It was the last leg of our Mother-Daughter trip. We had spent one night in Louisville, one night in St. Louis and our third and final destination before going home was Memphis.

Two years prior to this trip, I had taken my other daughter, Thing 1, to a relative’s 90th birthday party in Memphis. On that trip, we spent one day at the family reunion and the other at the Memphis Zoo. Thing 2 also wanted to explore Memphis, but because we’d seen the St. Louis Zoo, she wanted to see something different from the zoo.

Beale Street

Memphis is famous for the Blues and you’ll find it on Beale Street. Much like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, it comes alive when the sun goes down. We started our tour of the city first by walking into the Peabody Hotel. Crowds of people were standing in the lobby to watch the famous Peabody Hotel Ducks march to the hotel fountain. They ducks have been doing this march twice daily for decades. We couldn’t see much so we walked a few streets over to Beale to get an early dinner. We stopped at the Pig on Beale for great BBQ while we figured out our next day’s itinerary.

Sun Studio

If you love “That’s All Right Mama,” “A Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On” and “Blue Suede Shoes,” then you can’t miss taking a tour of Sun Studio. Founder Sam Phillips, who similar to Dick Clark – never looked a day over 20 years old, founded the small studio in 1950.

Inside, we learned the roots of “rockabilly” while listening to popular tunes. Then came the guided tour of the actual studio. I was surprised how small everything was. The studio was just two rooms – a front office and a recording area. It’s amazing that such legendary sounds came out of this tiny space.

This is also the site of the famous jam session when rock legends Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash ran into each other at the studio.