Nashville Part Two

Crystal has been talking a about visiting her family in Nashville for two years now. Between week long trips to the beach every summer and my desire not to spend large portions of time with small children in cars, we had not made it out yet. This summer Crystal and her cousin made a plan and last week we set out to do it.

Friday morning we woke up and got out to the Adventure Science Center after breakfast. A science museum jam packed on every floor with kids activities. A giant representation of the digestive system, moon walks, mazes and at it's center, a tower that you can climb while learning new things on every floor. I think I had as much fun as the kids. Before dinner that evening we went out to Centennial Park and walked around the lake in the shadow of the Parthenon. Before we left for Nashville I got two recommendations. Visit the Grand Ole Opry and see the Parthenon. We missed out on the former sadly, but the latter was a pretty cool sight.

Saturday morning took both of our families out to Radnor Lake State Park for a hike. On the way into the parking lot we got to see a ranger with a hawk on his arm. Pretty cool way to start the nature walk. On the trail we saw 5-6 deer and listened in as the forest canopy played a tune for us when it started to rain. When the rain finally broke though we decided babies are not at their happiest when soaked. So we headed for lunch at Hattie B's Hot Chicken. Apparently hot chicken is a Nashville jam that has blown up in recent years. As far as I could tell it was just fried chicken with loads of heat, but that heat came with tons of flavor and juicy chicken. Where do I sign Richmond up for that?

Saturday evening we kissed the babes good night, said farewell and good luck to the baby sitter and took off to a concert. Modern Pop Six generation country is not my thing, but I can at behind some folk and/or bluegrass once in a while. Old Crow Medicine Show scratched that itch perfectly. We took two vans with drivers to a show in the woods with 8 other couples. Kid-less and without fear of a DUI we pregamed the hell out of the van and grassy parking lot. By the time we got into the show we were all floating on a sea of alcohol infused Caucasian dancing that I am pretty sure made the event 10 times cooler. We only had two bad cases of throwin' up in the van and in our household two nasty hangovers the next day.

Sunday morning sadly found me with one of  hangovers and I was all teed up to drive 10 hours home. We bid our host fond farewells, promised to visit soon and went for breakfast. Crystal surprised me with the best gift a girl could ask for. Letting me sleep for the first leg to Knoxville. When I woke up refreshed and more human I kicked into drive mode and hauled butt back to Richmond.

Beer Notes
I've been tracking ever beer I drink in 2013 for my end of the year Annual Report. On the trip I tried 13 new craft beers and did so while consuming 23 pints. We made almost daily trips to a shop called Craft Brewed that I wish we had here in Richmond and highly recommend for a sample of Tennessee's finest brews.