Visiting The Holy Land

Israel? Nuh-uh.


Jordan and I spent Labor Day weekend in Memphis to pay honor to the King! I've always wanted to go to Graceland and neither Jordan nor I had ever been to Memphis before, so we had a great time discovering the city. Here is the vacation overview:

It is important to properly prepare for a trip to Graceland. This includes

1. Elvis luggage

2. Elvis decorations throughout the car
(Can't find picture...must not have uploaded it. But it was decorated!)

3. Elvis T-shirt
(p.s. I got a haircut)

4. Elvis tunes!


Jordan only mildly made fun of me. I think he was just jealous because he doesn't own one single thing with Elvis on it (I know, how embarrassing!)

The trip to Memphis was a little less than six hours. I love road trips with Jordan. He's always up for sing alongs, he's good at making fin of stuff that we see along the way, and he doesn't mind driving the whole route.

Our first night we didn't do much. We had to get gas so we took the closest exit from our hotel to seek a gas station....and ended up in Crump Avenue. Crump Ave is exactly what it sounds like- dark, dirty, and the last place I would want to be at night. Everything looked so ghetto and dangerous. Every gas station we went to has a police car with lights blaring in the parkinglot. Yikes. We finally ended up picking a station that only accepted cash, which forced us to go inside the station. It was such a bizarre feeling to be the only white people in an entire gas station, both inside and out. Everyone was black. I've never felt so aware of my whiteness since Jamaica! We also got some drive thru Wendy's in Crump. This was conversation with the drive thru employee:

*Pull up to speaker*
Emplyee: Jus' second. *pause* Whatjaorderuh?
Jordan:....Um...I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you said.
Employee: Whatjuorgherauh.
Jordan: Um...Can I order?
Emplyee: yeah.
Jordan: Ok. We'll have one sour creme and chive potato-
Employee: Don't have it.
Jordan: Oh...Ok....*ordered the rest of the meal*
Emplyee: That it?
Jordan: yeah
Emplyee: pullthejfhehfakjethgdjfheeuhf...

I couldn't help but laugh through the whole thing. But my laughing turned to hacking when I saw that the worker handling my fries wasn't wearing any gloves. Ewwww. Oh, and suprise of the century: they messed our order.

Saturday: GRACELAND!!!!
It was such an awesome tour! There were so many different state license plates in the parking lot and TONS of people. The only thing that bothered me was there were so many people on the tour that I felt as though I was being a little rushed. Still, I managed to take some cool pictures!

The living room with his famous peacock stain glass

The Jungle Room

Elvis' upstairs private quarters. When Elvis was alive, he kept his upstairs very private, so it was still private today. Although I found that respectful...I really wanted to go up there!!
The famous gold tuxedo

Elvis' grave. His parents are buried beside him.

I brought a flower for his grave. I had seen pictures of fans putting flowers on his grave, but when I got there no one else was doing anything. Plus it looked like it was against the rules so I was very reluctant to put it down. Jordan convinced me to do it, reminding me that this would be my only chance to do it. I placed it down quickly when security wasn't looking. Here is the proof that I, Sonja gave a flower to Elvis :)

I took alot of random pictures of rooms, costumes, and other things. They will be on facebook soon.

After Graceland, we went back to downtown Memphis and walked around. We saw the Lorraine Hotel- the hotel where Martin Luther King was assassinated.

We also got to go to an outdoor festival. There was a ton of live music. We watched some of it, one of which was Queen Mojo.
She was quite a different woman. Despite her beefy figure, she wore the tighest jeans I ever saw, she had explosive cleavage with big tattoos on her chest. But man, she could sing! She sang the blues. Her songs were about a "pale woman" taking her man.

We ended the day at the hotel where we watched BYU beat OU. Poor Jordan had such a conflicted heart.


Sunday: Church and Beale Street
On Sunday we went to the Memphis 1st Ward. It was such a cool experience. At least a third of the congration was black. They sang loud and proud (which is something I think white Mormons could improve on). There was also this man who sat in front of us who quietly shouted "A-MAYN" and "PRAISE God" and "Sho' Nuff!". We loved it!

After church, we hit up Beale Street. There was another festival going on so they closed off the road to traffic. Everyone was walking in the road (which was brick, by the way- so cool!) and having a good time. Jordan and I listened to more music and got some great BBQ. We also played in the fountain.

Looks like a scene from a movie :)

Memphis has so much incredible architecture.

Beale Street looked so cool at night. Tons of neon signs!

Memphis was a great vacation. A weekend was the perfect amount of time to spend there. I recommend exploring a new city to anyone! SHO' NUFF!