| Tennessee is a southeastern state known in America for several cities such as Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville. If one thing stands out about Tennessee that would music. Music is also very popular in the whole state but especially in Nashville and Memphis. Even when I first arrived to the airport in Nashville I came across a small live band in an airport restaurant. Some of the most famous singers in the United States have emerged from Tennessee, the most known being Elvis Presley. |
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| On the left is the state capitol building in Nashville Tennessee. The downtown district of Nashville is filled with many government buildings and even a few churches, like the one above, that have similar designs as the capitol building to the left. I missed a photo of it, but Nashville also has a full replica of Greece's Parthenon. |
| Country music lovers will likely find Nashville paradise. Almost all the nightlife has live country music in Nashville, with plenty of country museums and other places of interest to visit in the day time. On the left is a street performer playing at night, the large building on the right is the Country Music Hall of Fame also in Nashville. |
| One of the biggest hot spots in Nashville is Broadway street. This place is fun both day and night, but I personally think its much more alive once the sun goes down. On the left is a photo of some barbecue restaurants and bars and small night clubs. You can see most of bars are advertised with guitars made out of neon lights. The guitar on the right is a typical one seen from hard rock cafe's found all over the world, but it fits in better here in Nashville. |
| Many of the shops sell items you'd expect farther out west in say Texas or Wyoming. Cowboy hats and cowboy boots are sold in a lot of the shops along Broadway street like in the front store window seen in the upper left. Other places are pretty unique with their own selection of beers. One restaurant I went to has an option where you pay $5 and get to try all 7 of their beers and then are served to you in small glasses seen on the upper right. |
| I've never been a fan of country music but I did have a good time in Nashville. Memphis is a place where all types of music is played so its fun for all music lovers. Memphis is famous for its barbecue and night life on Beale street. One of my good friends who grew up and still lives in Memphis said that Rendevous was one of the best restaurants for barbecue. We tried to go there Saturday night but with a one hour wait we ended up going somewhere else. I took a photo of the restaurant in the day on the upper left, you can see its kind of hidden in an alley but its supposedly one of the best. On the right is a photo of Beale street during the day. I returned back at night but without my camera to enjoy some night life. Beale street definitely is a major party district that reminded me of a more tame New Orleans. |
| Above are just some photos I took of random parts of Memphis. The left hand side shows some old fashioned buildings on Front street which goes along the Mississippi River. On the right is another street parallel to front street that has many horses with carriages and trolleys to take people around the city. |
| Another very famous building is the Pyramid Arena seen to the left. The Pyramid hosts all types of major events, and held the boxing match where Mike Tyson was knocked out by Lenox Louis back in the 1990s. The photo on the right is the Peabody Place, an indoor shopping mall that is surrounded by many restaurants and a block from Beale St. |
| There is no question about it that a trip to Memphis is incomplete without a visit to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley purchased the above home when he was only 22 years old, and lived in it for the rest of his life. I found the tour prices to be pretty steep at $27 per person in 2008. I knew for sure I'd really regret it later if I skipped Graceland, so I got my ticket and did the tour through the Mansion where Elvis spent his last 20 years. |
| The Graceland mansion is now a major tourist attraction with people coming from all over the world to visit the home of Elvis Presley. Most of the home is still the way Elvis kept it, with much of the original furniture and decorations still in their place. Elvis's former racquetball room was converted into a small display room showing many of his awards and suits that he wore while touring. On the right is his TV room that still has the original furniture. |
| Above you can see the final resting place of one of Elvis Presley's suits, and then on the right, the final resting place of Elvis Presley himself. On August 16th 1977 and a day before a concert, Elvis Presley was found dead of a heart attack in his Graceland home at the young age of 42. His grave above is among other family members including his mother and father in area of Graceland that is known as Meditation Garden. |
| It doesn't take long once your in Tennessee to come across music. While I was driving along the highway 40 I came across government signs that said music highway and showed musical notes on them. With a short walk in Nashville I came across an advertising for the Nashville symphony group, and shortly after saw the Schermerhorn music theater on the left. Nashville is said to be the country music capital in America, but many other kinds of music are found here. |
| I consider the best place to view wildlife in Tennessee to be the Great Smoky Mountains located on the eastern border of the state. The Great Smoky Mountains is one of the largest national parks on the east coast, but that will have to be saved for another trip. I did visit some random places in Tennessee, and the above photos were taken of a forest in the central part of the state. I found this area hot and dry with many pine cones littering the forest floor. |
| The forest I visited was a state part, and they had two large birds near the park entrance. Above is an owl and on the right is a large hawk that is native to this area of Tennessee. It would be difficult to spot one in the wild and then get a good photo of it, much less see one this close. Both of these birds are predators, feeding off of rodents and other small animals. |
| The western border of Tennessee is made up of the Mississippi River, and much of the surrounding land here is made up of swampy and humid forests. The forests here look much more tropical than those of the central and eastern parts of the state, but despite relatively warm weather Tennessee still doesn't have palm trees. Above is a man on a boat along the Mississippi River with Arkansas in the background. On the right is a large vine wrapping around a tree like a snake. |
| Many trees in this area of the United States can grow up in swamps or slow moving bodies of water known of hardwood bottom land forests. Above is a large lake that has dozens trees and tree stumps. I saw several huge herons flying in the area and many other species of birds. Just before I got to the lake I saw two amaradillos as well. |
