Memphis- It's Warmer Than Where I Live.

That was the main thing on my mind as we walked around downtown Memphis on Saturday. Being able to wear a coat, but no gloves, hat, or Appalachian hiking boots was awesome. 

 We decided to explore the city after a lunch of a-maz-ing BBQ:

The wife of one of the restaurant owners just happened to be dining near our table, and she took us in back to show us where they smoked the meat.  Let's just say three words I would use to describe that experience are huge, greasy, and delicious.

During lunch we began discussing the song "Walking in Memphis", because we were questioning some of the lyrics.  Particularly where myself and a friend thought the words were, "Walking with my feet ten feet off the pier".  It's completely wrong, but not quite as bad as "We built this city on broken glass"- which is what one of my old roommates used to think the words were to "We built this city on rock and roll".  

So after googling to correct lyrics, we learned it was "Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale", and made up our minds to go find Beale Street, and the Lorraine Hotel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.  

We were awe-struck to actually see the hotel in person, rather than rely on the images we had grown up with in our history books. 

Beale street had so much character....

Neon signs.....

Mose the howling carriage dog......

Crumbling building facades held up by a network of steel so as to preserve them.....

On the way to and from Memphis, I worked on hand quilting a quilt top I made last year, and just never found time to finish:

Not that I'll have time to finish now either, but I thought I'd try to make a little bit of progress!  I'll start working on Emily's mini family tree quilt as soon as I hear back from her, and of course I'll post pictures of the quilt during it's creation. But now I'm off to make a tutorial for Lollychops on how to use freezer paper to make quilt appliqué!