Okay, so “rid­ing” more than “walk­ing”.  My wife and I accom­pa­nied her grand­mother and brother to Mem­phis to tour Grace­land and the city as a whole.  We hit all the major “touristy” spots:  The Peabody Hotel, the old Lor­raine Motel (where MLK was assas­si­nated), Sun Records, and of course Grace­land and Beale Street.

We even stopped at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hos­pi­tal.  I felt kind of like a jerk, because while we were walk­ing around the grounds tak­ing pho­tographs of the beau­ti­ful facil­ity, a small red car stopped at the front door of St. Jude’s…a small child with can­cer, wear­ing an oxy­gen mask, was assisted out by his/her par­ents.  It really made me won­der why on God’s green earth St. Jude’s is included as a tourist attraction.

I had never been to Mem­phis, and I’ve lived in the South all my life.  I guess I took the city and its rich his­tory for granted.   But I did enjoy it, and for the most part it is nice.  (We kind of got lost on Sat­ur­day and ended up in the not-so-touristy spots of Mem­phis.  We even ran into a funeral procession.)

The next time we go, it won’t be to do the tourist thing.  It’ll be to soak up Beale and hit Ren­dezvous for some deli­cious BBQ.