There it is -- Hotel Peabody: The South's finest, one of America's *best* hotels.  It's even mentioned in William Faulkner's novels.  In 1935, in his social history of the Mississippi Delta, David Cohn wrote: ''The Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg. The Peabody is the Paris Ritz, the Cairo Shepheard's, the London Savoy of this section. If you stand near its fountain in the middle of the lobby, where ducks waddle and turtles drowse, ultimately you will see everybody who is anybody in the Delta.''

Today, we're somebody in the Delta.  Gavin and Garrett are crowding the red carpet, waiting for some...ducks?

Katia has claimed her spot by the red carpet.

Oh boy!  We're gonna see ducks waddle out of that elevator.

They're going to spend the day swimming in that fountain.

The guy in the red coat is telling us all about it.  He talks a mile a minute and you can't understand a word he says.  They need a better duckmaster.

Any minute now...Gavin took this picture at red carpet level.

And here they come, waddling in step to the King Cotton March.  This is so exciting!

So close, Gavin could almost reach out and grab dinner.

Don't they look grand?

Now let's see a movie that shows it all.  You'll see what I mean about the poor duckmaster's inability to enunciate.  And just wait til you see him try to chase down an escapee.

This is how they look on days when they are more cooperative.

View from the balcony.  Doug and Bonnie and maybe even Cindy and Heather looked down from above. 

Nice ducks, swimming where they're supposed to be.  Real genuine original Peabody ducks, not those phony baloney fake ducks at that phony baloney Peabody in Orlando.

Nice fountain.  Nice flowers, too.  But that's enough of the lobby.  Let's go up on the roof to see where the ducks live when they're not entertaining the tourists in the fountain.

Wow, that big penthouse is just ducky!

They have their own hot tub.

Katia and Garrett seem impressed.

Garrett spies on the duck den.

Hey, that's a pretty big river over there!

Better watch where you're going, Garrett.

It's a long way down there.

See what I mean?

Nice group picture, but boy, they sure are standing far away.  Maybe a little PhotoShop magic will help.

There, a close-up is much better.  Let's see, we have Heather and Garrett and Karen and Gavin and Katia and Doug and Bonnie.  I think they're starting to look hungry.

Let's have a close-up of that big sign, too.

Gavin says he actually is hungry, but he's not certain he wants any barbecue.

Contemplating lunch.

Another group photo.  This one with Bill.

Gavin is standing on the famous Peabody Skyway where big bands used to play swing music while people dined and danced the night away.  Pretty nice view, too.

Old pictures of people having fun on the Skyway.

Gavin's temporarily not having fun.  He really doesn't want to be dragged off someplace where he'll be forced to eat yukky barbecue.

Bill had never dined in the Peabody Rainbow Room.  He still hasn't, but at least he's sat at a table.

Oh boy oh boy!  A souvenir shop!  Doesn't Gavin look great in his new hat?

If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck...