Actually, not so much, but hot is what we've got here in sunny Nashville. 90 yesterday, 94 today. Air conditioning is everywhere, though, so I've got no room to complain. About anything. Nashville is an interesting city. It's small enough not to be too intimidating (although I'm still too chicken to take off on my own and find yarn stores) but large enough to have anything you would want fairly close at hand. (yarn stores) Yesterday morning I took a 3 1/2 hour Gray Line tour of the city and was very impressed. The bus picked me up at the closest hotel door (again, this place is massive)and brought me back to the same door. The bus driver (hey, Rudy) was full of country music information and quite a few bad jokes. He did a bang up job of keeping all his little chickens accounted for and showed us a real good time, bless his heart. I'm reasonably certain that I will come home with a little drawl. :-)
On the tour we spent a half hour in Ryman Auditorium. The building is old and truly beautiful. I was not the demographic the tour was aimed at (those that worship at the country music altar ...and that is no joke) but I could appreciate how much the building means to the industry. There are more pics on my facebook page if you're interested. (Not on facebook? You should be. :-))
After the Ryman we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame where I was trapped in country music hell for over an hour. Where the Ryman was old and welcoming, the CMHF was new, huge and.....boring. I apologize to all you country fans, but I searched that whole building for ANYONE that rang a bell in my head and found very little. Here I thought Garth Brooks was some sort of country legend. Go figure. I did find some cute books for baby in the gift shop and a stool in a shaded corner to kill time in. Ipod...I love you. On Wednesday I'm going to take a tour that goes out to a couple of more historic places, Bellmeade and Hermitage and I'm seriously considering taking a tour where they drive you by country stars homes so I can get a look at the neighborhoods.
Here's the sort of cool thing about country music stars....they are cool. We were told as soon as we got here that there was a really good chance that we would run into a star or two during our stay. Unlike the LA tv and movie stars, the paparazzi could care less about the country stars and leave them alone to live their lives here. That being the case, they go to Target and Kohls and out for dinner just like we do. Now I would probably not know a country star if I saw one....unless they were Garth Brooks :-) (I love me some Garth.) but I think it's sort of nice that they get somewhat normal lives here in Nashville. One couple that I met on the early tour took the afternoon home tour and I ran into them in the elevator when they got back. They saw Faith Hill backing out of her driveway and she stopped and waved. People are so darn nice here. Another person getting a pedicure when I did (best pedicure I've ever had) saw Eva Mendes having lunch downtown and Nicole Kidman in the grocery store.
Today I'm getting a manicure this morning (I am a pampered princess this trip) and not quite sure what to do this afternoon. Maybe the home tour....maybe the mall. Tom has a business dinner tonight so I'm on my own pretty much all day long.
Hugs and love to all the home folks. Kay...I hope the boys are behaving and thanks a million for making this trip possible. I would imagine that I might begin to get bored here about Friday...but maybe not.:-) (I've been taking notes of all the phrases I hear that are new to me and trying to use them in sentences. " Here about" is one of my favs.)
Oh boy, Rudy would be impressed with me. I attended the Grand Ole Opry in the 60s(against my will) and saw the great Roy Acuff among others such as Minnie Pearl, Johnny Cash, Sting Bean, etc. people you probably have never heard of. You are not missing much up here cause the weather has been icky but at least it is cool.
Posted by: Cindy | June 02, 2009 at 04:37 PM
Hard to envsion Nicole Kidman in Nashville. Hmmmmm.
Posted by: PainterWoman | June 05, 2009 at 05:07 AM