Summer Vacation: Nashville Part 5

In case you missed any of my other posts about our vacation to Nashville, you can read about our experience on the historic Studio B Tour, visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Broadway & Karaoke, and the Nashville Ghost Tour.

For the last part of our Nashville vacation, I want to tell you all about visiting the Grand Ole Opry!

Visiting the Grand Ole Opry was a spur of the moment decision....actually...most of the things we did on our trip were.  The only thing we planned for sure in advance was visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame and taking the Studio B tour.  Anyway, it turned out that while we were there, Aaron Tippin and Scotty McCreery were performing.  Scott was a fan of Aaron Tippin in the 90s, and I was rooting for Scotty McCreery in his season of American Idol.  (In fact, that might have been the last season of American Idol I watched...)

There were 8 performers that night, and each artists sang three songs.  I made sure to get a picture of each one for the scrap book I'm going to make of our vacation.  I do have the names of each of them somewhere, but I'll be honest, I really don't feel like looking them up right now!  haha :)  

Aaron Tippin

Scotty McCreery

One of the other things we did in Nashville (that wasn't enough for one post) was visit the American Pickers store, Antique Archaeology.  In case you don't know, American Pickers is a TV show on the History Channel.  They travel around the country basically looking for all kinds of cool junk (aka antiques).  It was pretty interesting to browse a shop that we've seen on TV! 

That wraps up our trip to Nashville!  Have you ever been to Nashville?  What did you do there?  If you haven't been to Nashville, what would you LIKE to do?? 

Summer Vacation: Nashville Part 4

While we were in Nashville, we picked up some brochures about various tours and activities to do.  There were a few different types of Ghost Tours that we could take, and we chose the Haunted Tavern Tour that took us to various pubs and bars near Broadway.

We were encouraged to bring cameras and to take lots of pictures in the hopes that you might capture a ghost or at least some orbs.

We began at a place called Past Perfect.  Our tour guide told us some of the history of the building and Nashville, and he mentioned the ghosts that have been spotted there.

A girl named Maria has been spotted in this mirror

Maria is also said to play on the steps.

There are also gentlemen in top hats that sit at this table playing cards.

Then we went to BB King's Blues Club.  We ended up going down to the basement area where there have been ghost sightings.

The name of the last bar is escaping me, but our tour guide told us a pretty eerie personal experience he had.

He was giving a tour, and two women came out of the restroom and told him he needed to go in.  He went in and saw an apparition in the mirror.  Needless to say, he freaked out and abruptly exited the restroom.  The women confirmed that they saw the same thing.

So I went into the bathroom, turned out the lights, and tried to capture the man in the mirror.  Unfortunately, there's only me.  Then I freaked myself out, and bolted out of the room!  Haha

It was definitely a fun experience, and we got to learn a lot about the history of Nashville.  Our tour guide also played trivia between stories.  The winning team won a set of shot glasses.  We were not the winners.  We kinda sucked at trivia. haha

I would definitely recommend a ghost tour if you ever visit Nashville! :)

Summer Vacation: Nashville Part 3

Clearly, you all know by now that I got the chance to visit Nashville.  My first experience in Nashville on the historical Studio B tour.  Then I got to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Today, let's talk Broadway!

Yes, Nashville has a street called Broadway, too.  We spent a good bit of our time there stopping in different places for food and drinks, to buy souvenirs, to hear live entertainment, and, of course, for me to sing karaoke!

Our first stop on Broadway was a place called Tootsie's (the purple building).  There were three different floors, and because it was quite early in the afternoon, it was pretty much deserted.  Empty or not, it was still a pretty cool place, so we had a drink and listed to a little live music.

  Then we had a super yummy lunch at Rippy's BBQ.  Scott and I chose to eat up on the second floor.  We ordered their sampler, which is supposed to be an appetizer.  I'm pretty sure, though, that if you made the mistake of ordering anything else to eat on top of that, you'd be taking A LOT of food home.  The sampler had ribs, wings, onion rings, pork chops, and sausage.  It was a feast, and I can promise you that neither of us left there feeling hungry!  There was also live music.

Later that evening, we went to one of the karaoke bars on Broadway.  The windows behind the stage are open to the street.  Every now and then a passerby would poke a head in to listen.  This picture is me singing "Good Girl" by Carrie Underwood.  Unfortunately, not long after I sang, I wasn't feeling very well.  So we called it a night, but we did head back out the next day.

This band was playing at a place called The Stage.  I wish I could remember the name of this band because this girl was AMAZING.  I could've stayed to listen to her all day, but we had to go put more money in our parking meter.  Haha.  We also had to head out for our ghost tour, which I will tell you more about tomorrow!

After the ghost tour, we hit up another karaoke bar on Broadway.  I really enjoyed this one.  It was on the second floor of a building, and they had a camera that projected performances to a TV down on the street level.

This place was also deserted when we got there.  I probably sang 4 or 5 songs before anyone else even showed up!  After things got busy, I still got to sing a lot.  So I was pretty much in heaven.  :)  In this picture, I'm singing "Before He Cheats" by Carrie Underwood.

I hope you are enjoying my vacation posts!  Coming up: Ghost Tour, Grand Ole Opry, Mississippi, New Orleans.

Summer Vacation: Nashville Part 1

So this summer, Scott decided to take all of his vacation at once.  As you know, we kicked off our summer vacation by heading to Ocean City, MD.  We came home for a wedding reception, and headed back out on the road bright and early on the following Monday.  (Well, it wasn't at all bright.  That's how early it was....)

Our next destination was Nashville, TN.  As a big country music fan, I needed to go to Nashville.  Scott had made plans to visit a high school friend who lives in Mississippi.  When I first put the address in my iPhone to find a route, it took us right through Nashville.  That's when I knew we had to go!  I seriously loved Nashville so much, that I'm going to have to break this post up into a few segments.  I don't want to overwhelm you with all of my love! :)

Unfortunately, a couple of accidents along the Interstate caused traffic to be at a stop just outside the city.  On the bright side, this gave me the chance to snap a picture of the sky line!

The first thing on our agenda was a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum.  We purchased the Platinum package which allowed us access to the museum, the audio tour, and a tour of historic Studio B.  Our Studio B tour was scheduled for 2:30, and we coasted in around 1:30.  We briefly browsed the museum, and then met our group for the tour.

The Studio B tour was seriously my most favorite part of the day....and our whole stay in Nashville.  

Since you probably can't see what that says....Studio B was one of the first recording studios in Nashville.  Elvis, among many other amazing artists recorded here.

And yes, the blonde with the big hair is Miss Dolly Parton!

I don't even think I can put into words the emotions I was feeling from the minute I stepped into this place.  I am honestly shocked that I didn't burst into tears because my eyes were filled with them the whole time.  We got to go into the recording studio itself, and our tour guide, Abigail, played Elvis' version of "How Great Thou Art", which was recorded at Studio B.  She also told us that Elvis loved to create the right mood for recording sessions and had special lights put in.  During his recording session for "How Great Thou Art," he had all blue lights on.  To record "Are You Lonesome Tonight," every light in the entire BUILDING was turned off.

I got to stand in the exact spot where he (and many others) recorded songs, and I got to sit at what was Elvis' favorite piano.  He even wanted to buy that piano, and the studio told him no!

I could just go on and on about how amazing this was, but I will just leave you with the two Elvis' songs I shared about.  Stay tuned for more about the Country Music Hall of Fame!