Music City - Our Little Detour

We made it home last night safe and sound but not before we took the kids on a little detour to music city. Yes, we drove west from Asheville, North Carolina to Nashville, Tennessee. It was a short visit but we had a lot of fun. We arrived just before lunch with the one hour time change. We took the kids to see the Ryman Auditorium. Jason explained to them it's significance in music history. Then we took them for a walk down Broadway. If you have not been to Nashville it is a great place to visit. Lots to see and do. The kids were amazed to see all the musicians and that most places had live music even at lunch! Everywhere we looked somebody had a guitar in a gig bag over their shoulder or in their hand. We walked in some of the shops and looked at cowboy boots and hats and all of the Elvis paraphernalia. We showed the kids the southern baptist sunday school building and the current SBC offices. It was great to talk about all the history of the city in terms of our love for music and our denominational roots. The kids started to get hungry and a trip to music city would not be complete without some good BBQ so we headed off to Jack's Bar-b-que for lunch. Jack's has been around for some time and is plastered on the inside with old photos, articles and music memorabilia. We had a good laugh when the guy at the counter asked Daniel if he wanted his smoked chicken with or without feathers. I wish I could have captured the look on Daniel's face with my camera! The rest of us had pulled pork except for Jason who had to try the three meat platter. Pork, brisket and sausage with two side veggies! Everything was delicious and with our bellies full we went to walk around the street a bit more. We showed the kids Ernest Tubbs record shop and a vintage guitar store (George Gruhn) in which I kept TJ on my hip. We saw a mandolin for $25,000.00! Needless to say there were no guitars for Jason. We got to explain to the kids about old records, 78's and 45's when we went into a vintage record store. Sometimes I forget that they have never known anything except CD's and MP3's. With our time fading away we set out to find some other music stores. We hit a couple on our way out of town but Jason still did not find a deal on his dream of an Epiphone Casino hollow body guitar. For now he will just have to be content with going into our local guitar store and "trying" it out.

As I write this post, we have just finished our first day back. First day back into routine is always hard for the kids and for their mom. I am looking forward to tomorrow when the laundry is all finished and the kids are working hard to get all their school work done so they don't have to do it Saturday! We had a fabulous week away but it sure is good to be home.