If you haven't yet figured it out, the beans are HUGE Elvis fans, so it goes without saying that they eventually had to make the pilgrimage to Graceland, the home of The King of Rock & Roll. Now, the beans realize it's been almost 25 years since Mr. Presley checked out of the Heartbreak Hotel for good (or was taken away by aliens, depending on your point of view...), but what do they care - Elvis still rocks.

Graceland is located on (naturally) Elvis Presley Blvd. in beautiful Memphis, TN, a city of 610,000 people who couldn't escape the long shadow of Elvis, even if they wanted to. Mr. E bought Graceland in 1957 for $100,000 - today value? Immeasurable. Over 600,000 people a year plunk down the $16 admission fee for a 60-90 minute tour of his palace (all together now: "It's good to be The King!"). Believe it or not, there are still over 600 Elvis fan clubs in 45 countries. (Let's just see N'Sync try to top that 25 years after they croak!!!)

So after you buy your tour ticket and pick up a headset for the audio tour (in English, Spanish, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian or even Portuguese!), you hop a shuttle, which takes you across the street to the Big House. The mansion tour consists of the living room, music room, Elvis' parents' bedroom, the dining room, kitchen, TV room, pool room, and the one and only Jungle Room in the main house, and, behind the house, Elvis' racquetball building and his original business office.

The Graceland estate was named after Grace Toof, a wealthy lady whose family owned the property for almost one hundred years. Grace's niece, Ruth, inherited the land in 1940 and promptly built herself a grand colonial mansion, replete with Greek columns and antique heirlooms. Elvis scored the deed to the property in 1957, and the rest is, as they say, "history, little darlin'..."

Located in the "back yard", if you can call it that, you'll find the swing set of Elvis and Priscilla's only child, Lisa Marie. As we all know, Lisa Marie was briefly married to Michael Jackson, which in itself calls for several snide jokes, but since we're honoring the real King, and not picking on the self-appointed "King of Pop" (too easy of a target), we'll leave it alone for now. The beans thank you for your consideration...

Out by the pool, we suspect that Elvis and his posse, known collectively as the "Memphis Mafia", liked to party with the young hotties that had a strange habit of turning up unannounced at all times of the day and night. All those movies he made in Hawaii must've taught The King a thing or two about swimming and clam bakes...

In the Trophy Room, the beans got to hang with Elvis' prizes and awards, and even got to see one of his famous suits up close. Of course, there's no way that he would've been able squeeze into this baby after about 1968, but it's still a nice cut of cloth, ain't it? The beans thought it was fashionable, but were hoping for a rhinestone or two...

Of course, Elvis looooooved his guns. The Trophy Room in fact has a display case with enough weaponry in it to make Charlton Heston drool... Be sure to read one of the many biographies for an interesting story involving The King, his favorite pistol, a TV set, and a grudge against Robert Goulet... Anyway, Elvis had his own shooting range, perfect for knocking off a few rounds after a heavy meal.

The beans were kind of nervous down here, as they prefer not being used for target practice...

"The difference between men and boys is the size of their toys..." If that old adage is true, then Elvis was definitely the BMOC. Here are Elvis' private jets, doubly cool in the fact that he had TWO -- way before every lame-o, lip-synching, bad-hair boy band on the face of the planet had even one.

Located at the north end of the plaza, you'll find the King's "Hound Dog II" Lockheed JetStar plane, next to the much larger, customized "Lisa Marie", which was often referred to as his "flying Graceland". Painted on the tail is "TCB", which naturally stands for "Taking Care (of) Business", and not "Taking a Can of Beans", as some may think (or wish)...

Of course, there is an end to everything, including Elvis. And here in the Meditation Garden, you'll find him and his family, eternally slumbering. As you can see, visitors from around the world have left tributes to their hero - flowers, cards, teddy bears, and if you look carefully, you may even see a lone can of vegetables...

Some people refuse to believe that Elvis is really gone, and prefer to think that he's hiding out as a 67-year-old cashier at a 7-11 store somewhere. And in a way, the beans kinda wish it were so. But at least we'll still have his music - and his recipe for peanut butter and banana sandwiches - forever.