makes for the perfect place to get a look at Nashville and snap some pictures.

Day three…surprisingly we all slept in pretty late on this day.  We had planned to get up early and head to The Country Music Hall of Fame before heading home but started watching “The Place Beyond the Pines” with Ryan Gosling (yum) and Bradley Cooper (double yum).  Tom didn’t much care for this movie but I thought it was pretty good (3.5 stars).

We were able to load up the car and head to downtown Nashville to visit The Country Music Hall of Fame.  After purchasing your tickets you are herded into a giant elevator with many other people who upon exiting the elevator went straight to the Reba exhibit.  The line for this attraction was rather long and the room was very crowned so we decided to skip that portion of the museum.  The museum is 3 floors with a ton of information and artifacts starting from the beginning of country music all the way to the present country music stars.   You don't need to be a country music fan to enjoy this museum.   A visit to the gift shop topped off our museum visit.

I won’t bore you with the details of our uneventful trip home other than to say that we left Nashville at somewhere around 2:00 pm and were safe and sound in our own beds at 11:00 pm that night.

We were pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed so much in the three days we were in Tennessee.  If I were to do it all again I would definitely book a hotel closer to downtown Nashville and would plan to stay a few more nights to enjoy more of the live music.