Since we are staying at Graceland Campground, today is
all Elvis, Elvis, Elvis, and Graceland all day!
You start your Graceland experience with a film that is a
short overview of Elvis, the early years.
After that, you are given an iPad and headset and board a bus to the mansion. Elvis Presley's famed colonial revival–style mansion sits a top a small hill overlooking the rest of the expansive Graceland complex. The two parcels are separated by a now busy Route 51, aka Elvis Presley Blvd.
Your first stop inside Graceland Mansion is the foyer. In the foyer was often where special guests were received and shown to the living room, where they would await Elvis to greet them.
The dining room, the stairways, and his parent's bedroom are also viewed from this portion of the tour.
Parts of decor you see in these rooms today span all of the Elvis eras at Graceland, but the look is primarily the late 1960s to early 1970s.
We walked through Elvis' kitchen to his downstairs area which includes the TV room and pool room. All the yellow in the TV room was bright and inviting. You just want to sit on one of those stools!
The pleated fabric walls in the pool room intrigue me every time I visit.
As we made our way back upstairs, you can see the famous Jungle Room with its green shagged carpets, Polynesian feel and exotically carved wood. This room was once the exterior access to the basement. In the 1960s, during one of Elvis' home improvement projects, it was added to the back of the house - first as a screened in porch and then closed in as a room a few years later. In 1974, Elvis redecorated with the current furnishings he stumbled upon at a Memphis furniture store. This room became a family favorite and Elvis liked it in part because it was reminiscent of Hawaii, where he enjoyed vacationing, filmmaking and performing.
After you leave the mansion, you can visit Vernon’s office. We bypassed that building. We did enter the building housing many archival pieces, including letters, checks, invoices, pictures, and more furniture pieces.
We skipped the racquetball building and headed past the pool.
Imagine the pool parties that were held here!
The final stop on our self-guided tour of Graceland is the Meditation Garden. This is where Elvis and members of his family have been laid to rest, including Lisa Marie. Millions of fans from around the world have come to Graceland to pay their respects to Elvis - the humanitarian, singing sensation, movie star and King of Rock 'n' Roll. I watched a visitor, not from our group, step over the barriers to touch Elvis’ grave.
My favorite part of the garden was the stained glass. One of the most beautiful and mysterious features of the Garden are the four nineteenth-century stained glass windows in the curved brick wall overlooking the graves. Moorish in nature and religious in their imagery, their meaning has been the source of much speculation over the years. It turns out that Mr. Grenadier obtained eight windows in Spain in the early 1960’s, each a different scene. He put four pieces in the Meditation Garden and, without any fanfare, put the other four pieces in his private home he built in 1965.
You board the bus back across the street and there is much, much more to see. You exit the bus into the Presley Motors Automobile Museum. Elvis loved cars and this display has some of his favorites. Highlight for me was his impressive Pink Cadillac.
You certainly can immerse yourself in Elvis' incredible career through hundreds of artifacts from the extensive Graceland Archives, including Elvis' amazing collection of gold and platinum records, his stunning jumpsuits, memorabilia from his movies, and more! This museum is the world's largest and most comprehensive Elvis Museum in the world.
One of my favorite exhibits is the hundreds, maybe thousands of jumpsuits! It is called “Dressed to Rock.” It is an in-depth exhibit exploring Elvis on-stage style from 1969-1977. Featuring stage wear, including jumpsuits, capes, belts, jewelry, original designer sketches. The floor-to-ceiling displays of fashion pieces reminded me of the Barbie wardrobes every young girl had to display Barbie’s clothes.
I know those of you that know me, would have guess that
the military display would have been my favorite! Elvis served in the U.S. Army
from 1958 to 1960. In this exhibit, you can learn more about Elvis' service to
his country as you walk through his induction and time spent in the service,
including his time spent in Germany. Special artifacts include Elvis' Army
fatigues, dress uniforms, army footlocker, suitcases and more. My question is,
if he was not famous before he went in, would anyone have saved these items… in
case he became famous later? I doubt it!
There is more to see, but we will be back in two-weeks! We enjoyed lunch at Gladys’ Diner with Barbara and Tony. The burgers that Charlie & Barbara had looked amazing!
My one piece of Elvis trivia… There were only 9 states
that Elvis never played in. Can you name them?
Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.
Our evening included a road log review for our next day of travel.
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