Friday, August 24th - Graceland - Elvis Lives!

Yes, it's true. Elvis Presley Enterprises is alive and well in Memphis, Tennessee! We arrived at 10:30 and bought tickets for the "Platinum Tour" which got us into the Mansion, the Automobile Museum, Sincerely Elvis (mostly costumes worn by Elvis in his MANY shows), and the Lisa Marie Convair 880 4-engine personal jet. We passed on the VIP Tour(@ $68 each was more than 2x the cost of the Platinum Tour) which included "go to the front of the line" privileges and a "backstage pass" souvenir.

The tour started with a short shuttle bus ride across Elvis Presley Blvd. to the mansion. We had electronic headsets to give a narrative at each stop in the mansion. The pic on the left is the living room decorated just as it was when Elvis last lived there, 1977. We saw the entire main level and then the basement. The upstairs bedroom area was not included on the tour.

Outside, in the rear, Elvis added a workout building that included the racquetball court. It has been converted to display many of his gold albums, platinum records, etc.

The next pic is the Serenity Garden where Elvis, his parents and several other relatives are interred.

After the Automobile museum, we walked thru the Lisa Marie airplane. Gold sinks and seat belts!

Today, they expected a crowd of approximately 3,000 visitors. Last week, especially on the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis, August 16th, they had 75,000 visitors in one day!


It was VERY hot outside and the tour was exhausting. We both really enjoyed getting to see Graceland!