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 : )