The Last Hurrah

July 27th - July 29th

Nashville, TN

For our last free weekend of the summer, we went to Nashville with Kilby and Johanna. I haven't had much time to explore Nashville so I was excited to see what the city had to offer. We left our place on Friday morning and made it to Knoxville for lunch. We had found a place from Diners, Drive Inns and Dives that looked like it could be fun. We won't sure what to think when we pulled up to Pizza Palace. We didn't do a ton of research before we went so we were not sure what we were supposed to get or how it was going to work. We found out quickly (the hard way) that this was a drive inn. We tried going into the restaurant and we ordered there, but we couldn't eat there so we headed back to the car to set and eat. The pizza was good and it was a fun experience. The guys even ordered a ridiculously large order of onion rings that made us and the car smell of onions for the rest of the weekend!

We decided that we were going to take our time and if we saw anything fun along the way we would stop. So a little while after Knoxville, Jed saw a sign for a Soda Fountain place. It sounded like fun so we decided to go on a quick little adventure. The adventure turned into a little more than we bargained for but after quite a few unmarked turns and people at the gas station having no idea what we were talking about we finally found Live & Let Live Drugstore in Rockwood, TN. Rockwood was a really cute block of a town and the drugstore/soda fountain place was so fun.

After our pit stop, we were full stream ahead to get to Nashville. As we were getting close we got pretty excited that we picked up an hour. We were thinking everything would be closed by the time we got there but with the extra hour, stuff was still opened. We decided to head over to the Grand Ole Opry first. We tried calling and getting tickets to there last tour at 4:15 but they told us they were sold out. We decided to go over there anyway because we were so close and check out the Opryland Hotel and a get tickets for tomorrow. Much to our surprise, they did have tickets to take the 4:15 tour!

Opryland Hotel

Opryland Hotel

The tour was really cool. It was a lot of fun to check out all the background work that goes into all of the concerts there and learn more about what the Grand Ole Opry is, where it came from and how you get invited into the Opry. We learned about the flood they had that destroyed a lot of the building and the surrounding area. It was so great to see how so many came together to put it all back together and keep as much of the past still a part of the Opry. One of the neatest things was a circle cut out of the original stage that they brought from the original Ryman Theatre (where the Opry was before they got there permanent building). It survived the flood and has been restored and put back in the center of the stage at the Opry.

Dressing Room

There are performances three or so nights a week (and broadcasted on the radio) so we had to rush out at the end since they were doing sound checks and getting ready for the evening show. It was so much fun to take the tour and I am so glad we were able to do it.

Our next stop was dinner. We found a place that looked and sounded a lot like a place we love around here called the Homeplace. Nashville's version of the Homeplace is called Monell's. It is a family styled, southern food restaurant. There are 4 different Monell's in Nashville and it seems as if we picked the furthest one possible. We got there and there was NO ONE around. We came pretty close to just leaving but we stuck it out and we are so glad we did. The restaurants are in old homes and they are beautiful. Not knowing what we were doing, we ordered the family style (instead of the cafe style). They sat us at a huge table in a huge room and it was just the four of us. It was pretty comical. And then the food started coming and we got way more food then we bargained for. WOW!

The food was great, the atmosphere was amazing and the lady that runs that restaurant told us the story of the house and the restaurant. We felt pretty bad to waste so much food but we did the best we could. Thankful there were more people that came as we were finishing up. I really hope this place makes it cause it was fantastic.

After dinner we went to our hotel to check in, drop off our stuff and watch some of the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics before heading downtown. As we got into the hotel room, the food coma from dinner knocked us all in the face and we never made it out of the room again for the night. It was fun to be able to watch the Opening Ceremony and just hang out for a little while. We have a lot to conquer tomorrow so we needed the good night of sleep.

Saturday morning we were on a mission to to find a pancake place we had read about called Pancake Pantry. It was really close to the hotel and got great reviews but once we got there, we realized everyone else in the city loves this place and had heard about it too. The line was insane! It stretched around the corner and down the block. It would have been fun to try but there was no way we were going to spend our day waiting in that line. So we found a place a block from our hotel, Noshville. It was great and we only had a 10 minute wait for our table.

After breakfast, we headed down to the main touristy area of Nashville, Broadway. We headed straight to a guitar store for Kilby and Jed to check it out. Gruhn Guitars is a really nice place. It has a ton of guitars from a few hundred dollars to over $22,000! And you can play anyone you want. None of us were brave enough to play any of them but it was fun to look at and listen to others play.

Our next stop was a famous poster shop, Hatch Show Print. Sounds weird but it was really great. This place is very historic and fascinating. If you just go in, look at a few posters and leave, then you have missed it. We talked to the ladies that were working there that are also designers and creators of all the posters. They told us about what they do and how they do it. They were nice enough to even grab some molds out of the back and show us the different ways to make posters. It was such a memorable experience.

We continued to walk up and down Broadway, stopping into different stores and check them out. We made a quick pit stop at Broadway Brewhouse and Johanna was able to find some amazing boots at a store on Broadway to take home. One of the coolest stops we made was Rocket Fizz. We stumbled upon this and it was so great! I love root beer and they had root beer from so many places! It took me a little too long to pick out which 4 that had to come with me but we all enjoyed wandering the store and seeing so many things from out childhood and so many crazy new things. It was like being a kid again.

After shopping and walking for a while we decided to take advantage of all the live music in Nashville. We decided to check out a local group in a famous, old bar, Legends Corner. It was great to watch Megan Ellis preform and just hang out for a bit in the cool bar. Her keyboardist was even wearing a VT hat!

After a while at Legends Corner, we needed to grab a late lunch. Jack's Bar-B-Que just a few store fronts over came highly recommended by a friend of ours that is from Nashville and he definitely didn't steer us wrong. Kilby, Johanna and Jed enjoyed the Bar-B-Que and I loved the sides. Nashville is a great place for sides in my book. :)

We hit the ground running again after getting a bit to eat. We checked out the Ryman Theatre from the road since we were too late for a tour, checked out a few more stores and then headed over to the Country Music Hall of Fame. We were a little too late for that too so we decided that instead of rushing to see everything in 25 minutes, we would just wait for tomorrow to go through the Hall of Fame.

Ryman Theatre

So we decided to tackle a few things we found on Roadside America. Not far from the main touristy downtown there were Polar Bears sculpture's that looked like they were throwing snowballs. It sounds pretty fun til we found them. They were a little disappointing mainly because of there size. I imagined them to be 6 feet tall and just intimidating but they were maybe 3 or so feet tall so it was a bit of a surprise, but it didn't deter us from stopping and getting a few pictures.

The next random oddity was a Microphone Bike rack. I thought this was kind of fun and it lead us to a need little area that we would not have explored other wise. Not only did we find the bike rack but we also found a controversial "Musica" sculpture in the center of the traffic circle and a very large red rooster. Definitely felt like a win-win-win kind of situation.

It was time to head back to the hotel and regroup for the evening events and what better way to do that then with a Gigi's cupcakes. Gigi's was conveniently located just across the street from the hotel!

We spent some time hanging out, eating cupcakes and catching up on the Olympics before we headed out to dinner. I was really excited about dinner because we had found a place that had food trucks! I wasn't sure what we would find but I thought it would be a lot of fun. So we hopped in a cab so we didn't have to worry about parking and headed back downtown. The food trucks were going to be right down Broadway by the water so I thought it was perfect... til we got there... the website clearly stated that there would be food trucks from 8 til midnight. So when we got there at 9 and there were not food trucks, I was really bummed. We couldn't figure out why they weren't there but they were clearly not there. So we had to move on. We tried to find a place that we could sit and eat and listen to live music but by 9, most places were only making drinks & bar food and there were no tables to be found. Off we went to find a cab to try a few places that were closer to our hotel.

We were able to find a Mexican restaurant that we had heard about called Chuy's. It was good. We got to sit outside and enjoy the weather and the food was really good. It wasn't what I had hoped for but it was a great alternative. After dinner we walked around and checked out the night life in the area (we were staying close to Vanderbilt) before calling it a night.

On our final day in Nashville, we headed down to the Farmer's Market for a fun breakfast. The farmer's market produce section was great. The fresh vegetables and fruits looked amazing. We were quite surprised at how quiet the market was for a Sunday morning. After we got ourselves some fresh popcorn for our ride home we headed to the area with all the food. Much to our surprise, almost all but one or two places are closed on Sunday and are only at the farmer's market on Friday's and Saturday's.

It was pretty disappointing to not be able to do breakfast (or the cupcake place that was there) cause they were all closed but Kilby found a great place to try instead, Bagel Face Bakery. This place was so great! And they had garlic bagels!!!

We needed to be intentional about our time so we weren't able to stay and eat in the restaurant, we just got it to go so we could have more time in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Our final stop before we hit the road for home was really cool.

The Country Music Hall of Fame was a lot of fun. There is just so much there and even for a person that doesn't love country music, I felt like there that changed my idea of what country music is. I don't think I will start listening to country music because of the museum but I have a much greater understanding and respect for the music, the artist's and the history of it.

The trip home was, thankfully, pretty uneventful. Since Kilby and Johanna had an additional 3 hour drive after we made it to Blacksburg and we were loosing an hour on the drive, we just powered through the 6 hour drive. We had so much fun making great memories, reminiscing about the past and solving all the worlds problems this weekend. Can't wait for the next time.

Happy 12 Year Anniversary, Kilby & Johanna

New York City!

July 20th - 22nd

New York City might be my favorite city in the world. I just love this place. I love the food, the action, the endless things to do, explore and experience. Every time I go to the city I find some new place I have never seen or been and enjoy going back to the same touristy areas every time as well. For some reason, they never get old.

This time in the city we found a great deal on a hotel a block away from Times Square. So once we checked in (at 11pm) we headed out for a late dinner at Famous Amadeus. How can you go wrong starting your weekend off with a great slice of New York pizza?! After we ate, we just wondered around Times Square and took in lots of people watching.

The next morning, we were up and out early, there was a lot to see and do today. We started off with good bagels from Times Square Hot Bagels and sat at a table in Times Square to eat. It was definitely a lot quieter and a lot less people early in the morning before everyone gets started.

While the city continued to sleep, we went walking south. We were able to find a few things that were opened and did a little shopping. We made our way down to the Lower East Side in search for a street fair but before we got there we found the World's Best Doughnuts at Doughnut Plant. We have been here before and ever since the first time we tried these, I have periodically dreamt about these doughnuts. They are just that good.

We did make it to the market that we wanted to check out called Hester Street Fair. It was a lot smaller then we had hoped but it had a lot of great things. It is so amazing what people can do and how resourceful people can be. It always impresses me and inspires me. I was so proud of myself for only walking out of the fair with one new pair of earrings. After the fair, we wondered into Chinatown and did a little shopping in Soho. Jed had read about a dumpling place in Chinatown that made fried dumplings like the ones in China so we had to check out Prosperity Dumpling. He says they were good but not as good as the original ones but they were only a dollar so you can't be that! It was so neat to walk around Chinatown after being in China only a month or so ago.

Shopping ended up being a bit of a bust but we found a lot of fun areas we haven't been to or haven't seen to in a long time. We decided to stop for a late lunch at Soho Park. It was a really fun place on the corner where we were able to get a table outside and spend time just people watching. As we were walking around, we ran into Baked By Melissa and I just couldn't pass them up. I love these cupcakes and they are so tiny I figured they didn't really count.

I did want to try one new cupcake place in the city. It appears that I have knocked a lot off the list and had a hard time finding a new place that was in an area that we were going to be in. After visiting a few that we realized once we got there we had already been, we were able to find a new one, Molly's cupcakes. It was the winner of Cupcake Wars so that was fun and exciting. The cupcake was good and the atmosphere and the service in there store front was great. We sat at there bar with our cupcake and loved the entire experience.

We decided to walk back to the hotel so we could get ready for the evening activities. Along the way we found a fun street fair. Every block has almost the same thing but it didn't matter to us. We looked at it all like it was the first time we had ever seen it. Once we made it back to Times Square, Jed stopped for a snack before we got back to the hotel at Rickshaw Dumplings. This "food truck" place is so cool! They have made there food truck out of a dumpster!

We finally made it back to the hotel, did a quick wardrobe change and headed back out to see Newsies on Broadway. I loved this movie growing up. I have such fun memories of going with friends to see it at a movie theatre and watching it on Disney and making a VHS tape off the Disney channel so I could watch it over and over again. I think I even still have the VHS, I can't believe I didn't wear it out! Jed has never seen the movie so he didn't really know what to expect.

I think we got the last to seats in the theatre. They actually added them just for us as we were sitting on chairs they brought in from somewhere and just put at the end of a row. We were on the floor but the view was partially blocked but we didn't care. We were in the theatre and that is all that mattered. The show was fantastic! We were both so impressed with the production and left the theatre in amazement of what the performers are capable of doing. There were a lot of songs from the original Newsies movie and they are just so fun and catchy. It was just so fun and I think everyone should see this show. It is great for everyone.

After the show ended we had about an hour before the Comedy Show we had tickets to started. So we quickly made our way to Nizza. It is a great Italian restaurant a block or two outside of Times Square. We again, got to sit outside and enjoy the cool weather and all the different people that walked by.

Our final stop for the night was the midnight show at The Broadway Comedy Club. We got tickets from a guy in Times Square that promised us big things. We did have a good time but it was a little pricey. Even though it was a little pricey, you felt like you got your moneys worth since it lasted 2 hours and we were able to see about 7 or so different comics. Some of the comics were really bad and one or two that were really funny. It is something I have always wanted to do and I was so glad we were able to do it.

We still had part of Sunday to make the most out of the city so despite no sleep, we were up and out early. We decided we would head out to a restaurant for breakfast that Jed use to go to with his sister down in Tribeca, Bubby's. The food was great and the place was really cool. It was neat to hear about what that area use to be like and how much everything, even the restaurant, had changed.

After breakfast we headed town to walk by the water. We stumbled upon Hudson River Park. I was so excited to randomly find this. It was great. It had just about everything! We walked around and saw the playground, the soccer field, mini golf, beach volleyball pits, basketball courts and seats to just sit and watch the water and the boats go by. There were a ton of people running with friends and with dogs, it was just great. We wondered around for a while just enjoying the weather and the view.

We decided to start to slowly make our way back towards Times Square and the hotel and the car but we stopped in Union Square first. They almost always have markets in the square on the weekends and this weekend was no different. It was pretty small but it was still great to check out the artwork and crafts that people have done. As we were walking around we saw the most amazing site... food trucks! They were all lined up and I was so excited. I think food trucks are so cool. It hadn't been that long since we had eaten breakfast so we weren't hungry at all but I couldn't pass up the opportunity so we just got an ice cream treat from Coolhaus. It was really good and I am so glad we were able to find the food trucks and take part in the food truck frenzy.

After walking around Union Square we decided we should start the sad process of leaving. We got back to Times Square and wanted to grab a Jamba Juice for the ride home. On our way to Jamba, we passed by TKTS. TKTS sells day of Broadway and off-Broadway tickets for a discounted price. We decided to torture ourselves and see what they were selling for the 3pm Sunday shows. We came SO CLOSE to getting half off tickets to see Rock of Ages on Broadway but we decided we really needed to just get in the car and head home.

We both hated to leave the city but we were so glad we had the chance to go and spend sometime hanging out together in a city that we both love. As we drove home, we were a little disappointed that we didn't get one last slice of New York pizza so we decided to stop for pizza in Hagerstown at Rocky's New York Pizza. It was so funny that as we approached the restaurant, we realized we had called ahead and ordered pizza from here before. Thankfully we liked the pizza. Maybe next time we will remember we have already been here or maybe we will just make it part of the tradition of the drive back from NYC.