we arrived in memphis

and our hotel was booked with a conference of some sort. People were everywhere. There were two elevators in this hotel and after a 15 minute wait for a ride, everyone was packed like sardines. It was honestly more than this hotel could handle. They might could have handled it better had this group not like to go on so many elevator rides. Enough of that. I haven't mentioned the most important reason for going to Memphis. Graceland.

We got in line and it was a very long line for the tickets, followed by a long line for the shuttle. We decided a tour of Graceland (and avoiding the long wait) was worth an additional $39 per person for the VIP pass. We jumped to the front of the line and were immediately put on a shuttle to cross the street to Graceland. I took pictures in the house but today I'm just going to post a few. The first is two Grammy Awards.

The second is of a small section of wall with gold records. The next few pictures are my favorites. First of all, does everyone realize how big of an Elvis fan I am? No? Well, I am. Elvis has always been one of my favorites. I would come to Brazoria every summer to stay with my grandparents. Besides playing with all my Barbies, one of the things I'd do almost daily was to pull out Grandma's Elvis records and sing and dance. (She'd usually join me.) Every time I play Stuck On You, I can see Grandma coming around the corner from their kitchen to the den dancing. (No, not literally but that's what always happened.) It was fun. For now I'll leave you with a few of my favorite pictures. These were taken on a part of the tour limited to VIP passes. I really like the lighting on these outfits.

When I was a kid, I'd walk to the gas station in Brazoria and buy Elvis trading cards. I guess they were set up like baseball cards, I really don't know. They came wrapped up with a stick of gum. They would have pictures of Elvis on the front and the backs would have Elvis trivia. (Maybe that's what started my love of useless trivia.) Anyway, I remember one of these cards stated Elvis wore a size 13 shoe. These shoes just didn't seem that big.