N'Awlins

We've been in N'Awlins (New Orleans for those of you outside of Louisiana) for a week seeing the French Quarter and other places. The Quarter is so very unique with it's architecture, I thought you might like to see some of it so....here's a lot of photos to view. Only a few will have captions.

Most of the streets in the Quarter are one-way only. You can see why. PLUS, the city is repaving most of the streets down here to get it all prettied up for the Super Bowl which is going to be held in New Orleans this year. So, besides being crowded and one way, half the streets are blocked off!

Facing west towards the downtown.

Some of the local flavor.

Bubba Gump's restaurant is, naturally, the best kept structure on the block.

We went to Conchno's Butcher for a muffelatta. Look at the size of this sandwich!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muffuletta

A traditional style muffuletta sandwich consists of a muffuletta loaf split horizontally and covered with layers of marinated olive salad, capicola, mortadella, salami, pepperoni, ham, Swiss cheese and provolone. The sandwich is sometimes heated to soften the provolone.[3] Quarter, half, and full-sized muffulettas are sold.

The signature olive salad consists of olives diced with the celery, cauliflower and carrot found in a jar of giardiniera, seasoned with oregano and garlic, covered in olive oil, and allowed to combine for at least 24 hours.

...showing off her new earrings.

The Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the United States.

We stayed away from the party street, Bourbon Street....too noisy, too many bums and we've been there before. If you can get a few blocks away from the tourists traps, the Quarter's charm is wonderful to look at and photograph.

ELVIS !

You only need to say the word "Elvis" for anyone to know what you're talking about. There's only been one Elvis...the King!

We went to visit his house, called Graceland, in Memphis last week. Elvis bought this house when he was about 22 years old for $100,000. At the time it was out away from the city. Now it's surrounded by Memphis sprawl.

The inside of the house itself was a bit tacky and not at all grand like we expected.

Living Room...first room you see when you enter.

Dining room...just across the hall from the Living Room.

Part of the Kitchen....very 50s.

Kinda dark...but this is the pool room.

Back room where most of the activity happened...right next to the kitchen...naturally. The ceiling had the same carpet as the floor !

Back of the house.

This is a model of the house Elvis grew up in. A shotgun house.

Even the pool was underwhelming.

The best part was The Trophy Room that housed the Elvis history and gold records, movie memorabilia, etc.

Heartbreak Hotel gold record.

Both walls of this hallway are lined with gold and platinum records!

More...!

 And let's not forget the costumes Elvis wore! Below is just a small sampling of what was displayed.

Besides the Graceland house tour, we got to see the automobile collection of some of the cars Elvis owned at one time.

Also, he owned two airplanes which we got to tour. He would use these mostly to go from city to city on tour but, occasionally, he would take it for a spin for fun.

Gold plated bathroom in the large airplane.

Main cabin in the large airplane. No, the plastics were not on there when Elvis used it...although most of our grandparents used to have them on their furniture all the time!

Conference room towards the back of the plane. Elvis had two phones, one to call anywhere and one to talk to the pilot and the guests over the intercom.

Personal bedroom and bathroom in the very back of the plane.

Smaller, executive-type airplane.

April 7th is my birth date so I thought was neat. 

Right behind the swimming pool were the graves of Elvis, his mom and dad and grandmother.

Elvis is buried on the grounds as is his mom and dad and grandmother. 

Here's a bit of Elvis trivia for you: He had a twin brother, named Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn.

Elvis was only 42 when he died....too young.

The tour was great. In addition to the Graceland house, we got to see the cars, the planes, an exhibit on his boyhood, another exhibit that showed his influence on other musicians, and so many stores full of everything-Elvis! It took about 3-4 hours to do it all.

Elvis big era was a bit before my time but I've since read a couple of books about him. He was a very generous person that wanted to give his all whenever he performed on stage.


Some further readings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley

Hope you enjoyed this one. We sure did enjoy the tour.