Viva Nashvegas!

Amber:

The first stop of the morning was the Country Music Hall of Fame. I was a tad disappointed that it had changed so much since I was last here, but that was "way" back in '94. Mostly I was just sad that we didn't get to see Alan Jackson's jeans from the Chattahootchie video! We got to see at least one thing from every landmark artist though. Highlights for me were Hank Williams' suit and guitar, Carl Perkins' blue suede shoes, Buck Owens' red, white and blue guitar, and a video montage of old TV appearances. Merle Haggard was rocking an impression of Johnny Cash in one clip! We watched a film about Tim McGraw on tour and saw Garth Brooks bawling like a baby talking about George Jones. We're still kinda weirded out about Garth now! We even found out that Trisha Yearwood used to work at the Hall of Fame - pretty bizarre.

I was bummed beyond belief that the week after we leave they are opening up an entire exhibit about Hank Williams, but we peeked behind the curtain and took some illegal pictures, so that helped. We ate lunch at the Hall of Fame, went to a fair trade store and set out for the rest of our day!





Lisa: After lunch, we headed off to tour the Belle Meade Plantation. We took a guided tour of the house and toured some other buildings on the property. This particular plantation was known for their racehorses, and Seabiscuit came from here! Our tour guide was also dressed in period clothing but somehow still managed to make jokes about the Jackson 5. He was pretty funny. And we also got to see the bathtub that President Taft got stuck in because he was so fat! Which was funny, because my roommates and I were actually discussing this legend recently and because it's just funny. But the house was really neat and we saw some interesting things inside, some beautiful, some ugly, some weird. Like a hoof of a rhinoceros. Weird.

Thinking about our tour guide, makes me think of another trend we've seen on this trip. Running into lots of people who are trying to "make it". The tour guide today was not only pursuing a Master's degree but was also an aspiring actor and stand up comedian. He said he's going on tour or is already on a tour or something, I can't remember. And our guide at Sun Studios was also a musician who looked like he could make it big. So if these guys do make it big, we can say we knew them when.

Batey:

After Belle Meade, we went to the Parthenon. Yep. That's right - the Parthenon - in Nashville, Tennessee. They have the world's only full size replica of the Parthenon, and it was pretty cool. Tiny Elvis enjoyed himself, as you can see. The park around the Parthenon was pretty cool, too. They had a big open field where there were people playing football and kids playing around - just kinda a neat atmosphere I thought. After this, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for a little bit, but not before stopping for a milkshake at the Soda Shop - the oldest restaurant in Nashville. We got 3 good ol' milkshakes while we looked at the songs in the old school mini-jukeboxes. Very cool and kind of made me wish I lived in the 50's.

After resting up at the hotel, we headed back out for the night. We ate dinner at Monell's - this restaurant in a farmhouse (not a barn like I kept wanting to say), where you sit at a long table with people you don't know and all the food is family style. As soon as you sit down, there is already some food on the table to eat, and you pour your own glass of sweet tea. It really was like eating at someone's house. You don't order anything - the waitress just tells you, "This is what's for dinner tonight." Needless to say, the food was AMAZING and there was a LOT of it. Also, we ate so much food - we were beyond stuffed. Thinking of the amazing food we ate tonight reminds me of the fact that we have eaten great food for every meal of this trip. We have found many of the oldest places in town, with some of the best food. And for any of you who know me, you know that I have therefore been very happy on this trip.

After dinner we strolled down Broadway in downtown Nashville and got a little taste of the nightlife. We were amazed that it was so busy on a Tuesday night. We didn't really go in any of the places tonight, but we are going back tomorrow.