Music City USA

Well Nate and I just returned from our trip to Nashville. Nate had a convention for work and he had earned enough frequent flyer miles for me to go with him so I tagged along. I am a Country music fan and I thought Nashville would be pretty cool to see. This was our first trip away together since we have had kids. So it was much needed and enjoyed.

We flew to Nashville Sunday morning. We spent the rest of that day getting settled. The hotel we stayed in is called the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center and let me just say... it was nice! We did some research to find out how many square feet the hotel was and our best estimate was about 1.5 MILLION square feet (literally).

This is a picture of part of the front of the hotel. All those buildings you can see in the background, are all part of the hotel.

This place was MASIVE. It was literally the size of a small city. There was so much to do and see just inside the hotel. There are two HUMUNGOUS atriums filled with botanical gardens inside the hotel.

This picture was taken just inside the hotel. Yes this is INSIDE!



This gazebo was so pretty with all of the vines growing on it.


This is another view inside the atrium. The river you can see has tons of huge catfish you can watch swimming around.

Here is another view. You can see one of the many fountains.


These waterfalls are two of about eight waterfalls I counted throughout the gardens. And these were the small ones.



On Monday, while Nate was in class I decided to venture out to downtown Nashville where I ran into Tim McGraw and Faith Hill! They were so nice. They invited me over for dinner that night at their place with the fam. Faith made a delicious Southern meal consisting of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, collard greens, and corn bread. Boy was it filling!

I snapped this shot of them hanging out on the couch after dinner as we were all digesting. That was sure an enjoyable evening.


The next day I ventured out to the Country Music Hall of Fame and imagine my surprise when I bumped into Keith Urban standing right there on the sidewalk! We talked for some time about how good looking he is. Then we said our goodbyes (he had to go pick Nicole up from her hair appointment). I tell ya, that made the trip all worth it right there!

I also saw Martina McBride coming out of the Piggly Wiggly. I didn't talk to her because she seemed like she was in a rush.

But I did manage to have lunch with Kenny Chesney on Wednesday (he said to tell you Hi Brianna). We didn't have a lot of time because he is just getting ready to head out on his Summer tour. But he told me if I didn't mind, he would look me up when he stops in Salt Lake (keep your fingers crossed). I told him he had me at hello.

Okay actually I may have made up that last part about the celebrities. I didn't actually see anyone famous. But I have heard that Faith Hill makes a mean fried chicken.

I really didn't do anything "exciting" in Nashville. You see, most of you know that I struggle with a husband who is a country music HATER!!! Therefore, he was not about to come with me to do anything "countryish". And everything was SO expensive to get into, that we really didn't do much other than relax, and hang out in the hotel. It was so nice to just chill and have someone else cook us spectacular meals, clean up after our meals, clean up our room for us, and not do a dang thing for ourselves other than use the restroom.

We were in Nashville Sunday-Thursday so the days pretty much consisted of Nate going to classes during the days. Meanwhile I was back in the room: sleeping in, leisurly getting ready for the day, checking out the cool boutiques and shops in the hotel, and then trying to find my way back to our room (that in and of itself took half the day). Nate finished his classes at around 5:00 so we spent the evenings walking through the hotel and eating some AMAZING food at some AMAZING restaurants. We had some of the best food we have ever eaten.

However, on Wednesday Nate's classes ended at 11:00AM so we went on a ferry ride on General Jackson! It's a famous riverboat there in Nashville. We went for a 2 1/2 hour ride down the Cumberland river while we ate a nice buffet lunch. It really was fun. That was about as much of downtown Nashville as we got to see.


Here's General Jackson





I snapped this shot while we were on the boat. I am pretty sure it's a country singer's house. It was so pretty.



I would have liked to have been able to see more of Nashville but that is a trip I will have to take with fellow country music fans. But the whole point of this trip was to spend some quality time together, and relax. And that is what we did. It was so nice to get away and rejuvenate.

But as fun as it was, I was so excited to get home and see my boys. And we couldn't have done it without Nate's Mom and Dad taking care of the boys for us while we were gone. And thank you to Mindi for helping out also. Spencer and Preston had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and Nate's Dad even did a load of laundry and cleaned the house for our arrival. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!