Every other year our work takes the General Managers on a trip. My first trip was to West Virginia. In 2016 we went to St. Petersburg, Florida. This year we went to Nashville.
This was a very difficult trip because it was the first time we have been away from Payton for any significant amount of time (she has stayed at Lindsey’s mom’s house for a single night). We Facetimed her every day, but I will not lie, it was really tough. I was ready to come home.
Alright, this will not be all about how I missed Payton (and Samson!). This is a post about Nashville. I will not lie, I was not excited about going there. Aside from the whole leaving my child behind, there is the country music thing. I am not a fan. I was not excited to see all of these country music historical sites.
Also, Lindsey is pregnant, which means that going out would not be nearly as fun. One person drinking and the other gets to watch and be bored? Yeah, that is not very appealing.
The city was pretty cool. We stayed at the Omni Hotel, which is very close to all of the downtown stuff, including the arena where the Predators play. The main street (Broadway) has a very Vegas or New Orleans feel to it. Every bar has live music, at pretty much any point in the day.
I will be a little honest here though. It would probably be a really fun place to hit up if you were a single guy, in your mid 20s/early 30s. Seems like a place where plenty of girls go for a bachelorette party. You just see tons of groups, all dressed the same, all acting like loud assholes. Yeah, I am getting old. Fifteen years ago? That would have seemed like the coolest place on earth.
We did go to a bunch of the places. The music was good. Most of the cover bands did a variety of songs, but with a little country twist. Unfortunately, they played the same songs at every bar. You would hear a Tom Petty song, then Johnny Cash, then “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey. It was actually a nice change when we went to Jason Aldean’s Rooftop Bar and they had a DJ and he was playing House of Pain.
We did some other stuff as well. Obviously in a place like Nashville, you have some excellent food. We did a food tour, which was pretty cool. I had some delicious BBQ (Martin’s is fantastic). We also had excellent grits with pulled pork at the Farmer’s Market. We had dinner at The Diner and at Ole Red. Everything we had was pretty great. I love pulled pork and bbq, so that was something I enjoyed.
Lindsey and I went to a few of the coffee shops, I had a latte at the Frothy Monkey called the Monkey Mocha, which had banana in it. Then at Milk & Honey I had a great sea salt & caramel, but the best was at the Farmer’s Market. It was a Peanut Butter & Blackberry Jam Latte. I know, it sounds weird, but it was like heaven in my mouth.
One of the days, Lindsey and I went to the Gulch in order to do the completely tourist thing and get her picture with the angel wings.
Our final night there was the dinner at Ole Red. The company booked the entire place and Neon Summer was the band playing. I guess they are like an up and coming band, maybe? Does anyone know anything about country?
After dinner we went to the Grand Ole Opry. Again, this was probably lost on me. I get that there is a whole ton of history and seeing the Ryman Auditorium was neat, but the music was even more twangy than what I can handle. Also, the place was pretty stuffy and Lindsey started to overheat, so we left after a few songs.
It was a fun trip. I got to experience Nashville. Enjoy some pictures and funny stuff…
Apparently they built a replica of the Parthenon because Nashville is known as the Athens of the South. Pretty neat.
At the Country Music Hall of Fame (or maybe it was just a country music museum, not 100% sure) there was a little John Prine part. It was cool reading the manuscript for the original version of “Sam Stone.” I will not lie, it brought a tear to my eye thinking about Dad.
This made me laugh way harder than it should have. I mean, nothing against Taylor Swift, but education is not the first thing that comes to mind when I hear her name. I realize she probably donated a ton of money, which is a noble thing to do. I do not need her legions of fans attacking me.
The jokes about T-Swift caused people to think that I am a huge Taylor Swift fan, so I decided to embrace it at one point.
