Memphis 2025

I did it! If you’re reading this post it means I got it written and published! Wooo hoooo! (I’m literally posting this as our flight to Maui taxis out to the runway.)

Monday

Drive to Memphis, Lambert’s Throwed Rolls, Big Cypress Lodge at the Memphis Bass Pro Shop Pyramid

My cousin drives the 55 South corridor a fair amount and suggested we stop at a bakery to get donuts right next to a sausage shop that touts 40 different flavors of brauts. Neither spots disappointed and you better believe we bought a box of meat sticks and some sample flavors for the road.

An hour later we were stopping at Lambert’s the home of the throwed (sic) rolls. I had never heard of it before, but evidently people come from miles around to eat their food and catch piping hot rolls that are thrown to anyone with their hands up. It’s a whole thing!

The rolls were super hot and fluffy and delicious, and most people who put their hands up caught them, including the husband and the 11yo! The 15yo came very close. I ordered chicken and dumplings and they were just like my grandmother used to make, which I very much appreciated.

The drive from St. Louis to Memphis is about 4.5 hours and we didn’t spend much more than that on the road. We did drive through some rain that made me nervous, and we very impressed by the Arkansas Visitor’s Center that we stopped at. We crossed into Tennessee over the Mississippi river, where we almost immediately spotted the Memphis Bass Pro Shop Pyramid.

I honestly don’t have a coherent story for why my kids got into Bass Pro Shops last year, I just know that we stopped at a big on in St. Louis twice last summer, and on one of those visits the 11yo was wooed by a time share salesman who showed him pictures of the Great Cypress Lodge in the Memphis Pyramid. So when my husband mentioned wanting to tack on a trip to Memphis to this year’s St. Louis visit, I told him we’d have to stay at the pyramid. He was skeptical (for all the reasons you probably are), but we splurged on it and it ended up being a ton of fun.

On the way down, we listened to a 99% Invisible episode about the history of the Memphis Pyramid, and it was such a great way to get ready for our visit. We also listened to a bonus episode with a walking tour of Memphis, that provided other fun moments throughout the trip.

We arrived at the hotel at 5pm, which means we could check in. Our room faced the inside of the pyramid, so we had a deck that faced out over the giant Bass Pro Shop store, and the largest free standing elevator in the nation, which takes you to a restaurant and lookout area at the top.

We don’t stay at hotels much, but we definitely recognized right away that this room was much nicer than we are used to. The room itself was big. The bathroom was massive, and it had a giant shower and a HUGE jacuzzi tub, next to a window that looked out into the rest of the room (there were curtains to provide privacy). We definitely went crazy over the room.

We took the shuttle into downtown, walked around Beele Street and by the Riverfront, before heading out to eat at The Green Beetle, the oldest tavern in Memphis, for some amazing burgers and BBQ. I even got a couple of drinks, since I didn’t have to drive back!

We slept very well that first night, especially since no sunlight could enter our room!

Tuesday

Sun Records Studio Tour, Metal Museum, Stax Studios Museum, Peabody Ducks, Lookout at the Pyramid

Our kids are selective eaters, and in the past we’ve always had breakfast at the hotel, but this trip, since both kids have been sleeping in, we decided to have two big meals out every day, one at a brunch spot with pancake/waffle options for the kids, and dinner at BBQ spot. This served us well and every meal in Memphis was really wonderful (because my husband does a lot of work researching places).

Our first stop on our first full day in Memphis was Sun Records Studio, where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many others got their start. The tour was short, but very interesting. There was tons of memorabalia, and at the end every one was invited to hold and take a picture with the actual microphone that all those famous people sang into.

After brunch and the Sun Studios tour, we headed to the Metal Museum, which houses many incredible metal sculptures, both inside and around the garden.

We were pretty hot after walking around in the sculpture garden, and the park across the street, so we headed to Stax, a recording label turned museum. This space was much bigger and more developed, and it was self guided. There was a lot to see here, especially if you’re an Isaac Hayes fan.

At this point we were pretty tired, but we realized we could make it to see the Peabody Ducks at 5pm, so we headed to the Peabody hotel to snag spots.

Truly, every city in America has something bonkerballs to offer!

The last thing we did on our first full day (so full!), after getting BBQ at a spot so intense that all our clothes were permeated by a smokey BBQ smell, was to visit the lookouts at the top of the pyramid.

Wednesday

National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis Botanic Gardens, Bass Pro Shop

I started our second full day in Memphis at the Fitness Center. I used this crazy elliptical, then used the weight lifting machines, since I never have access to them at home.

As a family, we started our second day at the National Civil Rights Museum. My husband had been before and prepped the kids on how intense it was going to be. It’s located at the motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The museum is really well put together, with an impressive amount of images and information. It took us over three hours to walk the entire museum. It created a significant emotional impact, especially the recreations of the room MLK Jr was in right before he was shot.

We obviously couldn’t take photos in the museum, but we could take a couple outside.

After that somber experience we wanted to get outside a bit, so we headed to the Memphis Botanic Garden. I honestly didn’t know what to expect at these gardens; St. Louis has an amazing botanical garden and I doubted Memphis could out do them. But I might have loved the Memphis Botanic Garden even more than St. Louis’! It was so pretty and we had a lot of fun walking around in the different areas.

By the time we were done with the gardens it was pretty late. We headed to dinner (Hattie B’s Hot Chicken), where we realized we wouldn’t make bowling back at the pyramid. So the husband and 15yo went back up to the room, while the 11yo (who really wanted to bowl) and I hung out down in America’s largest Bass Pro Shop.

That night I took a bath in the crazy giant jacuzzi bath tub. It’s nice to take a bath in a state where water conservation is not as necessary.

Thursday: Fish Bowl Bowling, Science and History Museum at the Pink Palace, Home (well, Houston)

Our flight on Thursday was in the afternoon so we didn’t have to hurry to check out. After we checked our luggage in with the hotel for the day, we went straight to the Fish Bowl Bowling spot inside the Bass Pro Shop that the 11yo really wanted to visit. I will admit, this space was underwhelming (the pictures in the ads made it look way cooler), but we still had fun blowing for an hour.

After bowling we headed out for our final meal, then headed to the Science and History Museum, mostly because we wanted to stay inside on our last day. This final spot was fine. I didn’t really take many pictures, as I wanted to save my battery for the flights. Or course, we only flew to Houston that night, where we slept until our flight to SF at 5:45am the next morning.

All in all Memphis was a really fun trip for us. It’s a cool city to spend a couple days in, and of course, staying at the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid was a very unique experience, once we won’t soon forget.