The home of Elvis Presley. They told us he purchased this nice home for his parents when he was only 22 for $102,500. It was huge for the day, but viewing it, it seemed very livable. The decor is certainly interesting looking at it from a 2017 perspective. My favorite part was the backyard where pastures, horses, and lovely white fences stretch out a ways.
On the side of the house is a meditation garden that Elvis had put in near the kidney-shaped pool. The family had Elvis’ grave moved here as well as his parents and one grandparent. Elvis also had a twin who was stillborn. A grave marker commemorates him, but his actual remains are buried elsewhere. I believe that this is a special place for Elvis fans to visit, especially on the anniversary of his death.
I have always heard of Elvis’ favorite snack, peanut butter and banana grilled sandwich, so after visiting the mansion, we stopped in the diner and ordered one. Mine was cooked in butter while Ron’s was cooked in bacon grease. The verdict? Pretty tasty, but I did have a bit of a stomach ache afterwards.
As we toured Nashville, one of my favorite sights was the Parthenon built in Centennial Park. It seems a little odd to see a Greek building in Tennessee, but Athens is a sister city to Nashville. My interest is increased because we just visited the Parthenon in Greece earlier in the year as part of our world cruise. Also, we had seen THIS Parthenon and the statue of Athena in the movie, Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief. Another interesting building in Nashville is the AT&T skyscraper that our tour guide called the Batman Building. I thought she was talking about the fact that with the two towers, the building resembled Batman’s cowl, but she really meant that the building was featured in a recent Batman film as the home of Wayne Enterprises. I guess I will need to catch up on my Batman films.
I don’t have a lot of prior knowledge or expectations when I visit places. I was impressed with how interesting the Country Music Hall of Fame was when we visited. I am interested in artists like Garth Brooks who made the music that I danced to in my CW dancing days, but the stories of how country music developed, how the various talented musicians that appeared in the background of the music added so much to the sound. I was also fascinated by the musical artists who came to Nashville, such as Bob Dylan, and added the sound to their music. It is great to learn these new things. It is also fun to see the various costumes of the performers… boy were some of those performers thin!
As I grew up, I certainly heard of the Grand Ole Opry. It was not my cup of tea, but I especially remember Minnie Pearl with her hat and price tag. Hearing the history of the show and getting to attend an actual performance was a big highlight of this trip for us. The show is broadcast live as a radio program so the breaks for commercials were fun to experience. Anyway, this was a great show… four half-hour segments with four different hosts. Fun!
Before we left town, we toured the auditorium where the Grand Ole Opry was presented for years and years. This is the Ryman Auditorium. Ron remembers attending a show in this auditorium long ago, unfortunately all he really remembers from this visit was how hot and uncomfortable it was. The Opry moved to its new, modern home when the auditorium was showing its age. Luckily, after remaining vacant for several years, some country western stars raised money to refurbish and reopen the auditorium. The acoustics inside the auditorium are reputed to be amazing. It certainly was impressive to visit a building that housed so much musical history. I really liked the row of colored windows that make up the back side of the theater.
Ron and I are on a week-long bus tour of The Music Cities, Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans. Our first two days are in Nashville and we are staying at the huge Gaylord Opryland Hotel. This is a destination in itself with several enormous atriums (atria?) housing gardens and a river and shops and restaurants. The rooms are very comfortable, but an added bonus is that the hotel is beginning to decorate for Christmas. This hotel is about three minutes from the Opryland Theater. Fun!
I am someone who doesn’t have a lot of knowledge or expectations about places we visit, but that is especially true of Nashville. We visited the RCA Studio B where many recordings were made. Elvis recorded many of his hits here. It is rather an underwhelming place to visit until you hear the story of the place and the history it embodies… at which time it becomes rather amazing and impressive. In the Studio B, there are no fluorescent lights as would be typical for the time. Elvis thought fluorescent lights were rather cold and uninspiring. He had colored flood lights that could be changed to create the mood needed for various songs. The acoustics were such that the blue X on the floor designated the “sweet spot” where Elvis would stand for the best recording. One of this studio’s nicknames is the Home of a Thousand Hits because that is how many hit songs were recorded here during its years old operation.
On Sunday, August 27, Ron and I attended the CHOC Walk in the Park Fundraiser. We raised money for the Children’s Hospital of Orange County which is located just a few miles south of Disneyland Resort. The whole walk occurs before business hours so we were on site at 5:00 a.m. and started walking at 6:30 a.m. The walk wound through Disneyland (including some background areas) and then across to Disney’s California Adventure. All along the way there was music, character photo opportunities, and attractions that were running (although empty except for characters, such as Mary Poppins and Bert on the Fantasyland Carousel. The walk took about two hours and was a lot of fun. Over 12,000 participants attended, so we were often in the middle of a crowd, but it was a great experience and a good cause.
This Monday (August 21, 2017) will be “The Great Eclipse” and will be a total eclipse if you are 600 miles north of us. Here in Los Angeles, we will get about maximum 63% coverage at 10:21 a.m.
This also happens to be the first day that our Southern California Annual Passports to Disneyland are not blocked out, so we are off to Disneyland for the morning. I plan to look for good shadows at around 10:21 a.m. to see the eclipse.
We purchased some “eclipse glasses” on Amazon.com, but we received a message from Amazon that the glasses were not actually certified safe, so we are not going to use them. The shadows are good enough. I’ll attach a picture or two on Monday.
There was a very clever Disney Cast Member who had taken a map, punched a bunch of holes in it, and was showing people entering the park the eclipse. I glanced a couple of times through my solar glasses, but I mostly looked at the shadows on the ground.
