Oh what a day .......

Oh, welcome to Graceland!  It wasn't nearly as tacky and "hokie" as I had hoped ... in fact it wasn't like anything I had anticipated (although things rarely are what I have envisioned but that may be a post for a different time!).  Above are the gates at the entrance ... but the only way (I think) to get beyond these gates is to pay the admission across the street at the admission office center where of course there are several souvenir shops - one for kids (sorry Connor no hound dog tee shirts) one for I don't know maybe adults and one very large one for whatever else there could possibly be that doesn't quite work in the other souvenir shops.  Oh and of course they were "official merchandise" but there were, naturally, many many unofficial (who knew) souvenir shops on Elvis Presley Boulevard (seriously folks)

Obviously, the photo above is the mansion, from the front lawn (but not as far away as being on Elvis Presley Boulevard, you have to go through the gates and up the hill to get to this point!) 

Below is our official, tourist photo outside the "mansion".  You know, I tried to pick out my tackiest outfit for the day and the best I could do was my sequined flamingo tank top which hardly was appropriate for a trip to Graceland but I didn't (and still don't) have any sequined Elvis shirts - shame on me huh - I should have planned better than that!  Well in my defense, this Memphis trip was an after thought to say the least but I sure am glad we took this "detour".

 I am sort of out of order with these photos so please oh please bear with me!  Below is the "Lisa Marie" jet of Elvis's - this is, of course, a separate admission from just the mansion.  I believe to tour the jet you had to purchase the platinum package which was in the vicinity of $70 bucks .... I will digress here for a moment ~ when Rick was in line to purchase our tickets for the tour we did (which by the way, was a "self guided" tour with one of those audio things hanging from your neck and the dorky earphone things) there was a young (30 ish years old) with the mother of one part of the couple, whom they were obviously taking to fulfill her life long dream of visiting Graceland.  They bought tickets for the super, duper all inclusive mega tour which apparently included a photo pin of some sort of the "king" himself.  Well they handed Mom the pin, which she proceeded to kiss!  Oh boy, we knew they'd be there but there were far fewer of "them" than we had figured there to be. 

Alright, we shall start the tour now ... below is the living room, which is the first room on the right as you enter the "mansion".  Keep in mind the era of this Mansion - what 1970's.  There is a fireplace - well one of those fake jobs to the left of the doorway we are in and the white sofa to the right is 15 feet long!

Below is the dining room, nothing really outstanding ~ in fact sort of small.  In fact the entire place was so (in my opinion of course) unpretentious, not at all over the edge like I expected.

Then we move on to the kitchen below.  The kitchen was probably the biggest surprise to me - I was amazed at how small it was - I only post this picture because of the avocado sink, which certainly was true to the times wasn't it, but surprisingly the appliances were not avocado (or pink or turquoise!).  Our kitchen at the house in Whitman was larger than this kitchen - go figure...

The photo below was one of the rooms in the "basement" area - I post it because the walls and ceiling were all fabric covered (which I think may have been a thing of the times if you could afford it).  The tour did tell us how many yards of fabric it entailed but I can't remember.  Lucy, I sure thought of you with this room - girl, that would have done a whole lot of quilts!  

The pool table had a tear in the felt in one corner - thought of you Jon (although if anyone in the Peck family put tears in your pool table it was probably me (when I wasn't throwing darts at you) - not you).

And below is a room on the first level, behind the kitchen (by the way, the entire second floor was off limits to any tour as it was the "kings" private quarters).  Below was the "jungle room" which was probably pretty "over the edge" in the 70's ... the only part that was weird to me was the plastic plants at the water fall feature shown.

Now, are you sure you're ready for this one????  Below is Lisa Marie's swing set ... kind of a "disappointment" and pretty darned ordinary huh!  I am sure that Ms Lisa Marie loved it however!

Now you know this tour wouldn't be complete without the following few photos of the "Meditation Garden" area - oh dear I sure expected some sights here.  I guess I was not surprised by anything that was there - in fact I was disappointed that there was only one person dressed in Elvis attire while we were there (I did just try to include it in hind sight but to no avail but trust me here, he was a real trip!) ~ the grounds crew does get rid the stuff that is left here (tossing it or other wise disposing of it, daily)  ....... but the tacky plastic flower wreaths and stuff just really blew me away - there were about a dozen or so of them, sort of outside the meditation area - like in one of the driveways.  "Elvis Week" was only three weeks ago so maybe (although I surely doubt it) that is why there was so many of them ..

Oh what a day it was ~ I would never, in my wildest dreams, have imagined that at any time in my life I would tour Graceland!!!  Son of a gun ...

But Chester, I had to include the one below as it is from the Jacksonville, FL fan club and I wondered if you were involved, in any way, with that?  Good lord, there were wreaths from Germany and Japan ... who knew!  Can you imagine being here during Elvis Week - oh lord think about what would come out of the wood work that week!  I bet they'd be tackier than my wildest imagination!  Darn, we should plan better next time to include that week!