Graceland

So.  Graceland.

My family has no particularly strong feelings about Elvis – we can take him or leave him, so there was no particular draw to see Graceland. It felt like a “if you build it, they will come”, kind of thing.  It is there, we were there, so we went.

We arrived at Graceland expecting to see Vegas-like drama and impersonators and kitschy shops.  What we found was a busy street of shopping centers and car dealerships and among them was the rather modern Graceland ticketing building with a lobby, a gift shop, and a couple of quick bite shops. We bought our tickets, including audio tour, and lined up for the shuttle to the mansion.  

We queued up in the shuttle line.  

We loaded onto the shuttle. 

We were driven across the street. 

Literally. 

I’m using the term “literally” correctly.

It’s across the street.

We disembarked the shuttle. 

What?   

After our confounding trip across the street, we gathered outside at the bottom of the stairs to Graceland – a rather modest and homey mansion, really. Decidedly un-Kardashian like.

So the trick to touring Graceland is to hang back at the end of the tour group, letting all the other people trickle ahead and then you can see what you want to without the big crowd around you.  And what we saw, surprisingly, I liked:  Green shag carpet?  Yes, please.  White laminate kitchen counters with silver glitter flakes embedded in them?   Yes, and yes again.  Carpet in the kitchen?  Wise.  The place is at once both wonderfully gaudy and surprisingly homey. It was very fun to see, especially after touring other, more historic type homes.  Graceland was quirky, and a great snapshot of 1960’s modern living. I especially loved the TV room – with three TVs set up so Elvis could watch all the networks at the same time.

The audio tour was self-paced, so you could enter the code that corresponded to whatever you were looking at whenever you wanted, allowing you to linger at certain focal points and hurry through others  – and it helped keep my 6 year old busy because to her, it didn’t really matter what she was looking at.  She just liked punching in the code numbers and looking self-important. If you’re an Elvis fan, it is a great tour, informative about Elvis’ life both at Graceland and during his career, as a good portion of the tour goes through the grounds, offices, and trophy room; not just the mansion itself.  If you’re not an Elvis fan, it was still well worth a visit to get a glimpse of the iconic home of an iconic performer.