Deep South Itinerary

Flight from SFO to Nashville - direct flight
Rented a car.
Nashville (2 nights) -  Loews Vanderbilt
Memphis ( 2 nights) - Hilton Garden Inn Memphis
Birmingham (2 nights) - Redmont Hilton
Montgomery (1 night) - Airbnb (not recommended)
Drive through Selma
New Orleans (2 nights)  - Troubadour Hilton
New Orleans to San Jose - Direct flight

Montgomery

We drove this morning to Montgomery just in time to start our Segway tour.  I was petrified of doing a 2+ hour tour but I was surprised at how I was able to pick it up and it was fun riding it!  Our tour guide  from https://segwaymontgomery.com/  was an excellent guide and I highly recommend his tour and  we were out in  90 degree hot weather for 2.5 hours.   He  shared many interesting tidbits and is super proud of his home town.   Many folks were worried about Montgomery, it had a high crime rate,  and was becoming unlivable but they turned it around and now it looks like a new fresh gentrified town.

The coolest thing we learned about  our tour guide is that his grandfather James Blake was the bus driver when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat.  And when Rosa Parks was  finger printed  by his great uncle before her arrest.  It took us a long while to absorb this, kind of crazy.

He also had an interesting theory on Rosa Parks. He claims that it was based on a premeditated plan by  MLK.  The bus boycott was planned after she was arrested but his theory is that Rosa was pre selected and coached to refuse her seat. 

We stay at Kat's Kottage  (airbnb) . It was fine to stay for 1 night.  Jay is super friendly and we had a lovely and interesting discussion with him.  His uncle is the mayor in Birmingham so again a long standing Alabaman. The place is very spacious and comfortable but it is an old home so you can expect some small issues with it. I would recommend staying at the Renaissance Hotel if you can.

We have met the nicest and warmest people, the food has been excellent even for us vegetarians.

BTW, we did see a confederate flag on our drive from Birmingham to Montgomery. This is the 2nd flag we saw.. 1st one on our drive from Memphis to Birmingham.

Sindhu's Business Photo

Birmingham

You know when you're in a non touristy town when there are only 2 tour providers and one says they are not doing tours on that day because they have a prior engagement and the 2nd says they are taking off the day to feed the hungry. I managed to find a night tour and the provider texted to say his father is ill so he has to cancel the tour.  The touristy places are fairly empty here compared to Tennessee.

Today we went to the Civil Rights Institute,   Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and Kelly Ingram park. All three are the places to visit for a Civil Rights Tour in Birmingham. We happened to walk into the church and I think they usually allow pre arranged tours but we were lucky and they did short tour for us. This is the church that was bombed in 1963 and 4 young black girls were killed. It was a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. I was surprised that we were one of 6 visitors at the church. They still have a Sunday service and Wednesday Bible discussions. Clearly the members and the folks running the church have deep roots here and they are passionate about the movement. The guide teared up talking about the young girls. 

We then went to Sloss Furnace site and had lunch. Rushil ate at Eugene's Hot Chicken  and we ate at Babalu . The Babalu in Memphis was much better, the street tacos were tastier and their service was much faster.  We actually wanted to try Zoe's Kitchen which in retrospect might have been a better choice.

For dinner, we ate at Bottega Restaurant .. and turns out they are part of the same family of restaurants as Chez Fonfon where we ate last night. The food was again delicious and the whole dining experience was fabulous.  People really dress up for dinner in Birmingham or maybe it's just these restaurants, men in full suits, and women in beautiful dresses.  It's quite the experience.  I was wearing a dress, Prasad in a cotton shirt and dress shorts and Rushil in  shorts and t shirt. I was probably the only one dressed appropriately  but fortunately they don't have a dress code at the restaurant.

Memphis and Birmingham

Since the Civil Rights Museum was closed, Prasad suggested we visit  Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum.  It was definitely worth visiting.  They explained the history of how Memphis became a city of influence for Blues and gospel music  and how cotton picking was the initial inspiration. They have a great audio tour and we learned interesting tidbits about the first Black radio station, the first all women's radio station and about  Elvis, BB King, Jerry Lewis and so many others. Rushil didn't seem bored and ask us to leave so I think it was a "win" overall.  We then drove to Loraine Hotel and visited the site where Martin Luther King was assassinated, definitely a must see.  We met an interesting African American retiree who wandered around that area speaking to random people. He explained how he became a millionaire,  and how he wanted to visit India .   He was well spoken, knowledgeable about the world and very intelligent, and seemed to live by a simple philosophy.

We headed to Birmingham after lunch.  On the way, about 20 min before we arrived in Birmingham, we saw a confederate flag from the freeway, very prominent and can't be missed.   We're staying at the Redmont Hotel Birmingham and seems like a perfectly good place to stay, centrally located, neat and clean and warm staff.

We had dinner at the best place ... Chez Fonfon, if you ever visit Birmingham, do eat there. The ambience is great, they have this beautiful garden in the back, you can play baci ball and the food was delicious and the service fantastic. Highly recommend it. They had a vegetarian plate.. and everything was tasty. The desserts were fancy too.  I even tried a mint julep there.

It's hotter and more humid in Birmingham.  But the hospitality and warmth also goes along with it.  People keep staying "ma'm " to me and they are very polite here.

Graceland

Memphis!

Graceland!! Today was all about Elvis, like 3-4 hours of Elvis...   Definitely worth a visit.  I forgot what an icon he was. And the place was packed, I didn't expect that either. They definitely only showed the "good" side of Elvis, they skim over how he died, his rocky marriage, the drugs. But wow, that smile, the talent, the dancing, the music...   They had this hall where musicians from the past few decades quoted how Elvis inspired them John Lennon said.. If there was no Elvis, there would be no Beatles.  We did the Elvis Experience Tour which was just right.   We were one of two Indian families  so I guess Graceland is not a typical tourist site for Asians.

Again we were on the quest for local fare. Hattie B's had great reviews for chicken. Rushil devoured his meal. It was interesting to see 70 year old people savor all that fried chicken and fries, gene pool has to be different.  The fries, the southern greens and mac and cheese were all  delicious. The food here is generally good, nothing is bland, they always sprinkle something on the dishes.   The mac and cheese was like really really good, like I could have a whole bowl of it good.  There is an interesting dichotomy here.. Hattie B's serves water in styrofoam cups which you see quite often here but the store down the street, is paperless and only emails/texts you their receipt.  

Prasad found this excellent tapas placed called Babalu Tapas.  Their street tacos are to die for and they serve them in lettuce wraps.  Definitely a great place for vegetarians, all the veggie dishes were delicious.  There are other cute restaurants in the same area so definitely worth walking around that area, it has a bit of a Californian feel to it.

The verdict is still out for Prasad but I think people are more into large family gatherings here.  You often seen large families -  grandparents, kids, and their grandkids at restaurants and tourist spots. Prasad thinks we don't have enough of a data point but I'm going with it anyway.

We didn't realize the National Civil Rights Museum is closed on Tuesday. Bad planning on my part, it didn't even occur to me they could be closed.  We will drop by to see the site where MLK was assassinated but I guess we'll get the Civil Rights education in Alabama.

In the evening we headed to Beale St and listened to some blues music at BB King's Blues Club. Definitely the best place to listen to blues music,  they had a great live band. We stepped out in between to check out some of the other places and BB King's was by far the best.  BB King's is also family friendly. We liked Beale St better than Broadway in Nashville but I think it's because it was far more crowded in Nashville.  We heard a lot more live music on Beale St and maybe it was less crowded because it was a Monday night.  

Nashville Part 2

In the touristy areas of Nashville, they have electric scooters readily available. I tried riding one and it's kind of terrifying at first but a lot of fun once I got past my initial fear. It is however a safety risk, I mean if I fell off the scooter, I'm not sure I would be able to get up.

Today we had a tour of Vanderbilt. Lovely campus, nice dorms, newish buildings. It was hard to get the vibe of the school since it's summer time.  We scootered over to the Parthenon buildings, grabbed lunch at Woodlands. Food was pretty good. Then we headed to the Opry Hotel. I had intially booked our hotel there but the reviews said it was far from downtown so then changed the reservation to Loews. The Opry hotel is beautiful, they have a 9 acres of land , beautiful gardens, waterway , stores, restaurants and a spa. Probably a fun place to visit for a weekend. It used to be part of a big amusement park which they shut down but they recently added a waterpark.  The gardens are impressive, they have plants and trees from all over the world, very unique gardens, well maintained. They have a ton of fruits like figs, bananas, papayas but since they are grown in a controlled environment without bugs, the fruits are not edible. That was a very interesting tidbit we got from the tour.  

 Rushil really wanted to eat Hot chicken which is a delicacy in Nashville but when we got to Bolton's Spicy Chicken, which was Ramesh's recommendation  it was closed. Pretty disappointing.There is one very famous place in Nashville but the lines to get in are 1 hour long so we didn't bother. On our  drive to Memphis,  we stopped along the way in Jackson at Back Yard Bar-Be-Cue, Rushil said the chicken was pretty good.  When we walked into the restaurant, a woman started to stare at us and I couldn't tell if she is just the curious type or she was staring at us for some other reason.  Sometimes we have to wonder if the stares are just stares or they mean something else.  I guess we will never know.  The staff was super friendly and warm and helpful. 

Deep South Trip - Nashville

You can immediately tell that Nashville is a bit of a hipster town as soon as you enter the airport.  We checked into Loews Vanderbilt which is the best place to stay . It's right across from Vanderbilt and a 10 min drive from downtown. The hotel staff really showed us their southern hospitality, friendly, warm and very helpful. He even made us a reservation by phone at the restaurant.  My cousins met up with us and we ate at Pinewood Social which was a fabulous idea. They have an old style bowling alley, you can play baci ball and even go for a dip in the wading pool. Menu was diverse, plenty of vegetarian and tasty. We highly recommend the butternut squash pasta.  After that we strolled over to the infamous Broadway street and it didn't disappoint. I don't remember the last time I saw such a happening street . It was packed, loud, you could easily lose your friends if you weren't careful.  Definitely a must see if you're in Nashville but probably don't need to go again. We found a Sports Rooftop bar and again the southern hospitality came through. They allowed us to bring in Rushil and were really sweet and "safe" about it. They said if the place got rowdy we would have to leave but it was not crowded. We got a great view of Broadway st from the bar and they had jenga, and other small games to play which was fun.  The best part of the evening was catching up with my cousins and aunt.  Tomorrow we do a quick tour of Vanderbilt, Parthenon and the Opry land. 

Mother's Day

Puerta Vallarta Part II