The move to Nashville has been great, since it’s allowed for me to travel Tennessee one weekend at a time. Ok, so realistically I didn’t get a full weekend in Memphis. It’s about a three hour drive from Nashville and between one thing and another, I didn’t quite have the energy to go out after work and the drive. So we made it to a friend’s house, got settled in and ready to go Saturday morning! Our itinerary went a little something like this:

Saturday:

Breakfast at Bluff City Coffee. We got a later start than I’d planned so by the time we made it to our original breakfast plans, our level of hunger couldn’t wait through the hour-long line at the Arcade. We walked a little further down main street and popped into a cute coffee shop and were pleasantly surprised! Their iced coffees were delicious and bagel sandwiches hit the spot. It’s the type of place I’d go to in Nashville, right up my alley.

From breakfast, we walked a few blocks down Main Street towards the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. I will say this as many times as I have to: IF YOU ONLY HAVE TIME FOR ONE THING WHEN IN MEMPHIS, GO TO The National Civil Rights Museum. Not only is the museum extremely well done, but at this point in history I think people need to re-educate themselves on the history of slavery, civil rights and the Black Power movements. Sure, we probably learned most of this in a condensed form in school, but seeing the video, visuals, text and actual replicas in real life as an adult is a completely different, more meaningful experience.

My friend Halie and I spent a total of two and half hours walking through the museum. Realistically, my brain had reached a point where I wasn’t absorbing any more information, but if I lived in Memphis, I could visit every day for weeks before getting tired of it and truly reading and watching everything.

When you enter the museum, you enter into an art gallery of important photographs from the civil rights movement. From there, the museum works chronologically, starting from the beginning of slavery. The display above was made of real wood, with sound effects of birds at sea, men groaning and being whipped. You felt like you were there. It was brutal and nauseating.

If I could go back to the museum and do a video tour when it was empty, I would. There is so much to take in, these photos don’t do it any justice. That said, I’ve captioned the photos below to walk you through some of it.

What I didn’t realize was the backstory of why Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Memphis in 1968. He was there to support the sanitation workers strike. They had been facing poor pay and dangerous working conditions for years. On April 3, 1968, MLK Jr. gave his last ever speech at a rally in Memphis. I had never heard the whole thing, but watching the video and then reading the speech gave me chills. It’s like he knew what was coming and he was trying to help everyone continue the movement after his passing. To his last moment the man was incredible.

The last part of the museum is actually across the street, called the Legacy building. It is where the shooter allegedly shot Dr. King from. They’ve actually made a museum out of the building and the investigation into the shooter. It was incredibly interesting, because that’s one part we were never educated on.

Afternoon refreshments: Once out of the museums, we walked back to Main Street, enjoying the mural art Downtown Memphis has to offer. It was incredibly hot, so we popped into The Local to get a drink and cool off. When I’m that warm, the only thing that will quench my thirst is a cold lemonade. We ordered two and the waitress thought it was hilarious – two grown women ordering lemonade at a bar! She kept chuckling but we were drenched in sweat, we didn’t care!

Refreshed, we walked up Main and over to The Peabody Hotel. Built in 1925, it’s all about grandeur. Definitely a Memphis staple. The most famous thing about this hotel, though, are the Peabody Ducks. In the 1930’s the GM of the hotel had gone hunting with a friend and brought back several ducks from the trip. They put three ducks in the fountain and it was a hit! Since then, the hotel has a Duckmaster who who leads the duck march from their palace on the rooftop to the fountain at 9 am and leads the march back up at 5 pm daily. We weren’t as interested in seeing the march itself, but it was crazy how well-behaved they were!

Lunch: We had planned to visit Sun Studio next, but the tours were booked up for a few hours when we got there, so we headed to lunch at Rendezvous. If I may, I would say Rendezvous is the most-recommended Memphis BBQ restaurant. Everywhere I looked and everyone I asked recommended it. Fortunately, we popped in around 4 pm, just before the dinner rush! We were seated and served almost immediately. I will say – great service! I went for my usual order when I go to a BBQ place: pulled pork sandwich with beans and slaw. Yes, the pork was delicious. The sauce was tangy and flavorful. The beans were great. But y’all. The slaw. You’ll notice it’s yellow and after one bite the spice hit me. They make it with Louisiana Hot Sauce and mustard…go try this at home. It’s delicious.

We had a bit of time in between lunch and our Sun Studio tour, so we walked back to the car (and the really cool mural collage below) and drove over to Harbor Town. Not a tourist destination, Harbor Town is an island just off Memphis in the Mississippi River. It sounds weird, but it’s a little village all to itself, with it’s own square and shops. It reminded me of Winter Park and Celebration, FL. Really quaint.

After window shopping our ‘if I ever move to Memphis’ homes, we drove back over for our Sun Studio tour. For those who don’t know, Sun Studio is probably most famous for being the birthplace of Rock N’ Roll. Elvis and Johnny Cash are two of the biggest names who recorded there, and a lot of music history took place in that studio. The space adjacent (the door below) is actually a cafe and record shop now, but you start the tour in there, go upstairs to their museum of artifacts and information and then end the tour in the studio downstairs.

Dinner: After the tour, we drove home to shower up. The day had been grossly hot so we needed the breather. Had we been staying in a hotel, I would’ve popped in the pool and showered up afterwards! We drove to this really cool lounge in an old Victorian mansion called Mollie Fontaine Lounge. When you first walk in, it feels like a smaller version of the house Jada Pinkett Smith runs in Magic Mike Two. You know, with the dancing and strippers in every room? This one had that feel minus the strippers. There was a lovely duet playing, the appetizers were delicious and the drink was amazing. This is definitely the kind of place I’d hang out at.

We made our way over to Beale Street, because when in Memphis, right? Well. I’ll blame the heat but I was not in the mood. They close Beale after a certain time for public safety reasons, so you have to wait in line to be carded and pay cover. COVER. To be allowed into the strip of bars. To then pay cover again. The heat combined with that and the fact that I wasn’t in the mood to really go bar-hopping made for a not-so-great night. (Halie – thank you for putting up with me and my grandma/brattiness.)

Having said that, I can definitely see Beale being fun especially going in groups knowing you don’t have to drive home. We’ll go back in the fall or spring, when the weather is nicer!

Sunday:

Breakfast: Sunday morning was at The Majestic Grille. It’s in Downtown Memphis and has a big screen where they play old black and white films and cartoons. It was a cool vibe and their brunch was delicious. The coffee was good (which is rarely ever the case), the Mimosas were affordable and our food was yummy! They even brought biscuits to tide you over before your meal! We left practically rolling out of there, we were so full.

From there, we drove over to Mud Island River Park, adjacent to Harbor Town. The park features a riverwalk, which is an exact scale model of the Lower Mississippi River flowing from where it meets the Ohio River down to the Gulf of Mexico. It was actually pretty interesting! There’s a museum onsite as well, which we didn’t visit. The ‘Gulf of Mexico’ is a one-acre body of water where people can paddle boat and kids can play around in the water.

Lunch: Our last stop before leaving town was Gibson’s Donuts. One of my favorite things when I travel is to visit the famed/historical/ #1 donut shop there. In Memphis, it’s Gibson’s. They’ve been there over 50 years and are your regular, normal donut shop. No gimmicks or trends, just delicious donuts. Unfortunately, mine weren’t quite so photogenic, so all I got was the shot below. Regardless of looks, they were AMAZING.

After a donut and iced coffee, we hit the road back home to Nashville! In retrospect, there are probably more things we could have done, but I do feel like we got a good glimpse of Memphis. There are more restaurants on the list to try, so I’ll definitely be back!

Tips for Travelers:

Honestly I only have one tip: try not to go in the dead in summer if you’re someone who sweats a lot! It was miserable, so I was unfortunately a little miserable and grouchy. Instead go in spring or fall, when the weather is nicer but you still don’t need any extra layers.

Hope you enjoyed! Have you ever been to Memphis? Anything I need to back and see?

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