One of the top things we were looking forward to for this trip was dinner at BB King’s and a night down on Beale Street. We arrived just in time to check in and get a little fancied up. (We didn’t take the first picture, and I’m majorly disappointed. Matt always says, “Take a picture with your mind,” when I’m fussing over wanting pictures. Can someone help me explain to him that’s just not the same thing?!) I digress.

We ate at BB King’s in Las Vegas and had a great time, so it was a definite on the agenda for our Memphis getaway. We’d been talking about their sausage and cheese platter since we started planning this trip! (Seriously, you must try it!)

Dinner was delicious as we expected, and the live band was awesome. It was one of those bands that had everybody dancing in their seats without even noticing it. Matt & I both love a live band. We could have stayed here the whole night but decided to go walk around a bit instead.

After scoping out the sights on Beale Street, we picked a cool, old horse and buggy to give us a tour and take us back to our hotel. We enjoyed cuddling up and seeing downtown the old fashioned way. You can see some of the details from the carriage ride here. Nothing beats getting cozy under a nice warm blanket and riding around in a horse-drawn carriage with your love.

Do you have a carriage ride story that sticks out in your mind? Tell me about it! This was our first one together, so I’m sure I’ll always remember it.

Update: Read more about Memphis here, here, here, and here. 

Ok, so this match wasn’t really made in Memphis, but that’s a cute title right?! This trip was especially exciting because it was our first non-work related trip together. I’m going to post about some detailed experiences later, but here’s a little overview.

Our original plan was to go somewhere in East Tennessee, but we decided to go somewhere not so far from home so we’d have less travel time and more play time.

Here’s what we did:
BB King’s on Beale Street
Carriage ride/Tour of Downtown Memphis
Lunch at Aldo’s Pizza Pies
Mary Poppins at the Orpheum Theatre – our first ever broadway show!
Bryant’s Breakfast
Shopping!!
Dinner at Texas de Bazil
Central BBQ

As you can see, we skipped some of the typical things like Graceland, etc. For this trip, we wanted a simple & easy getaway. Matt’s been pretty busy with school and work, so relaxation was the goal.

Some of my favorite things about Memphis are obviously the food and live music, but I absolutely love the brick sidewalks and trolleys of downtown. In my opinion, brick and trolleys make the perfect downtown setting. What more do you need?? We were told that the trolleys are actually the original ones. I don’t know how true that is, but they looked old!

Downtown is so cozy and well maintained. I could walk around for hours with no actual purpose.

Speaking of walking around, we started in this cool park next to our hotel. (Memphis is FULL of various parks and river walks…another cool feature). We cruised through here on our carriage ride where the driver told us that this park had been in place since before the Civil War, 1819 to be exact. Wow! He said the stone work was original, which was even more impressive. This staircase was simply stunning…especially to think it had been there since the 1800s!

I had to take a picture of these cannons because our driver said these were “what they liked to call replica cannons,” as if the word replica only applied to those cannons and couldn’t be used in other contexts. We got quite a kick out of this. Seriously, I think it’ll be a running joke from now on. Feel free to join in!

We ended up walking several miles through different parks, along the river, and through some gorgeous neighborhoods. The parks and green areas are full of various commissioned art, benches, etc. It was nice to see all of the small touches placed here and there.

Overall, we had a great time exploring the area. I can’t wait to post more details, but for now I have laundry to catch up on…that dreaded, unavoidable post-trip task.

Have you ever been to Memphis? What were your favorite parts? We might go back again sometime, so please share!

Update: Read more about Memphis – Beale Street, Mary Poppins, shopping & eating.