Touring Nashville

Mike, Kay, Colton, Mariah and I set out mid-morning in our walking shoes to go see the sights of Broadway, the riverfront, and other notable interests in the heart of Nashville. We thought we might find a great up and coming band and park it for a while. As to that great idea, only Kay could fit inside Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and the rest of use were outside melting on the pavement. She lasted in there about as long as we figured we could make it outside without moving around for the slight breeze that provided. We dove into the next establishment for water. That band was not so great but the ice water was.

On our way home, Kay spotted the dude she saw singing in Tootsie's!! We followed him to his car. Well, OK, actually we were just driving by and I got this awesome of him. We hope he famous someday.

So anyway, let's put this show back on track and start at the beginning. We got as far as the corner of our street before we stopped... for gum and cash. The only snafu was Walgreens only wants to give out $20. I was waiting in line, chatting with my friend who works there, so Mike could come pay for my stuff once he grabbed sunscreen. He never shows up! Turned out he bought his at the cosmetic counter. Sneak! But he got his $20. Then he had to buy my stuff and got another $20. So he razzed Kay because she only got $20 and he got $40. She said if she had known, she would have bought her gum, and her two moonpies she was tasting, separately and got $60!! By the way, I really liked the mint one - it was just like a girl scout cookie thin mint with moonpie goodness. Some nice lady was right, it was the best one.

We parked where we could find our way back no matter what; opposite of Hooters. I mean, ask anyone where Hooters is, right?! Next to it, was a great $10 store. Upon stepping in, I was amazed at the AIR CONDITIONING! Oh it felt glorious. I pretty much decided then and there that there would be a every 5 establishments or so air conditioning break. It seemed to be an unspoken consensus amongst us. They had nice stuff too! I KNOW that Mike looked down at the tour guide map and made note of the fact that shopping was not on the list of 20 things to go look at 1/2 block into our expedition. But I also know he enjoyed the coolness of the store and he helped me choose my yellow watch. It really made my outfit for the day. Mariah made out with a watch (which became infamous at the end of night), a ring, and a scarf. Kay bought a necklace that she planned to use as a belt. And we were on our way again. On the way out a homeless man said he liked my hat, but I know it really was the whole package, including the yellow watch, that made him rattle his coin cup and deliver a nice compliment. Kay wore a Giants shirt. Not alot of Giants fans in this town apparently, even amongst the homeless. She later rocked a unique look in her Giants shirt, crops and mens' cowboy boots in a pic we took just for HD!! We sure had fun shopping in Nashville.

We spotted B.B. Kings Blues Bar and The Wildhorse. Sandwiched inbetween was an alley of stores that lead to the riverfront dedicated to a dog. The statue just inside the alley told us all about the dog. Kay looks at it and starts saying it is a mix of Cocker spaniel and Labrador retriever. I did a double take between her and the dog, as I had been glancing around and didn't really pay much attention. Boy was I impressed that she could tell so much from merely looking at the statue! I told her so laughingly, as she continued to read the inscription under the doggie statue... realizing she had been reading not commenting.

Inside the alley was a Candies by Leon or something like that. A nice lady who gently corrected my Californian pronunciation of pray-lines to pra-lines (rhymes with bra) and didn't even bless my heart, although Kay & I did, is running the store she and her husband started back when the Opry had a theme park. They moved it downtown when the park went away. The pictures on her wall depicted candy stores their family had operated throughout the decades, dating WAAAAY back. After nice chit chat, learning that she is using secret old family recipes, Kay got to sample some pra-lines, and stuck with her decision to get some, saying they were just like Mom's divinity. (OK, between my PRAY-lines, and Kay calling this lady's pride and joy secret family recipe PRA-lines just like her mother's divinity, bless our hearts, we were on strike 2). I got her a milk covered pecan turtle, and Mariah got her white chocolate dipped, chocolate caramels. Mike didn't want anything but had a bite of mine. And Colton, who had kept his mouth shut, and looked like a sweet little lamb, scored an entire bag of free pra-line samples.

A few feet away with a major sugar rush hitting us we all headed for the riverfront for some air and where Mike could reassert The Plan. We looked at the LP Stadium where the Titans play across the river. We saw many store fronts closed, boarded up, for lease, under construction from last May's flooding on that entire block. Next on our list was the Print Shop, in operation since the 19th century making posters by hand. It was cool to watch them work while you browsed posters all over the walls. Some are for sale and I was tempted to buy a couple but didn't. Maybe next time! We stopped at a few shops on our way to the honky tonks. Colton got a NEON green, I'm talking lightning bug-highlighter green green, t-shirt. You will know it when he wears it. You have been warned. Sunglasses at the ready.... Shields at 100%. One of my favorite stops was at Earthbound Trading. There was some seriously cool stuff in there, plus Colton, Mariah & I had an awesome jam session with the Kenyan collections of musical instruments in the back of the store. There was a intricately carved wooden Eagle that Kay and I had just gotten done discussing why we could not ever buy it when Colton comes running over exclaiming how perfectly awesome it was. The as-tall-as-a-person giraffes were also quite tempting, as were the bongo drums. But again, I did not make a purchase. Maybe next time. I rather liked the giraffe.

Mariah and I helped a street-ish person by buying feather art for Mariah's hair. Mike gagged when he found out how much we paid ($20), but Mariah was happy to have feathers! But I was thinking he could have been toting around a tube of posters and a 5' giraffe in 98 degrees plus high humidity so we encouraged him to just say it looked cute. Finally we started to make our way back to the restaurants and the Wildhorse. Not sure anyone was up for line dancing, but maybe after sitting for an hour? We found a way to cool off first - besides my ice cubes down people's shirts which was heavenly - one of those street fountain things kids can run in. 3 people kinda ran through them for a drizzling. You can probably guess who. One tried to orchestrate the water but she had zero luck despite much effort and arm movement. The Wildhorse Saloon was a bust. We went past it earlier in the day because we knew we were going to go back to it later on. When we arrived, hot, tired and thirsty travellers in search of food and music, there was a sign on the door that said it was closed until 10 pm due to a private engagement. Luckily, we had a back up plan which we came up with in about 2 seconds flat and headed to B.B. Kings. We had pretty good food and enjoyed relaxing. We all decided it was probably better as we the blues band was nice and we had a good time before we left with 5 minutes to spare on the parking meter.