We were in Nashville for Rich's work. I had one objective for the entire trip...get Rich into a country western bar and make him listen to country music until his ears start to bleed. The first night we were there, we walked around downtown to check out the night life. You can't walk ten feet without there being a bar with live music in it. My only complaint was that no one was singing the same song, so it sounded like there were twenty concerts going on simultaneously. No bueno.
Here are a couple of shots from our walk.
Nashville Predators Arena.
It's world famous people. I wonder if the same Tootsies I saw in the airport was also world famous.
I told Rich that unless it says Honky Tonk, we skip it because it is just a waste of our time. We are on a strict Honky Tonk mission.
And here is Puckett's. This little gem quickly became our favorite place, for two totally different reasons.
When we were looking online to find a fun place to eat and get local cuisine (yes, I said that), we came across several great reviews for this place. It was one block away from our hotel and we quickly found out that we were not the only ones who had heard of this place as well. At 8:00pm, there was an hour and a half wait. We put our name in and then took off for a walk. It was apparent quickly that only a few places were open past a certain time. We must have passed five to six places to eat that are only open until 6:00pm. For a city that was crawling with people on a Wednesday night, it was a mystery to us why there were so many restaurants closed.
Anyway, back to Puckett's. When we got back from our walk, we decided to wait inside until they called our name. Best wait in a restaurant for a table ever!! Who doesn't love a restaurant that has a live band on stage performing while people enjoyed their meal?? As we were standing there looking over the menu and deciding what to order, the nice cowboy on stage played three cords on the guitar and my eyes lit up and magic happened. For the next three or so minutes, I sang Callin' Baton Rouge at the top of my lungs to my husband. I would like to say that he loves my singing and is supportive of my occasional extrovert behavior when I am in a city where no one at all knows me, but he kept trying to cover my mouth and face with the menu and so I was getting mixed messages about how he actually felt about my performance that was for him. I mean what other declaration of love is there other than signing Garth at the top of your lungs to your spouse! It was AMAZING!!
When we finally sat down for dinner, we quickly realized that there was a bucket going around taking requests for songs. WHAT?!?!?!?! Rich turned to me and said, "No". Rude. How did he know what song I would pick and that he wouldn't love it just as much as the first. He doesn't appreciate good music. Let me tell you why. When the band started to play The Devil Went Down to Georgia by The Charlie Daniel's Band, I may have squealed. And by squealed, I mean scream out loud in a pitch only dogs could hear. As I have done for the past 47 year we have been together, when a song comes on the radio from a well known movie, I say to him..."Quick...name this movie." He is wrong or doesn't play like 97% of the time. (He is a real good time people, let me tell you) So, it was no surprise that when they started to play The Devil Went Down to Georgia, I screamed out...."Dude, name this movie!" Silence. Crickets. He said, "I don't even know if I have heard this song before. I think I have, but I am not sure." I looked at him, wasting precious time that I could be singing along, and said..."Are you even an American???? I mean I know that Urban Cowboy is an acquired taste as far as movies go, but you may not even remember the song period??? How have we been married this long and I not know this about you???" It's a good thing the food and sweet tea made up for my date with Debbie Downer after that. Oh, and the band closed out the evening with Alabama's song Mountain Music. It was like a little gift given to me on account of my husbands lack of culture outside his bubble of hip hop and rap. I turned to Rich and said, "Just so you know, tonight was my favorite night of the trip."
And now on to the meal.
Fried pickle appetizer.
Rich's dinner. It was BBQ pulled pork on the bottom of a skillet, topped with Gouda mac n' cheese.
I went with a more traditional cuisine, chicken fried chicken. The mashed potatoes (and I consider myself a connoisseur) were horrible, but the chicken and green beans were good.
And dessert. A fried brownie, topped with vanilla bean ice cream and a slice of bacon, just because they can.
On our way back to the hotel that night, we found this gem. A three story public library. A THREE STORY PUBLIC LIBRARY!!!!!!! Remember that movie With Honors? When Joe Pesci lived in Harvard's Law Library. If I go missing people...consider this your first hint. Oh, and Madonna had the hit song from the movie called, "I'll Remember". You are welcome.
And this is where we both were the next morning (after the USA soccer match, of course.). This is the picture I took while on the treadmill (Hello, you saw our dinner last night, right?) of it pouring rain outside. That's why the pool is indoors??? That'd be my guess because the hour we were down there, it must have started and stopped pouring rain several times.
On Friday, Rich's friend Aaron joined us for lunch. We had heard this little place called Back Alley Diner. And it was the perfect name because it was so back alley that it took three grown adults a while to locate it. And seriously, it was a block away.
I was grateful for the detour because while we were on our scavenger hunt from our Google map we stumbled on a few fun places to see. This reminded me of New Orleans.
And I have to share this picture. Right now Matthew is OBSESSED with Finding Bigfoot. In fact, on a daily basis he and I get into heated discussions about the hard cold facts and evidence that is concrete proof that Bigfoot exists. If you're bored one day, I dare you to strike up a conversation with him about it. Here's your opening line, "There is no Bigfoot." Then just sit back and enjoy. Cut him off a couple of times so he can catch his breath and gather his next argument, but I promise....it's a good time.
This sign was hanging on the door of the bathroom in the diner we were in. There was no door on the first stall, just a sheet hanging with this outside. Classy joint.
On Friday night we headed to a minor, minor, minor, minor, minor league game. We were lucky to have box seats because it was hot and humid outside and I was wearing a sweater sitting inside.
And I blame Aaron for this. This is my very first Fireball Whisky shot. It was good. And that's all I am sharing from my experience. Again....I blame Aaron.
Who loves the retro scoreboard??? They are actually moving this team to a new stadium at the end of the season and my wish is that they take that sign and do something with it at the new stadium. How could you leave it behind?
Post game fireworks.
Midwest Love. All the kids were able to go out and see the players and run the bases after the game.
Look at this old school Nashville Sporting Goods Store. Yes, that is a mesh steel gate that is out front working as security.
Store hours on a Saturday were a disappointment. We wanted to walk through it, but who plans for it to be closed at noon on a Saturday. And we think they don't have any Lebron's or Jordan's, but that is just our Wheel of Fortune guess.
All in all, this was a great trip. Next time we go, I'm renting a car and driving to the burbs to check out real estate. I want something with a ton of trees and land surrounding my property. Oh, and air conditioning.
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