Our kids loved exploring the Rock n Soul museum and Sun Records in Memphis.

Do your kids love to dance? Sing? Just listen to music? Well, if you find yourself in Memphis and anywhere near the corner of Highway 61 – yes, the one immortalized by Bob Dylan – and equally famous Beale Street, have I got a museum for you.  The Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum is a music museum that depicts the tale of the music pioneers of Memphis. They weren’t just musical innovators, they had to overcome racial bias and economic hardship in order to shape the music that ended up shaping our musical and cultural world. It’s a riveting story presented in interactive displays here.

Now all of that might be too much for the smallest children to understand, but what they will get easily is an enjoyable listen and look at Memphis music, beginning with the songs created by share croppers and field hands in the depression years of the 1930′s, moving on to the Beale Street blues movement of the 1940′s, the rockabilly of Sun Records and Sam Phillips in the 1950′s, and soul music of the 60′s and 70′s made popular by another Memphis local recording company, Stax. The museum has an MP3 audio tour for those old enough to use it, but without the tour running, the museum is still fun and informative. There are three separate media programs running, and a multitude of famous instruments and costumes in the galleries.

The museum started as a Smithsonian Research project, and built up its exhibition space to include information and artifacts about the music. It’s free for kids under age five, and a half price bargain for kids up to age 12. We spent over two hours studying the exhibits and listening to the music – over a hundred songs are available on that audio tour – we held the headphones up to the ears of our littlest listeners to sample.

Right across the street is the Gibson Guitar Factory. Admission is limited here to those over the age of five, but if your little ones fit in that age range, they’ll love seeing luthiers – that’s guitar craftsmen – at work. This interesting forty-five minute tour of Gibson’s factory includes the opportunity to see guitars literally created, and the involved steps that include binding, neck-fitting, painting, buffing, and tuning. There’s also some painlessly imparted history about Gibson’s hundred year guitar making and future musical plans.

Also restricted to age five and up is Sun Studios; which offers a a great live tour of this historic sound studio. The studio isn’t walkable from Beale Street, but it’s an easy car ride or it can be reached via a free shuttle from the Rock n Soul Museum. Children under age eleven are free. The tour takes about an hour, and includes the chance to hold the microphone Elvis used when recording here. The studio lays claim to the title of “the birthplace of rock and roll,” having created a single called Rocket 88 there in 1951 – apparently the first rock and roll release.

There’s no age restrictions and free admission for kids under nine years at another illustrious musical hot spot: The Stax Museum of American Soul Music. With over two thousand exhibits and several large recreations, this museum is worth a full afternoon’s exploration. Stax began as a small record store inside a movie theater, and it grew up to be one of the largest and most significant recording studios, starting the careers of now famous musicians from Issac Hayes to Ike and Tina Turner.

Although not an "upbeat" destination, our children learned a great deal at the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

Your kids will love listening to the music and looking at the unique artifacts and film and media exhibits, many of them interactive. As the only soul museum in the world, the Stax museum features work from other recording companies and their artists as well, and begins the exploration of soul’s musical roots with an awesome gospel exhibit set inside an actual church. Our kids really enjoyed seeing Isaac Hayes’ niftily restored, Cadillac El Dorado with its own television, refrigerator, and fourteen karat gold trim. And they also enjoyed the enormous “Hall of Records,” displaying over eight hundred singles and three hundred plus albums.

A more serious take on Memphis history is on view at the National Civil Rights Museum, located at and built up around the Lorraine Motel, the site where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. While this might seem a little heavy for toddler viewing, all ages in our family were interested and involved in the exhibits, and the older kids found the depiction of the American civil rights movement and it’s legacy to be inspirational and moving. Under age three admission is free. Dr. King’s assassination is only one aspect of the absorbing history of the civil rights movement depicted here.

The Children’s Museum of Memphis is a wonderful and large exhibition space which kids from babes in arms up to age ten will greatly enjoy. The Going Places exhibit was particularly wonderful, with its focus on flight. There was a flight simulator, a look inside an air traffic control tower, a hot air balloon, and even an airplane cockpit. Saving natural resources and conservation through everyday living is the focus as it engages visitors in the life cycle of a tree and the important role that a tree plays in the Tree House exhibit that explored Earth’s environment. Displays ranged from ecosystems, to tree-created products, all displayed in a forest- like setting. The littlest members of our party loved interacting with the interactive Grandma Willow.

Whatever museum you decide to explore, your family will discover great Memphis memories among the exhibits.

Strolling near the river in Memphis makes a pleasant afternoon.

We loved Memphis, and had only one regret: we had too short a trip. Yes, this is the bar b q center of the United States, but our vegetarian and vegan family members had no problem finding delicious food, too. Yes, this is a city built on blues, rock and roll and soul music, but don’t your tots love to dance? From Sun Recording to the Stax Studios, from Graceland to Beale Street, there’s plenty of opportunities to experience a musical Memphis that all ages will enjoy.

We stayed at the Westin Hotel in Memphis which has an amazing location just around the corner from Beale Street and all the music, shops, street musicians, and bar b q restaurants this busy thoroughfare offers. It’s also a very short walk to AutoZone Park, a great minor league baseball stadium not far from Beale. Although the hotel’s sleek modernity is geared more toward business travelers than families, the large rooms and the great views – along with super convenient location – make this a winning stay. We had a view of Beale Street that was glittery yet private – we didn’t have the music and crowd audio, but we had an excellent bird’s eye view.
Another prime Memphis hotel is the elegant, grand Peabody. The hotel is richly adorned with marble and velvet the lobby themes, friendly staff, and beautifully appointed room and suites decorated in a traditional style. While the Westin is right at the edge of the Beale Street and baseball action, the Peabody embodies a gentile, Southern style and isn’t far from Beale. We had a great deal at the Westin thanks to some careful trip planning, but you couldn’t go wrong at either hotel.

Regardless of where you stay, you must take your kids to the Peabody at 11 am or 5 pm any day of the week. Why these times? Well, those are the hours where you’ll find the Parade of the Ducks in the Peabody’s opulent lobby. The ducks actually live in the hotel – at a so called “penthouse suite.” In the morning, they’re marched by formally attired hotel staff from their suite, into an elevator, along a red carpet, and into an ornate fountain in the center of the hotel’s main lobby. In the evening, the process is repeated in reverse. Either way, there isn’t a toddler around – or a child or adult of any age – who isn’t going to smile watching this event.

Here comes the ducks - fountain ducks in Memphis - a real treat for kids of all ages.

Why do the ducks do this? Well there was a practical joke played in the early 1930′s involving Memphis recreational hunters and their live decoys. The decoys took to the fountain like, well – ducks to water – and hotel visitors enjoyed these feathered friends so much that the ducks were allowed to stay, housed, and – many duck generations later, they’re on display. You can view the ducks from a mezzanine level or line up right along the red carpet. The fountain is located in the lobby bar area, which allows you to purchase a Shirley Temple or two for the little ones or imbibe yourself. The bar is completely child and duck friendly!

Also in the hotel: a great gift shop with plenty of duck-designed memorabilia. We liked the net bag of miniature rubber ducks for the tub. If you haven’t had enough shopping, right next door is the large Peabody Place Mall, with a variety of department stores and speciality shops.

Now if those ducks weren’t fountain-raised, where could they swim? The Mississippi river of course. Take a pleasant walk around city park and watch the river barges and steamboats cruising on the broad stretch of water. Memphis is after all the United States’ second largest inland port, making for a busy waterway for boat watching.

For people watching and music in the afternoon and into the night, there’s Beale Street. When we were there, pre-teens were performing awesome break-dancing feats in the middle of the street for tips; blues, jazz, a Johnny Cash tribute band, and all ages Kareoke vied for our musical attention. In W.C. Handy Park, an outdoor stage featured great blues and jazz performances with plenty of room for the kids to run and play, while the adults paid a brief homage to Handy’s iconic statue located in the plaza here. All the venues allowed kids of any age accompanied by an adult well into the evening hours – past nine p.m. the street became child-free, but until then – wonderful sounds unrestricted by age.

O'Sullivan's on Beale Street Oyster Bar

Music feeds the soul, but it was the aroma of baking corn bread that drew us into the King’s Palace Cafe. Delicious shrimp gumbo is on the menu too. Away from the Beale Street corridor and closer to the Peabody you’ll find The Rendez-vous serving up excellent and inexpensive bar b q to local and savvy tourists alike. For real Southern style cooking, check out the Woman’s Exchange of Memphis on Racine Street. Offering an entree, two side dishes and desert at a bargain price, this lovely tea room style restaurant is a great lunch choice. Founded in 1885 on the principle of helping others help themselves, you can also buy unique, one of a kind children’s clothing on site as well as beautiful hand made toys and kitchen items.

Memphis is a delightfully laid back city with an urban edge. Where else can your family enjoy ducklings, a free outdoor blues concert, a river walk, and fresh baked cornbread?