Friday, March 21, 2008

Going back

So, I thought I'd try to post in a timely manner to what is happening in my life. I'm heading back to Nashville for another two weeks. The best part is that I get to rent the car this time. The next best part is that I am the only one staying the weekend. This means I will get to visit the Nashville temple and go to all three hours of church and wonderful things like that. Yeah!!

On another note. I went to Idaho this week to visit my grandparents. I love visiting "the ranch" but it is hard to see them getting older and older and not able to do as much. It was fun to take them souvenirs from Nashville. The have been country music listeners and watchers for as long as they have been alive. So it was very exciting to them that I had visited the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman and Ernest Tubb's record shop. It was fun to take them postcards and chocolates and small things that just showed I was thinking of them.

Friday, March 14, 2008

The Good Ole Boys

When I heard I would be visiting Nashville I did what any self respecting woman of my age would do--I checked out the tourist info online. And I found a jackpot!! There is a "Dukes of Hazard" museum in Nashville. It's called Cooter's Place and it is owned by the man who played Cooter. Why was this such a jackpot to me? Because I have always loved the Dukes--since even before I can remember. My favorite childhood memory, that I don't remember, (too young and all that). Is that the Dukes of Hazard used to play at 10:30pm on Saturday nights--after the news. So, every Saturday when the credits were rolling for the news I would wander out-security blanket in hand-and crawl into my dad's lap to watch the show. Unfortunately I was too young (under 3) to remember these fabulous bonding moments, but I do remember always fighting with my brother to try to watch the show when it used to be on Saturday morning re-runs (not much more than 3 but I do remember). It has long been one of my favorite childhood shows. So, Saturday morning bright and early we went to Cooter's Place. The photos are below.

Visiting Greece

So here are pictures from when I visited the Parthenon--I bet you didn't know I went. Okay, so there is a full scale replica in Nashville, but it's still nice to dream.

Actually we went from seeing this fabulous remake to a fabulous indoor paradise for dinner. The Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Resort is definitely worth spending a few hours at if you ever get the time. I loved the orchids, and the gardinas.














I want one of these arches for my house.

Nashville Nightlife

The life of a designated driver is very exciting and uh--awkward at times. In Nashville my coworkers all wanted to sample the nightlife. To me this would mean finding places with live music, cool spots to each new things. To them it was the "tourist"tour of bars!!! Yes How fun. I love drinking more water between 7:00pm and 1:00am in one night than I have during the previous week. If I didn't have this darn corn allergy at least I could switch soda choices at each bar!

We went out on the 28th with a couple of the local Modus employees who could show us the best places to go. We started at a dive near downtown Nashville called the Alley Cat think of "El Sleezo's" from the Muppet Movie and then downgrade the dive a bit more and you'll get the picture. We were there mostly for the food and it was good Tex-Mex. But again with the afore mentioned corn allergy there were not many choices for me on the menu.

After dinner we headed over to Coyote Ugly. What a fabulous way to earn a buck if you want to be a sex object. It was a bit fun to watch the 84 year-old woman who was out for her birthday dance on the bar. You could tell she really wanted to be brave enough to do it but was still quite embarrassed by the fact that she was brave. It was also funny to see that the bras left above the bar were mostly large support type bras and not cute sexy things. My thought was "what a wast of $20-$30" but then again if you've already wasted that much getting trashed...what is a bit more for fun!!

Our next stop was Tootsie's Orchid Lounge--this is know for live music beginning early in the afternoon--even had two bands one upstairs and one down. Unfortunately this human sardine can was just a bit packed. The music was okay, but since they were paying covers it wasn't anything out of the ordinary or fantastic.

After a short stay here we settled in for the night in Printers Row--at Lonnie's Karaoke Bar--evidently it is the #1 karaoke bar in Nashville--their website says so. I figured that the Nude Karaoke bar with topless servers next door would have been number one. Some of my coworkers went to check it out but returned when told there was a $10 cover charge and that then needed a "male escort?" So, men if you want to make a buck in Nashville--go escort at printer row. :)

Mostly I just spent the night saying "no, I don't drink. Yes, never." and "Can I please get another water?" With all the smoke I had to keep my throat well washed.

Once we came home I found that I had been to all the most famous tourist bars in Nashville. And to think I did it all in one night--and I remember the night too!! Oh to be a Mormon DD.