The Byron Clan

The Byron Clan

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Nashville

I should be doing homework. Instead, I blog...

Nashville was incredible. I seriously fell in love with this place. If Chad ever got a job somewhere close to Nashville, I think we'd take it in a heartbeat.

We were there because Chad was part of the Purdue team that was invited to participate at a case competition. The competition took place at Vanderbilt on Friday and went until Saturday afternoon. Purdue came in third and won 500 bones for each team member. It basically paid for our vacation and who doesn't love paid vacation.
So, here's the breakdown. On Friday I hung out at the hotel and worked on some homework while the team went to present their case. When they came back I went with Chad to the little get together that they were throwing at a place on Music Row called Rippy's. (Music Row is a bunch of bars where country singers who want to make their break come and perform...very cool.) We had an incredible dinner of ribs, flapjacks, and baked beans.

When the case competition was finished on Saturday afternoon Chad and I checked into Hotel Indigo. This hotel was awesome...

We took a walk up to Vanderbilt campus, which was gorgeous:





We had dinner and then headed to the Grand Ole Opry. If you're ever in Nashville, you must go. There are many entertainers and many different styles of Country. We really enjoyed it:





Sunday morning we ate at the Pancake Pantry. Some Vanderbilt students told us that we had to go while in Nashville and they told us that the line would move really fast, so don't worry. We got there and the line was seriously out the door. But it was totally worth it. I have never eaten anything so glorious in my life. I ordered the chocolate chip pancakes (more chocolate than pancake) and Chad got the originial buttermilk pancakes:



We then went to the Parthenon replica. I'd remembered learning about this in my Humanities classes. A hundred + years ago they decided to build this temporary replica. When it came time to destroy the replica, the citizens of Nashville pitched a fit. It is now a permanent Nashville landmark:


After the Parthenon we went to Belle Meade, which was an old Plantation:

On our drive we found the house we will purchase when we move to Nashville: =)



After a delicious dinner of smoked chicken and brisket at Jacks, we went to the Stage and Tootsie (two famous Country bars):





The guy in this last picture just got signed by John Rich, from Big & Rich. He was the only "star" we saw.


Overall, we had an awesome time and can't wait to go back again next year!

9 comments:

lindzandrob said...

Looks like you guys had a blast! Those pancakes looked sooooo good. Maybe that is just because I'm hungry. :) Love ya!

Andrea and Chuck said...

Looks like you had a great time. And I agree on the paid vacation makes them even better

Colle said...

Looks like fun!! I want to go to Nashville!! I am glad you got your vacation paid for.

Justin and Coralie said...

I LOVE Nashville, but it's been ages since I've been there. I would love to go there again...

Lauren Maley said...

so fun!!! lisa babcock and i took the long way back to DC so we could stop in nashville. You saw a lot more stuff than we did but we had an awesome time!!

La said...

What a great Vacay! I would love to go to Nashville.

Bart said...

Chad's eye looks much better! Nashville and Austin vie for music capital of the U.S. I've been pretty impressed with Austin's live music scene. It looks like Nashville's is pretty great too.

And thanks for sharing a picture of those chocolate pancakes. It clogged my arteries just looking at them. ;)

Kaylyn said...

Cute pics Bekah! I love Nashville too and I think you should move there so that you are closer and we can come visit you!

Lindsay said...

That looks like such a blast! And congrats to Chad for taking 3rd! Excellent work.