Nashville~Part II

Had some issues with my blogger template that I had to address before I could finish my Nashville post. Onward!

Tuesday

We decided to sleep in this morning. All the hustle and bustle from the conference and the heat really got to us. After getting ourselves ready we headed for a short walk over to the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was a nice museum and took me back to being a kid. I remember many times being dragged to museums to learn the history of something. Nate enjoyed the freedom to run around and Audrey enjoyed the dresses. She especially loved the Taylor Swift dress.

Although I don’t know everything about country music, I learned a lot and respect those that paved the way for the music I listen to now.

View Full Album

After that we were off to lunch at Jack’s BBQ! The most talked about BBQ joint down there. It was really good but wish it was a sit down and order as opposed to a walk-up-and-order. We have a BBQ joint in downtown Detroit called Slow’s BBQ and there you sit down and order. After lunch we strolled back to the hotel and was lucky to bump into Liz and her 3 year old daughter Ashley. They live about 45 minutes from us and I’ve gotten to see them a couple of times at LPA events.

View Full Album

later that evening we took a drive out to Historic Franklin and got some dinner.

Wednesday

By now everyone is crabby from the conference and bad nights of sleep. At this point I realize we should have gone home but I still had the banquet on Thursday and planned on leaving on Friday morning. By this time we are leaving on Starbucks for breakfast, just give me coffee. Today we headed out to the Nashville Science Museum. I know that it isn’t too far from the hotel but I accidently put the wrong address into the GPS and end up at some worn downed warehouse. Oops! Re-enter address and we are there. I didn’t tell Audrey we were going here and she kept trying to guess what the building was. I guess I choose a good place to go because Audrey and Matt disappeared. I was left with Nate to venture on our own. Some things he found exciting and others not so much. There was a whole area dedicated to the human body and healthcare. I tried to get Nate to put on this little white doctor lab coat but because I asked that wasn’t going to happen. Some day I will get those cute picture, right? In the center of the museum they have a play structure that you can go higher and higher up. Never let you 2 year old lead the way. I’m trying to be all encouraging, climbing through tight spot till we are at the top. You have 2 choices: you can go down the stairs that everyone is coming up or you have a twisty slide to go down. Guess who wouldn’t go down the slide and I don’t like heights, especially with a 2 year old who is prone to falling. I was the “fun police”, as Matt calls me, and carried Nate down the stairs with a diaper bag/purse in a steep stairway that’s about the width of me. Geez, what we do for our kids!

View Full Album

Thursday

Starbucks again in the morning! Today was to be quiet, hang out for a while before the banquet. We ran into Jaime and Caty in the lobby and we excited to chat and get a couple photos.

We decided to take a drive, stop for lunch and of course, stop at Lowe’s (Matt works for Lowe’s)

Then back to the hotel for a nap for Nate. Audrey had been enjoying the Children’s Room at the conference and they loved having her. She wanted those tokens so bad so she could shop at the banquet. I tried to get some nice pictures of us for the banquet but I had the camera on the wrong setting and my kids don’t like their pictures taken together.

View Full Album

We really only got to stay for dinner at the banquet by the time we were done eating, we had to get the kids. The food was okay and the prices on drinks were ridiculous! But we had fun at our table. We had a family crash our table, which split another family up. The table crashes refused to go to their assigned table because it was not place in the correct spot according to the diagram from sign-up. A mom and her younger daughter sat at another table which left 3 seats for her other daughters at our table. The one daughter was quite pissed and made sure that everyone knew it. I actually had someone come to me with the assignment book and asked if our names were on that table list. I proudly pointed to our names. But maybe it was for the best that those girls mother wasn’t at the table. They didn’t hold back and they had me laughing so hard I was crying. Mainly it was about the blind lesbian keynote speaking and some of the things she said. The one thing I remember is that LP’s are very sexual people (her words, not mine). Made me wonder who her partner was. Anyway, it was a nice night and the husband and I got a dinner without the kids.

Friday

Time to head home. We were up bright and early. Matt checked out at 6am and we were on the road at 8. It was a 1 1/2 hour drive to Mammoth Cave National Park. It was a pretty drive back to the visitor center. I didn’t realize how many people would be there and that they have different tours at different times. Should of done my research. I was expecting a Niagara Falls where you just walk up and look. We did however run into a couple families with LP’s. How cool is that. The cave is absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to go back and do a bigger tour. It was very humid that day and made it hard to hike. I was hot and sweaty but when I got to the cave opening it was like nature’s air conditioning. Underneath the temperature drops to around 68 degrees. You can see steam rising up out of the opening. After we got up the lenses on my camera and glasses fogged up. One thing I am happy for is that Nate only weighs 24 lbs. You are not allowed to bring anything down into the cave except a camera, jacket and a bottle of water. After taking pictures my new goal is a new camera. Something that might be able to get better pictures down there.

View Full Album