The Memphis Sign<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You only pay for parking at Mud Island Park (the google maps destination). Everything that follows is free. You tread along constructed rivers and adjoining city names, reading history trivia and maps. It\u2019s fascinating by Interstate 64 bridge\u2019s shadow over the Mississippi River. The park ends at the Memphis Sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tip: Don\u2019t climb the letters for photos. Your bodies won\u2019t show. An adjacent board tells you to stand away from the sign for the best photographs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\nThe Ducks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s the draw about ducks waddling from a fancy hotel\u2019s elevator to its fountain, especially when it involves a half-hour wait sitting with children, crying? Let me explain. The Peabody Hotel had an incident when their guest walked in with ducks. Lined with fancy shops and restaurants, the ducks didn\u2019t belong. It seemed fitting to Memphis culture, transforming an odd experience into a not-odd-at-all tradition. Eleven in the morning and five in the evening, the ducks arrive daily. Crowds line the red carpet from the middle elevator to the fountain a solid half hour before time. The staff manages and entertains with an odd pride. Children will love it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visit Beale Street after sundown and into the night. We were visiting with time-limited children for the atmosphere, not the partying. Children can\u2019t enter here after nine, and those already present must exit by eleven. We arrived here at six-thirty, walking along the main street with the trams and the lit carriages, a pedestrian street. The live performer\u2019s music booms from restaurants, the flashing signs glitter, and the gift shops line each side, contrasting my image of Memphis, which I lovingly call a sleepy city where we can get between most places in fifteen minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The experience is electrifying, treading the expanse from Elvis Presley\u2019s statue in Elvis Presley Park to W. C. Handy\u2019s statue. The experience is free until you sit down to try their exotic drinks, which we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Check out Beale Street Crossing at the Mississippi River next, arriving five minutes before the half-hour or the hour when the already-lit Bridge (Interstate 64) breaks into a light show. We were here on a cold, windy night, and the show started with a solidarity display of blue and yellow for Ukraine. The show lasts ten minutes and repeats every half-hour until ten-thirty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The BassPro shops at the Pyramid aren\u2019t exactly free. You can sure visit it for free, especially on rainy days. A highly rated hotel and an observatory for city and river views can be found inside, along with the arcade-like shop. We skipped the observatory and roamed the big sports shop, where our children turned this attraction into not-free, as they picked out gifts for themselves. Pyramid rules Memphis\u2019s skyline. I call it Memphis\u2019s Eiffel Tower because you can see it from everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience these for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a price, Memphis hosts live shows and performances: Graceland, Elvis Presley\u2019s home, and other museums around music and cotton. Graceland will have the steepest price tag. We skipped these for the one that I insist you must visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Time stands still at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis since April 4, 1968: a turbulent time in American history when African Americans lived a segregated life devoid of fundamental civil rights. Dr. Martin Luther King visited Memphis to help with the sanitation department issues. Boarded in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, Dr. King would conduct business on the Balcony, where he breathed his last moments that evening, shot by a bullet from a boardinghouse window across the street. They have frozen both the hotel and the boardinghouse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You enter it to witness the National Civil Rights Museum<\/a><\/strong>, and it begins with the start of slavery. It melts into the cultural clothes and music the African Americans tried to preserve. It rings with speeches from Dr. King, including his last before he died. The building across shows the rental, the bathroom from where the shooter shot him, and how authorities captured him in London a month later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This stop will leave a lasting impact on your psyche, worth every penny, and it will force thoughts for days. Even the gift shop will hold you there longer. The crowd size was the only negative, but the museum is deservedly famous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other attractions are Overton Park, Overton Square, and the Crystal Shrine Grotto, all free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My favorite Indian restaurant (for authentic Punjabi food) in Memphis, which we repeatedly ate at, is the India Palace. Try their Kadhi Pakoda<\/em>. Taste the chocolate Banana bread at Otherlands Coffee. And the best breakfast award in Memphis goes to Brother Junipers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To see the city\u2019s oldest restaurant, visit the Arcade, though we skipped this stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bookofdreams.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/EC401119-A520-4017-BFE1-CEF23EF7CA9A.jpeg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\nThe Beale Street<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Light Show<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\nThe Pyramid<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>The one paid attraction I recommend …<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Other Attractions and Restaurants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n