Hey Guys!
This post continues our time in Memphis.
Read Day 1 here and Day 2 here
We visited Memphis in July and it was sooo hot!! The day we arrived, it was 104 degrees, so be prepared if you visit during the summer months!
Today would be our last day in Memphis so, we decided to spend our day at the zoo before heading home.
If you keep up with my blogs, you know that we enjoy visiting zoos and have visited several in the US…..our favorite being the San Diego Zoo in California.
We started our morning with a delicious breakfast at the historic Arcade Restaurant.
The restaurant is the oldest restaurant in Memphis…it opened in 1919 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Scenes from Mystery Train, Great Balls of Fire, The Client, The Firm, 21 Grams, Elizabethtown, Walk the Line, and My Blueberry Nights, just to name a few, have all been filmed in the restaurant.
National magazines such as Southern Living, Esquire, Travel, and Sports Illustrated have featured the Arcade in their publications.
The Food Network and The Travel Channel have even done specials on southern breakfast at the Arcade Restaurant.
At one time, Elvis was a regular.
I ordered the sweet potato pancakes with scrambled eggs, hash browns and bacon and the hubby ordered some huge breakfast with lots of meat and biscuits!
The food was delicious!
A shot of the inside of the restaurant
The booth that Elvis always sat at
After breakfast, we headed to the zoo.
Purchase your tickets here
After a short drive, we arrived to the zoo.
The zoo opened in 1906 and sits on 76 acres. It’s home to more than 3,500 animals representing over 500 different species.
In 2008, the Memphis Zoo was ranked “#1 Zoo in the U.S.” by TripAdvisor based on reviews.
Read Reviews here
The entrance to the zoo was really cool!
A shot as soon as you pass the ticket booth and walk inside the zoo
To keep this from being a super long post, I’ll just post some of my favorite shots from the zoo.
We really enjoyed this zoo and felt it was really clean.
After the zoo, we headed back to Beale Street to have lunch.
On the way, we passed the Pyramid.
Since 1991, this 321-foot-tall building functioned as a basketball arena home to NBA Grizzlies, but in 2015, it turned into Bass Pro Shops superstore that now draws tourists from around the globe.
It features a Cypress Swamp with alligator pools, 600,000 gallons of water with 36 varieties of fish, shops, a bowling alley, four restaurants, the nation’s tallest freestanding elevator, an archery range, an outdoor observation deck, and Big Cypress Lodge, a 103-room rustic hotel with tree house cabins.
Sadly, we didn’t have time to visit ..maybe next time!
My hubby, the burger connoisseur, was craving a burger so we headed to the famous Dyer’s Burgers on Beale St.
The restaurant opened in 1912 and the secret to their delicious hamburgers is the grease they use to cook them in.
This famous grease , strained daily, has been used for almost a century now.
Over the years, the famous cooking grease has been transported to various Memphis locations under the watchful protection of armed police escorts, finally settling here on Historic Beale Street.
Read Reviews here
Several famous people have eaten here such as Tom Hanks, Michael Jordan and Mike Tyson.
Read an article about the restaurant by Southern Living Magazine here
I personally thought the burger and the fries were way too greasy but it was still pretty good!
A shot of that famous grease!
After lunch, we walked around Beale street for a little while before heading home.
After leaving Beale Street, we passed this beautiful church on the way out of Memphis.
This concludes our time in Memphis!
Thanks for reading!
Next up is our 10 day trip to Italy!!