5 offbeat things to do in Memphis, from a miniature Mississippi to Christmas all year

Hiding in plain sight.

That's one way to characterize these five Memphis attractions, which are odd, strange, unusual — but perhaps overlooked or ignored by Memphians, who may no longer give Overton Park or Graceland or The Peabody or wherever the attention they deserve.

So — look again.

If it looks like a duck...

... swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. Especially if it's in the pool of the Italian marble fountain in the lobby of The Peabody in Memphis, the so-called "South's Grand Hotel," which has transformed an eccentric 90-year-old tradition into an international calling card: Memphians may take the pampered mallards for granted, but travelers from around the world make it a priority to be at The Peabody lobby at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily, to watch the world-famous waterfowl waddle from the elevator to the fountain and back again, to once more ascend to their "palace" on the hotel roof. You never know who will be craning their necks for a gander at the ducks: Among the celebrity spectators this reporter has witnessed are Samuel L. Jackson, Oscar-winner Ernest Borgnine and U2 band members Bono and the Edge.

Christmas in July (and June and February and October and...)

In its quest to expand its appeal beyond Elvis fans (and to give Elvis fans additional reasons to make return visits), Graceland displays memorabilia from a wide variety of music stars and has hosted numerous display devoted to non-Elvis subjects (including Walt Disney and Muhammad Ali) in museum-style spaces and exhibition halls across the street from the mansion.

An unusual addition to what might be called Graceland's extracurricular mission opened in November, as a supposedly permanent addition to the Elvis campus: The "Enesco Gift Shop and Gallery Featuring Department 56," which devotes 11,000 square feet of space in the former Graceland Crossing strip mall to elaborate displays of the collectible Christmas villages manufactured since 1976 by Minnesota-based Department 56.

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Like a giant descended from a beanstalk, a visitor walking through the galleries encounters a succession of tabletop communities consisting of miniature resin and porcelain houses, churches, pueblos, log cabins, castles, "branded" structures (a Krispy Kreme, a McDonald's), commercially themed locations (Hogwarts, Whoville, Graceland), urban landmarks (a Chrysler Building, an Empire State Building) and on and on.

Crystal power

Located in the heart of Memorial Park Cemetery at Poplar and Yates in East Memphis, not far from Isaac Hayes' grave, the Crystal Shrine Grotto suggests a mix of the Bible and "The Hobbit." Largely designed and sculpted in the 1930s by Mexican artist Dionicio Rodriguez, at the behest of E. Clovis Hinds, who founded the cemetery and funeral home in 1925, the photogenic "grotto" area includes small bridges, an artificial hollow tree, a "Pool of Hebron," and the "Crystal Shrine" itself, a cave-like structure of quartz crystals, concrete stalactites and moody lighting dotted with niches that contain dioramas depicting New Testament events in the life of Christ.

Belle of the Park

In 2011, a new statue was added to "Veterans Plaza" in Overton Park, a space already home to the iconic 1926 "Doughboy" statue, which is not just iconic by dynamic: It depicts a steely (or at least bronze) U.S. infantryman during World War I, poised for action, with bent knee and out-thrust bayonet.

The "Belle" statue is also bronze but less active. Sculpted by Andrea Lugar and unveiled in 2011, it depicts Memphis woman Margaret Polk, shielding her eyes as she looks skyward, presumably in hopes of witnessing the safe return of the B17 named in her honor, the famous Memphis Belle, which made history by being the first World War II "Flying Fortress" to complete 25 combat missions and return to the U.S.

The Belle was named by its pilot, Robert Morgan, in honor of his sweetheart, Polk; but while the plane remained intact, the romance didn't: Polk broke off her engagement to the war hero when she discovered he was a "womanizer," she told The Commercial Appeal. Meanwhile, the statue endures, as a symbol of what a story about its unveiling described as "camaraderie, patriotism and courage."

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Not that it didn't have critics: In 2012, John Sale, one of The Commercial Appeal's assistant managing editors, questioned the design of the sculpture, which ends more or less at the knees, with the rest of Polk essentially embedded within the statue's limestone base. "I can't help but see a woman trapped in a block of stone," Sale wrote. "Our Memphis Belle should be soaring, not wearing cement overshoes. And she really ought to have some legs — after all, Polk's legs were a prominent feature of her likeness painted on the side of the World War II bomber."

Miniature Mississippi

Opened with much ballyhoo in 1982, at a cost of $62 million, the Mud Island River Park has not fulfilled its promise: The monorail that connects the "island" (actually, a peninsula) to Downtown is no longer operational; the amphitheater that formerly hosted Bob Dylan and Jimmy Buffett is shut down; and the River Museum is defunct (although it could rise again as an immersive interactive "exploratoreum").

Nevertheless, the river-themed park — which remains open with free admission — is still notable for its arguably defining feature: the "Riverwalk," a cast-in-concrete scale replica of the lower Mississippi River, from Cairo, Illinois, to New Orleans, that snakes through the interior of the park like twisty spine. The Riverwalk turns tourists into Gullivers, able to traverse six states in the time it takes to walk five city blocks; it had run dry, but the Memphis River Parks Partnership recently turned on the taps, so to speak, in hopes that the park — like Downtown's parks in general — will bubble back to life.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Things to do in Memphis: 5 offbeat spots you need to check out