Shrine To The King

As much as it's unfortunate, the pinnacle of the trip to Graceland would be Elvis' grave, right? Not for me - I was more interested in the inside of the house, but oh well. Just to the side of the house - next to the pool - is the memorial to Elvis and his parents.

His grave and that of his parents are next to a pretty fountain with a ton of beautiful flowers.

Here is Elvis' grave.....

It was a very beautiful area and lots of fans left memorials - stuffed animals, flowers, "KING" in block letters, etc.

Big flower memorials were lined up along the side of the house too - I'm not a huge fan of all that stuff, made it look kind of gaudy if you ask me.

Here's a shot of the front of Graceland as we left.....

Back at the main plaza, they also had a museum of Elvis' cars. They had them all shined up and then had placards with descriptions of the cars and the stories behind each one. This one was the car Elvis drove on the morning he died...

And somehow, they got his 2 planes to the Graceland property and have them on display. You can climb up the stairs and tour the planes! The big one is called "Lisa Marie" - for obvious reasons.

Here's the bathroom on the plane - with a real gold sink!

The dining room on the plane......

And this is Elvis' bedroom on "Lisa Marie" - nothing fancy, but still.

Very neat tour and I'm glad I went to Graceland to see the home of The King!

Heartbreak Hotel

On our visit to Graceland, I saw this sign - a SIRIUS station playing Elvis around the clock.  What an icon to have that going 34 years after your death!

And this is the back of Graceland - not to fancy, huh?  Really, the house isn't that impressive, considering who owned it and how much money he made.

This is behind the house - Lisa Marie's swing set that is still there!

This is in the small outbuilding behind the main house - it's an office for his staff/manager.  It was left just as it was.......

This is the back of Graceland and his backyard - not that big or fancy.

In another outbuilding, here is some of the memorabilia that we saw.....

I love that this guitar has his name on it.....

Since my Mom was a huge Elvis fan, she probably had an Elvis scrapbook like this one.

Can you imagine that this clunky old TV was a gift to Elvis from RCA for the sale of 50 million records?!

Here's Elvis' military uniform.....

And here's Priscilla's wedding gown and veil.......

Some cheesy polyester outfits........

His outdoor pool - it was all clean and pretty......I wonder if anyone ever uses it??  I just wonder how often Lisa Marie visits?

Elvis had a racquetball building made and this was in the lobby/lounge area of that outbuilding behind the main house.  He played this piano with some friends the morning he died......

Here is the former racquetball room - now it houses a bunch of his awards and outfits.

Everyone's seen this outfit in video - weird to have it right in front of your face!

Look at this - a cassette tape that is framed!  hahahaha

The King's Castle

When you go to Memphis, one of the obvious highlights would be Graceland.  Since Jenks and I are professional tourists, we couldn't NOT go there!  So here she is - in all of her retro glory......

This is his front living room - it's the room off to the right when you first walk in the house.  WOW!

Look at those stained glass peacocks - just WOW.

Here's his 15-foot custom built couch.....

This is on the first floor - it is his parents' bedroom.

It was disappointing to me that we didn't have access to the 2nd floor - his private living quarters.  :(  BOO.  So we didn't get to see his bedroom, or the bathroom in which he died.  But this was the closest we got - the bottom of the stairs.  Lisa Marie narrated part of the audio/headphone guide and she said that he would NEVER come downstairs unless he was in outfit/hair/jewelry.  That big curtain probably gave him a grand entrance down the stairs to the entryway.

This is his dining room on the first floor where he entertained guests.

This is Elvis' carpeted kitchen!  It was so awesomely bad!  The countertops were formica and the appliances were outdated (obviously). 

Lisa Marie said that there was always something being cooked in that kitchen - night and day.  Everything was so very 60's and 70's.

After the kitchen, we went down to the basement - here is Elvis' "state of the art" TV watching room.  He saw somewhere that one of his idols watched 3 TVs at once to get all of the news, so he thought he needed that too, so here are his 3 side-by-side TVs.

This is his record collection - so weird to imagine what The King listened to in his spare time.......

And of course, the TV room had a full bar off to the side!

This next room was very disturbing - it was his pool playing room and it was covered floor-to-ceiling in obnoxious fabric!  AWFUL!

All of the fabric that was bunched up on the walls was draped across the ceiling and then all the way up to where that light fixture hung down.  SO BAD!

And here is the famous JUNGLE ROOM!  I was expecting a bunch of swanky leopard print stuff, but it just wasn't.  It was forest green and wood paneling all over the place......

 

These stairs go up to the 2nd floor - somewhere in his private living quarters.

 

 Lisa Marie said on the audio tour that she remembers sitting in this chair with that teddy bear and her Dad when she was very little.  Oh, and that rock wall on the left has water running down it - a fountain in the house!

Even the ceiling is carpeted in the Jungle Room!  Apparently it was done to help with acoustics, as Elvis recorded some of his songs in this very room!