My mom loves to visit quirky places on vacations. She finds obscure things to do in her AAA books, and they always end up being interesting. Unbeknownst to most Memphians, Memphis is home of the National Ornamental Metal Museum. That was our Wednesday destination, tucked away on the southwest side of Memphis right next to I-55.
The museum itself was a let down. We were expecting more ornamental metal art (thus the name Metal Museum) but the inside housed mostly jewelry and paintings. The gift shop was the best part of the inside of the museum, but very pricey. Admission was only $5, so it wasn't that great of a loss, but still...
The grounds surrounding the museum were more to our liking. The best part? You can visit the grounds for FREE. There were funky sculptures everywhere. Currently there is an outdoor exhibit called "Meet Meat Cookware" which is comprised of unusual (working!) grills. Apparently at the open house of the exhibit, they had a party and barbecued on the sculptures! The picture above is a grill made out of an old rusted truck. You can see the grill on the front and the bed has a built-in picnic table! 
The most colorful statue there. Strange, but I liked it.
Here are my parents in front of a giant metal daffodil.
Probably the best part of our visit was sitting on the shady gazebo (completely formed from scrap pieces of metal from an old building) that overlooks the Mississippi River. It was beautiful. I hope to take some of my friends back there for a picnic on the bluff amongst the crazy sculptures, it should be fun!
4 comments:
JJ and I read about this before we even moved here and have been wanting to go ever since. Thanks for the review!
I've never heard of this place before! Do you think this might be a good play group? You know, visit the grounds and have a picnic?
When you consider all the good that Elvis could have done for Memphis is really is tragic that he died. I wish the town would at least try to keep make the area around Graceland better. If that were a nicer place more people would come to Graceland and stay which would bring in money to the area. But no, instead you leave graceland asap so you don't get shot or mugged down there. Sad.
It really does look cool...who would have thought! We'll have to check it out!
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