Nashville - September 2012

I had never been to Nashville before this year, and this year I went twice. The first time was on our big Southern roadtrip in May, and most recently, for Katy and Luke's wedding reception. Usually when I go to a wedding somewhere, I take in whatever tourist sights are available, but this time was unusual because I had just been there in May, and all my friend attending the wedding had also done it within the last year or two.

The hotel was very close to Broadway, the main strip where there are lots of the bars and stores. So Friday night, right after Katy and Luke's Welcome Party, we all hit the bars. It was super fun because all the places had live music and everyone was casual. We went to Tootsie's, Second Fiddle, Honky Tonk Central, and the Hilton bar. We sang, we danced, we did the "holler and swoller" thing. It's a thing, really.

Lexi, Ericka, Brian, and Audra at Tootsie's! 

After breakfast, I took a stroll to the stores with Brian, Donald, Sarah, and baby William, and later we were joined by two of Sarah's friends, Rachael, Emily, and Emily's baby Iris. What a party. We stopped for free praline at Savannah's Candy Kitchen, and helped Brian with some cowboy boot shopping at 3 different boot stores on the same street. They take their cowboy boots seriously here. They even had university logo boots. Um, no thank you.

Taking over Broadway in Nashville

Savannah's Candy Kitchen is amazing.

Me and my weekend roommate Brian outside of Boot Country

Brian and I were trying to maximize the time we spent with our law school friends over the weekend, so after Donald, Sarah, William, Rachael, Emily, and Iris went back to the hotel for a rest, we went back out to lunch on Broadway with Rob, Audra, Lexi, and Carter. We had lunch at Rippy's Bar & Grill. It was okay, but I wouldn't really recommend it. It's dicey.

Audra, Rob, and Carter at Rippy's

We went back out on Saturday night after the wedding, and this time I brought my camera. If you know me, you know that it's been many years since I went out on back-to-back nights. (For one thing, it's hard to go out on back-to-back nights when you get up at 5:30 a.m. with a toddler.) Anyway, I was pretty excited. We spent most of our time enjoying the music at Honky Tonk Central.

Katy, Luke, me, Audra, Rob, and Brian at Honky Tonk Central

Don't worry, we had a proper Southern breakfast before we left. We went for brunch at Puckett's Grocery & Restaurant. Look how much fun Donald and Sarah are having!

Brunch at Puckett's on Church Street

Katy and Luke's Wedding Celebration 2012

Katy and Luke got married! Actually, they got married a month ago in Katy's hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina.  While I have been to Beaufort twice before to visit her parents, I was not in attendance at the wedding ceremony, but I think we can all agree that the bride and the groom looked beautiful.

Beaufort, South Carolina, August 25, 2012

In what seems to be a new wedding trend, the couple had multiple receptions at different locations in the country for the convenience of their family members. There were celebrations in South Carolina (where the bride is from), West Virginia (where the groom is from), Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee (where the couple lives with their awesome dog Wally).

They held the Nashville reception at the Country Music Hall of Fame which is super cool and beautiful. Definitely one of the best venues I have been to for a wedding. All the guests enjoyed walking around and reading the plaques on the walls dedicated to famous country music singers. The powers that be waited too long to give Dolly one. 1999!

"Let the Circle Be Unbroken" at the Country Music Hall of Fame

Dinner was ah-mazing. Wait, let me say it again. Ahhhhhhhhh-mazing. I have never craved wedding food after I returned home. I am so sad I am not eating it right now. It was family-style and I had short ribs, cheddar mac and cheese, crispy buttery brssel sprouts, acorn squash, and Southern-style biscuits. Everything was as delicious as you would hope it would be. As if that wasn't enough to invade my dreams forever, Luke and Katy had 5 flavors of cake. We each got one flavor and passed them around so I tasted and loved: Velvet Elvis (with peanut butter ganache), lemon vanilla, chocolate, banana, and vanilla with raspberry creme filing. The Velvet Elvis and the lemon vanilla blew us away.

Rob helping me dish out the family-style (because I left the table to take this picture)

After dinner there was a lot of dancing and rejoicing. I met Katy in law school and we took numerous trips together to the beach for Spring Break, a cruise that went to the Caribbean and we even went to Costa Rica over Winter Break one year. We went to dinner hundreds of times with our friends to celebrate birthdays or for no reason. We had as many game nights. We went to 6 law school dances, and once I even talked to her into going to the Fox Field horse races. After we graduated, we moved to New York, and for a while we kept up the good times, but then she moved to Nashville.

Suffice to say, I had very high expectations for her future husband. When I met Luke for the first time in May, I was delighted. I couldn't have come up with a better match for Katy if I'd dreamed him up. She's a catch and so is he. I look forward to adding him to our law school vacation team.

Katy and Luke rocking out at the Country Music Hall of Fame

Welcoming Luke to the team: Rob, Audra, Brian, Katy, Luke, Sarah, Donald, and me

Oh, and one more thing. Best. wedding. guest book. ever. And this is the 37th wedding I have attended so I am not messing around here. They had us sign a guitar. Awesome in the first place, and doubly awesome because of the venue. Thank you for inviting us to a super cool wedding!

Guitar Wedding Guestbook

SE Roadtrip Day 13: Memphis, TN 2012

There was some debate over whether or not to go to Memphis at all.  Kevin went once in 2005 with Briggs to check out the town and eat some BBQ. He enjoyed the BBQ, but wasn't terribly impressed by Memphis.  Other people told us to skip Memphis as well.  So ultimately we went anyway because I wasn't sure when I would ever get the chance to go to Memphis again, and frankly I loved the idea of going to Graceland because: 1) This is a Southern roadtrip, how can we skip Graceland? 2) I love cheesy tourist traps. I'm sorry, but I do. Somebody has to keep them in business, right?  What's the harm in being self-aware that I'm the silly tourist?

Clous at Graceland in Memphis, TN

James, on the other hand, has more discerning taste. As his father always says, "it is not elitist to have good taste." James prefers natural settings, parks, or really anywhere he is not confined to a stroller or car seat.  Graceland was a little crowded and not the place to set James free, lest he destroy some precious Elvis memorabilia and set his parents back thousands of dollars.

Self-portrait in the mirrored ceiling in the TV room

Speaking of destroying priceless memorabilia, in the photo above James and I are sitting on bar stools that we are forbidden from sitting on or even touching.  We got politely chastised after this photo was taken.

Graceland's famous Jungle Room with green shag on the ceiling

Me and James in Elvis's Hall of Gold Records

The Graceland house itself was much smaller than I imagined. It's called a mansion, but the house itself isn't really that large.  The property itself is large, and there are some other buildings on the property so altogether it's a pretty big size, but the house itself is modest for a music legend. Here's something else I didn't love about Graceland, we could tour the first floor and the basement of the house, but the top floor with Elvis's bedroom and bathroom are off limits because of family privacy.  Does anyone still live in this house?  Wouldn't a real Elvis fan want to see his bedroom more than any other place?  Especially since the house isn't that big, leaving the entire upstairs off the tour feels like a rip-off. This might be a good place to mention that each Graceland ticket costs a whopping $32, and that doesn't usually include admission to the other exhibits like the car and airplane exhibits. (With the coupon we had you actually can get admission to all of those things for $32, but still.)

James gets some playtime in Graceland's backyard. 

We're not sure if this allowed, but no one stopped us.

For some reason, Elvis's grave is by the swimming pool. Hm.

The better-known car exhibit and the plane exhibit were decent, but some of the other exhibits were a stretch, so we left without seeing all of them.  There are also 100 different gift shops on the property, strategically placed so that you cannot skip them.  I think we went into 6 different gift shops, no joke. The sad thing is, I might have bought something, but the children's gifts were not great. This despite having a dedicated children's gift shop!

One of Elvis's many cars

Outside the plane Elvis named the Lisa-Marie

Inside the plane

The different tickets also had a super-expensive choice that included a trolley ride out to Sun Studio and some other places.  We declined that, but drove past Sun Studio just to check it out. Maybe a tour of the inside would have been nice, but parking was a little dodgy in the area.

We drove by Sun studios

Finally, the part Kevin was most excited about in Memphis-- Charles Vergo's Rendezvous BBQ restaurant. Holy cow, this was our 7th and final BBQ of the trip.  It's a little unfair to compare this one to the others because it's dry rub style in Memphis, and because we got the pork ribs and brisket instead of the pulled pork sandwich, but this easily made it to close to the top of our list if not the very top.  Again, this was a real restaurant, but James behaved well enough for us to scarf up our meal, and he didn't even puke this time.  Of course, sometimes James somewhat-good behavior comes at a price, I had to feed him food and about 100 little sips of water from my straw to keep him quiet, but I would gladly do it again to eat here.

Can you see how excited Kevin is for more BBQ?


Straws! Anything that keeps him quiet is good.

SE Roadtrip Day 12 + 14: Nashville, TN, and Katy and Luke 2012

After the Smoky Mountains, we headed to Nashville, TN to spend some time with my friend from law school, Katy, and her fiance Luke. It was wonderful to spend Monday evening with them, especially after James went to bed.  Unfortunately, since we had suddenly crossed over to Central Time, James went to bed at what seemed like an hour later than usual. Luke made a really nice dinner for us. (A man who cooks well! Way to go, Katy!) And I got to hear the cute story of how Katy and Luke met. We kept chatting after dinner, and I was having such a good time that if it weren't a work night for them, I wouldn't have let them go to bed at all.

Fake group photo: Like, Wally, Katy, me, James staring at Katy(!), and Kevin

However, after a long day at work, Katy understandably declined a photo, so I asked for one of the Clous. Luke and Wally jumped in at the last minute.  Now I really wanted a group photo! Here's the thing, I have mad photoshop skills.  I try not to use them to create a different reality... but it's so tempting sometimes! I sat on the couch in Katy's camo-Snuggie, and then I photoshopped 3 photos: the group shot minus Katy, me in the camo-Snuggie, and then Katy's head off Facebook. I know I'm scary. In my defense, Katy thought it was funny and approved the photo before I posted it.

Wally and I go way back to 2005 or 2006. One of the sweetest dogs ever.

James trying to "feed" Wally but all he has are leaves.

Tuesday morning, after playing with Wally for a while, we were ready to see Nashville! We started with the somewhat touristy, but still fun downtown.  It seemed that it would be even more fun drinking and eating here at night or on the weekend, but that sort of thing is not possible with a 1-year-old in tow.

Downtown Nashville

Downtown with my boyfriend Elvis

Shopping at Ernest Tubb Record Shop- which is awesome (Kevin bought a coozie)

James checking out old concert posters at Hatch Show Print

After exploring the downtown a little more than James would have preferred, we headed to Centennial Park so that James could run around, but more to see the full-scale Parthenon re-creation that the people of Nashville decided to build in 1897.  Wow.  It certainly made for some fun photos.

The Clous in front of "the other" Parthenon

Rocking his Huntsville, AL shirt in Nashville, TN

On the run!

Playing with dad (I am seriously considering blowing this up.)

Katy and Luke recommended we try Loveless Cafe, so we went there for lunch.  Since part of the roadtrip is about eating a lot of Southern BBQ, we ordered our 6th BBQ of the trip.  Are we grossing you out?  Or are you fiery with jealousy? I am going to assume the latter.  The pulled pork sandwich was very good and stood up well in our taste-venture. It was huge, and the meat was tasty because they have they're own huge smokehouse on the premises.  The sauce was mostly on top of the meat instead of mixed in it.  I also order the grits (I think my 3rd grits of the trip) and they were my favorite of the trip so far. James was pretty good during the meal, but he definitely puked a little when we arrived because he's still not great at chewing his food before swallowing. Sigh.

Yum! at Loveless Cafe in Nashville, TN

Our next stop on the trip was Memphis, mainly to see Graceland, but also to eat more BBQ!  The problem is that we only travel a few hours at a time, and mainly while James is sleeping, because James hates the car, and Memphis is not close to anything.  So when we left Memphis on Thursday morning, we came back to Nashville. We thought we would check out the Grand Ole Opry, hich moved from the Ryman Auditorium to its new spot in 1974.  We were trying to avoid paying for a backstage tour (or for entry charges at other locations) so we decided we would go check out the free Grand Ole Opry Museum.  Unfortunately, it flooded in 2010, (ah, I remember Katy emailing us pictures of the flood waters near her job) and they never reopened it or updated the website.  I think 2 years is enough time to at least update the website! So this stop was a bust, but James didn't really care.  He played outside in the Grand Ole Opry grass.

In front of the Grand Ole Opry, where the Country Music Awards are held

James about to destroy the Grand Ole Opry garden

This photo came out a little blurry but I like it's weird Anime-like quality

Kevin tried to cheer me up after the mix-up by stopping at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky on the way to the Bourbon Trail.  I am a bit of an amateur spelunker after visiting Ruby Fall in Tennessee in 2009, and Luray Caverns in Virginia in 2010.  Double bust!  The cave only had hour-long and two-hours-long tours available on a schedule which would have had us waiting an hour for the shorter tour.  Not James-friendly at all. Oh well! Maybe another day. 

 In between Nashville stops we were in Memphis, TN, so I'll write about that next. After we left Nashville, we did the Kentucky bourbon trail. Yes, with a baby... don't worry, it was totally safe driving.  James was the designated driver since he can't drink for another 20 years.

SE Roadtrip Day 11: Smoky Mountains, TN 2012

The Smoky Mountains were a pleasantly uneventful stop on our trip. In the morning, Kevin went a nice size hike by himself and spotted a baby bear. Luckily the mom didn't cross his path.  In the afternoon, we drove up to the Clingman's Dome Trail together, and hiked up a short half-mile to Clingman's Dome.  The whole way up we were wondering why we thought it was a good idea to bring a baby in a stroller up a hiking trail, but we felt better when we saw other babies in special hiking backpacks and what not.  At the top, we took some family photos.  And then walk-jogged half a mile back down. Easy-peezy.

At the top of Clingman's Dome

Clingman's Dome

View straight down of the end of the Clingman's Dome Trail

View straight down from Clingman's Dome of the woods

Pushing James back down

We stayed in Gatlinsburg, TN which was awful, less because of it's ridiculous tourist-cheesiness, and more because they had no free parking anywhere. That made it impossible to do simple things like pick up lunch.  And we got stuck in construction traffic driving to the trail and leaving it, but James was more or less a trooper for that.  James hated the Gatlinburg lunch debacle as much as we did though. I had to change his diaper in the car, on my lap, a trick I learned from Audra when I was visiting her! All in all though, a fairly easy stop on the road.

Chattanooga, Tennessee 2009

Kevin, Jon, and I had a little time to explore Chattanooga while we were in town for Trey and Sunny's wedding. We started with the Downtown Music Hall where they had their welcome party. The next day wewent to Ruby Falls, a privately owned waterfall inside a cave. Despite living near Luray Caverns for many years, this was my first time in a cave so I was very excited. Man oh man, you have not lived until you have seen a laser-light show in a cave.

 

Kevin, me, and Jon at the Music Hall

At Ruby Falls with Jon

Laser light show!

Of course, since it was Chattanooga, I also demanded to see a train of some kind, and Kevin demanded to eat BBQ. What a great weekend!

Chattanooga Choo-Choo!

Sticky Fingers at Jack's Alley- delish!