After one year of living in Middle Tennessee, we had ventured East to Knoxville, North into Kentucky, and South towards Chattanooga, but we had yet to explore to the West towards Memphis. This weekend being Tim's last weekend before Fall semester seemed a fitting time to hit the road! So on Saturday we took a day trip to Memphis to see the sights. It is a little over three hours from Nashville, but totally worth the drive!
One of the first things on our agenda was to visit the Mississippi Mud River Island park. The park covers a small island right on the Mississippi River, except it actually isn't an island at all, but a peninsula! The park includes an amphitheater, museum, and coolest of all...a half mile long model of the Mississippi River. The model was actually quite impressive. It was very detailed and included accurate contours and depth of the river along the way. Also included in the model were most of the main cities along the river.
This picture shows Memphis and includes the major bridges. Cool!
On our way back to the car from the Mississippi River, we spotted some very old trolleys that looked like they went downtown, so we hopped on! They looked like they had been running since the 30s or 40s. The main drag in Memphis is called Beale street and closely resembled Broadway St. in Nashville, but about twice as long and with one other major difference. This part of Beale street is always closed to traffic! So pedestrians are free to walk around from blues club to bbq joint all night! We were there in the afternoon so it wasn't very busy, but its easy to imagine downtown is hopping at night.
Next, we visited the National Civil Rights Museum located at the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The museum was very well put together and included the actual bus made famous by Rosa Parks who famously refused to move from her seat. All of the museum exhibits were very moving.
Lastly, we couldn't leave Memphis without trying some Memphis style BBQ! We drove out of the main downtown area in search of a local restaurant. We had read a bunch of reviews online and we were determined to try out one of the highest rated places. When we found it, we almost drove past based on the outside appearance. But we were set on trying the food and boy are we glad we did! Memphis-style bbq is characterized by the dry ribs sans sauce. We decided to order ours "wet" which just means they slap on some sauce right before serving the ribs. The sauce was quite vinegary and a bit too tangy for our taste but the meat was delicious and the sides were wonderful!! BBQ is one of our (mostly Tim's :) ) favorite discoveries of the South.
Our day trip to Memphis was a success! It has been really hot lately, so all the walking around in the heat was a bit rough, but totally worth it. What a great trip! We are looking forward to seeing other parts of our new home soon!
