TRAVELOG: 2013

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee

Graceland, Home of Elvis Presley, Memphis Tennessee

Entrance Gate to Graceland's exhibits and tours

Outside Elvis' Mansion

Brick Wall fence showing all the names and messages who visited the place

We have to print our names too :-)

Another one

I don't know how long the marker lasts for our names to still be seen here

My son was trying to write on the ground, maybe 1 to 2 weeks this will be gone hehehe

A sneak peek of the mansion

Another peek

The "musical" gate of the mansion

Another shot of the "musical" gate

Names and their messages of the fans

You can see the private planes across the street

Across the mansion are Elvis' 2 private planes, one is named "Lisa Marie" after her daughter's name

Souvenir shop

Marlowe's Restaurant- this is where we ate our dinner when we arrived in Memphis, Tennessee

My order, baby back ribs

My side dish

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This is my continuation of my trip from Washington state to Florida. Sorry I was so busy unpacking our stuff, we have stayed in a temporary lodging facility at Hurlburt Field, FL for a month, and moved to a temporary apartment for 2 months and finally moved to a rental house while we stay here in Florida. A lot of moves that I didn't have time to update my blog. But finally we are now settled in and took me a month to unpack our household goods.

After Garden of the Gods, in Colorado we drove to Kansas and stayed in my friend's house for 2 days, it was not even in our itinerary to visit our friends but since we were driving to that direction so we opted to take that state, and the plan of 1 day was extended to 2 days because of my friends' request and so we were able to take some rest days before heading to Tennessee.

We didn't explore Kansas, we only stayed in my friends' house. The only pictures I took in Kansas are mostly wheat fields and windmills along the freeway. Here are some:

Graceland, Memphis,Tennessee

June 22, 2013 - We left Kansas around 12noon already we drove straight to Memphis, Tennessee we passed 2 states, Oklahoma and Arkansas. We arrived Memphis in the evening already and went to dinner at Marlowe's restaurant which is close to Graceland. The next day we went to see Graceland, the mansion and home of Elvis Presley.

Graceland is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard (originally known as Highway 51) in Memphis, TN. We didn't explore Graceland much, we didn't even take the tour, we were supposed to be in Orlando by Saturday, June 22 but since we stayed 2 days in Kansas our plan was changed and we were in a hurry to catch up with our itinerary. So we just walked by the stone wall surrounding the 13 1/2 acre estate and wrote our messages to Elvis :-). This wall is sometimes called the 'graffiti wall' because visitors write messages to Elvis. The iron gates of Graceland has 2 guitar players and musical notes.

I wish we can go back here to explore the mansion and learn more of Elvis' life.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Garden of the Gods- Colorado

GARDEN OF THE GODS

ANOTHER SHOT AT THE ENTRANCE

KISSING CAMELS

ANOTHER CLOSE-UP OF THE KISSING CAMELS

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE KISSING CAMELS

CATHEDRAL VALLEY

ANOTHER SHOT OF CATHEDRAL VALLEY

BALANCED ROCK

STEAMED BOAT

STEAMED BOAT AND BALANCED ROCK

Trying to push the big rock while the guy who's wearing green was trying to carry the big rock hehehe

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Road Trip:

Continuation on our road trip from Washington to Florida: From Yellowstone we drove up to Thermopolis, Wyomng for about 2 hours and stayed there overnight.

I was looking for a place that we can drive by and see some scenic views for few minutes before heading to our next stop. I came across this Garden of the Gods when I was surfing the internet. It's pretty obvious that we never had a specific itinerary hehehe (except the Yellowstone and going to Orlando) so we opted to go to Colorado instead of driving to Nebraska (we are talking here "states" on what to take to get to Florida and not specific freeways or roads hehehe).

So while we were on our way to Colorado, my husband asked my daughter if she wants to see her best friend in Kansas, without any hesitation she excitedly answered "yes." Then we called our friends in Kansas and surprised them that we're planning to visit them on our way to Florida if that's ok with them (weird huh? so spontaneous lol), lucky they're very kind and happy to see us :-)

It took us 7 hours to get to Colorado Springs from Wyoming, we stayed overnight at the Springhill Suite Marriott and the next day we went to Garden of the Gods. My husband allotted us to spend only 1 hour there otherwise we may get to Kansas too late in the evening and not to mention my friends prepared dinner for us.

June 20, 2013- Garden of the Gods, Colorado

Garden of the Gods is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is a free public park and designated as a National Natural Landmark.

The natural red rock formations really amazed me upon seeing them, a breathtaking view to see and experience. It really shows how great God is.

The area was first called Red Rock Corral. One of the surveyors, M. S. Beach, suggested that it would be a "capital place for a beer garden." His companion, the young Rufus Cable, awestruck by the impressive rock formations, exclaimed, "Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods."- Wikipedia

We drove around and took some pictures but we never had the chance to hike on the different trails that park offers. I missed to see a lot of rock formations such as the "Siamese Twins, " "Sleeping Giant," "Tower of Babel," "Signature Rock," and many more. Some of them we have to walk up the trails to see them and that limit us to see only the rock formations along the road.

It was so hot that time and my kids didn't want to go out from the car. From Washington cold weather to real summer in Colorado, that made them feel so uncomfortable to go out, still adjusting the weather. So after driving by and taking pictures of the balanced rock we headed straight to Kansas.