Music City U.S.A

Ok so we finally went on our first vacation! To be honest, I can't wait for our next one now. It was fun just to go away and see some stuff that both of us enjoyed. We started the trip at the Louisville Slugger Museum. We got to see Travis Hafner's bat being made! We also saw Jim Thome's and A-Rod's. We thought about getting a personalized bat made but decided that the souvenir ones that were free were good enough for now.

The next stop was Nashville. We started off by going to Bass Pro Shop and Barnes and Noble so right there made the trip well worth it. For dinner we decided to try an Italian restaurant named Demo's. When we arrived we realized that one of two things happened, either Day Light Savings Time or we were in a different time zone. Well it was the latter of the two and thankfully so. There was a pretty big wait at the restaurant with parties of 22 and 30 going in. I had the most amazing spaghetti ever! It was called Greek style and the sauce had a sweet taste to it. I am now determined to figure out how to make it. After dinner we headed to Ryman Auditorium to see the Grande Ole Opry. We got to see Mel Tillis, Marty Stuart, Ashton Sheppard and a lot of other acts. After that we called it a night.

The next morning we headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We spent the majority of the day looking through all of the things there. We also got to go to Studio B where Elvis, Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood, Charlie Pride and a lot of others have recorded their music. It was pretty surreal to see the piano that Elvis used when he recorded all of his hits.

That night we ate in a restaurant called the Aquarium. Like it says you eat in the center of an aquarium. It was a neat atmosphere to eat in. Later we took Chase's advice and went to a little joint called Station Inn. I was a little leery at first because it was on the outside of a nice part of town in a little concrete building. Once we got in, it was a bunch of mismatched tables and chairs in a little room, but the music was really good. It was a bluegrass jam night so about 20 people were up front all playing together. By the time we left the place was packed with spectators as well.

On our way home we decided to stop at Jim Beam to break up the trip a little. The tour was free but it didn't have much. We watched a video about how the whiskey was made which was interesting and then saw where the wooden barrels used to be made and the Beam's house and that was it. It was nice to stop for a while and take a break from driving.

Overall the trip was great! We had a really good time and now are back to thinking up ideas for future trips that we probably won't take. Maybe now that we have taken one we will be more apt to take more!