Tennessee Y'all

Well, the last post was definitely a traveling doozie and oh it felt like one tooo!  The rest of the trip however was amazing!!  I did realize with this trip though that when traveling with family members you never know what will happen outside of your normal traveling behavior.  For instance, when Sweet and I travel with his awesome organizational skills, we are able to take full advantage of our vacay by intricate planning.  Then again sometimes we just say screw it, be a little rowdy and do whatever we feel like even if that means nothing but laying around a pool.

On our last trip we took my Bestie FF to Kona with us and I will have to say I understand now about traveling with family.  With friends, it is as easy as when we travel together but when you are traveling with and especially the older parental types?  Considerations must be taken for their physical abilities and what they might want to do.  Hmmm, a concept not totally escaped.

I had plans of seeing Beale Street in Memphis, Jack Danielsdistillery in Lynchburg, Loretta Lynn’s Ranch in Hurricane Mills and walking along Broadway Street in downtown Nashville at night with my love on my arm and a brewsky in my hand.  Alas, it was not to be.  The more than hour drives to the other sites were too long to sit and the walk along Broadway was too much.  Now I am not complaining or whining, but yes a wee bit disappointed.  Alas, we just turned the frown upside down and discussions ensued.  I will admit my frown did take a little longer to turn…  bleh

Anyhoo~

Day 2 was Cinco de Mayo!  Which as it turns out is celebrated big in Nashville.  Who’d a thunk it!  Our day started off with the discussions of said plans and the frown turning (ok last time I mention it) and breakfast. Of course coffee was the first item made because I must have the brewed nectar of morn or I am a crab!  As always with any Wyndham stay, we must have our member services meeting and I have to say this time is was enjoyable.  We met with Chrissi and she was informative and very helpful!  Finally on our way, we went downtown and drove along Broadway Street and stopped in at the Honky Tonk Central for a beverage and as we sat in the lower level we caught sight of a Pedal Tavern!! 

Pedal Tavern right outside Honky Tonk Central

Coolest thing I have seen in a long time, next on the list was lunch at Margaritaville with very good Margarita’s!  After nice eats, it was back to the condo to change for The Grand Ole Opry! I will tell you they put on a great show, so after great music, libations from the in house bar and lots of pics we were back at the condo sitting on our patio listening to rolling thunder claps and watching lightening strike.  Although not the day I thought, it turned out to be perfect!

Front of Grand Ole Opry

Entry sidewalk, note big guitars

Day 3 was Celebrity Tour day!!!  We had a great breakfast and showered to ready ourselves for Home of the stars Tour! So we all went down to the Member center and waited for our bus to pick us up.  We got on the 25 passenger bus and after a couple of more stops we were ready to begin our 3 ½ hour tour. Our driver took us along Broadway Street again and showed us places of interest like Nashville’s first public school, LP Field (Titans field), old historical churches and the Shelby street pedestrian bridge.  Next we toured the homes of Minnie Pearl, Little Jimmy Dickens, Martina McBride (who has the cutest little blue VW bug!), members of Lady Antebellum, Kid Rocks condo and finally Taylor Swift’s apartment penthouse!! 

Kid Rock's Condo

Taylor Swifts Penthouse Apt

It really was a great day and the driver was funny and knew his stuff!  The ended with a nice dinner at the condo that ..  ahem .. I cooked for us, then you guessed it!  Ceeegars and cocktails on the patio to wind down such a great day!

Day 4 was saying Goodbye to the parents.  We were up early and helping them get the luggage and bags in the car for their long drive back to Ohio!  Then we were off to a quick meeting with Chrissi that we had requested because of how knowledgeable she was and we still had questions about Wyndham timeshare ownership. 

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This is where I insert a note to self:

Self, never request a timeshare appointment and think you will be out of there in less than three hours.  Now back to you in the studio!

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Needless to say, we wasted a whole day of our vacation with questions and sales people in the sales office.  Not to say that we didn’t learn a lot and I was ultimately glad that we did it.  So we went to dinner  back to the condo to wind down.  It was actually wonderful evening.

Broadway Street in Nashville

Day 5 was Country Music Hall of Fame and walking along Broadway Street.  We walked through the Museum and got quite a few pics and learned more about country music than a person has a right too.  Ha ha?  Ok.. anyhoo one of the most interesting things we learned is that country music was born in Nashville, but also had a cousin born in Bakersfield!  Who would of thunk it?  It was all due to Buck Owens and the Buckaroos and Merle Haggard, and then brought back to life by Dwight Yoakum.   One of the things that I had wanted to do was to go see Loretta Lynn's ranch but as we walked down Broadway, I came across Ernest Tubbs records where the Opry stars would sing in the midnight jamboree after the show!  I was in heaven!  I had only known about it from Loretta's movie, Coal Miner's daughter.  It was a wonderful experience and I fully recommend it!

Now onto Broadway street!  We stopped at several bars and had a few beers, did some window shopping and then back to the condo to relax and have a dinner for two!  It was such a great trip and I look forward to coming back! 

Thanks Sweet for another wonderful trip!!  Luvs U!