memphis, part deux

friday

after re-entering the working world my internal clock doesn't really let me sleep in unless i'm out and about until some obscene hour of the night. so i was the first person up and feeling a bit antsy.

about an hour later, my buds stirred in our super sized hotel bed and soon we were all munching away on all the snacks we brought with us. veggies and hummus from the north, healthy bars from the southwest, apples, oranges, and so on. and yes, two of us even ventured to the hotel gym. and after returning we promptly started eating once again.

all showered and pretty, we left our hotel to explore memphis, tennessee leaving the hotel to drive around downtown. after surveying the heart of the city, we successfully found street parking (and i did a stellar parallel parking job, if i don't say so myself). the only glitch was that we had to come back and feed the meter every 15-30 minutes. after realizing that this caused unnecessary tension, we settled on parking in a lot and wandered back into the happenin area of memphis.

after roaming around a bit, we settled on a spot called the flying fish. after a decent and oil-heavy meal we headed to the national civil rights museum - a historic site that sent chills up my spine. it was very informative and helped fill in some of the missing pieces of that era for me. the scary part was seeing the actual site where MLK, Jr. was shot and where his assassin stood - quite disturbing actually. the way it was set up was that the museum was across the street from another museum of sorts that chronicles the effort to apprehend the assassin.

the only drawback of the museum was that it was very text-heavy. if i were to do it again i would probably rent the audio equipment to help move me along the exhibits. the element of humor in all of this was that at the tail end of the museum exhibitions, there was a small window for the Indian community of greater memphis to build their ties to the civil rights movement in the U.S. through Gandhi. (mostly funny because i had been wondering if there was an indian community in memphis...)

to decompress we walked along the mississippi river to chillax a bit. our walk was followed by a quick trip to a mall-type complex where we had a bathroom break, tried on clothes, and ate some fly chocolate. on our way back to the car we passed by a creperie where we oooh-ed and aaah-ed over the menus and displays. we ended up taking them back to our hotel room for us to study closely. after resting a bit, we somehow mobilized ourselves to have a night on the town at bb kings.

saturday

(doing short bits to expedite the process.....)

graceland - was SO fly - also a very eerie experience to go into elvis' real house, but well worth the time and $$$.

crepes - quite tasty - would definitely go back again if i were to somehow find myself back in memphis.

the drive back - pretty uneventful as far as i can remember. we didn't stop a whole lot b/c we were trying to get back at a decent hour. i think we were all quite tired by the end. three stops in the chicagoland area - chicago, burr ridge, and naperville : )

bosom buddies and memphis

a long overdue account of a road trip to somewhere within driving distance of chicago….

my buds and i were originally set on heading to toronto, but questionable weather conditions predicted for t-town led us to settle for a much more happenin city (another one of those things we get used to doing at this age – settling – settling for a job, settling for a partner in life, settling down, and so on).

after we agreed that we wanted to be in a bearable climate, we looked at a map of the u.s. of a. and thought to ourselves, ‘hmmm, which cities are driving distance from chicago?’ cities like st. louis, gary, and others were quickly vetoed --> that is _literally_ how we ended up choosing to head down south to memphis, tennessee (i generally say this in a twangy southern accent J )

for moi, the journey began in new york city (take your shirt off - c'mon you know the song, right? right?!?)

wednesday

i arrived at o’hare at a fairly decent hour of the evening to be greeted by my cousin and one of my bosom buddies. my parents were in the car awaiting our arrival. they made a stopover at devon avenue on the way to the airport (this idea was definitely one of my mom’s ambitious, let’s-get-everything-done-that-we-can-on-the-north-side-of-the-city plans), and that meant that there were tons of groceries in the back of our sleek seven-passenger van and some snacks in the front. after the three of us piled in, we made our way into the burbs.

thursday

we got off to a fairly early start given that we were catching up into the wee hours of thursday morning. after running a few errands we made our way over to another burb to pick another bosom buddy - and we were off to memphis, tennessee.

(unfortunately, since i forgot to remind my bosom buddies to bring road trip music for our listening pleasure, we ended up listening to the music that i stuffed into my overnight bag before i left nyc: trance, some hip hop, alanis, and a lot of other random music)

the drive down was fairly uneventful. lots of stopping to pee at rest stops, perusing the aisles of rest area shops, and munching on apples, pears, and other very health snacks. (read: a couple of us had started working out and trying to eat healthier much to the dismay of the third bosom buddy.) when we had finally arrived, it was dark, a bit chilly, and we were famished!!! we were so hungry that we sat in the car in front of the hotel for close to 30 minutes trying to figure out where to eat. part of that was trying to figure out a place that was vegetarian friendly in the south – a bit of a task. we settled on an italian spot that was fairly easy to find given that every single street in memphis was on the triple A map that my pops had ordered for us (even a street that was ½ a block long in memphis ‘downtown’ called ‘november 6^th street.’) i must add here that we did pull into a gas station for directions and the buffest and sexiest of the three of us was hit on by the direction giver.

the food itself was good stuff - filling after spending the entire day eating fresh vegetables and hummus (which i did enjoy but it's nice to eat cooked food for at least one meal of the day :) an event worth mentioning was me trying to order a drink during sans identification (i left mine in the car.) the waiter, attempting to give me the benefit of the doubt, asks me how old i am ('27') and when i was born (03-DD-1980.) seeing as the road trip went down before my birthday, the waiter did not quite understand why i claimed i was 27 when i was technically 26. (doesn't any one else round up????)

post-eats, the three of us were downright chipper. especially one bosom buddy who took to jumping on the hotel bed for at least fifteen minutes before chillaxing a bit. she managed to convince us to join in madness as well. now, i will always feel less inhibited to jump on hotel beds, and i have a bosom buddy to thank for that.

(more to come on the rest of the trip - i am accepting revisions to this blog provided that they are well-supported by physical evidence : )