Nashville

So it's been almost a month since we've posted, and we aren't sure if anyone is still reading this, but we've been sick and traveling. I'll try to get you all updated as to what's been going on with us in the past month.

We've been doing some minor projects around the house, and I'll post some pictures next time on that.

But, more fun than house work is the traveling we've been able to do in the past two weeks. The Thursday before Thanksgiving we jetted off to Nashville for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference. After some major airport confusion and cancellation, we got put on a direct flight instead of having to go through Charlotte, so even though we were two hours late leaving, we actually got into Nashville an hour early. We headed for the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. (I'm not joking; that's really what it's called).

The hotel is the largest convention center in the country. It's massive with different wings and villages and a river running through it with boats and fish. We got lost several times, and getting lost in there doesn't just mean going down the wrong hallway; it means going to a different zipcode. The pictures don't even begin to show how massive this place was.

We met up with some friends from ISU for drinks the first night. The bar centered around a gazebo and was by the waterfalls. It took us a second to realize that it was spinning ever so slowly, so we got a 360 degrees view. Here are Susie and Lori (who seems to have been caught slightly off guard by the picture).

And here are Mary and Rachel at the spinning bar. You can hardly tell that Marcy is getting a bit of motion sickness at this point.

Pam Tillis was apparently either giving a concert or preparing to somewhere nearby since they were advertising it like crazy all over the hotel. We started talking about it, and it turned into our joke of the evening with Rachel and Marcy even giving the bar the treat of our own rendition of "Maybe it was Memphis," so when we saw Pam in the lobby we just had to get a picture.

The next night we met up with our good friend Will and headed downtown to the famous Wildhorse Saloon. This is the place where the old Nashville Network used to film their linedancing shows. It's a three-story country bar with a massive dance floor and live entertainment. The band was Telluride, whom none of use had ever heard of, but they were pretty good. We even made it out on the floor for a little line dancing just so we could say we linedanced at the Wildhorse.

Susie went to a couple of conference sessions, but that's only interesting to English teachers, so we'll spare you the details there. Rachel spent the day mostly eating her way thought the 27 Opryland hotel restaurants :) and catching up on her Sports Illustrated magazines.

Saturday we reconnected with Will and met up with some professor friends from ISU, Jan and Claire. After an absurdly long wait we finally got to have dinner at an awesome restaurant/aquarium. It was like we were eating underwater, and the food was almost as good as the atmosphere. After dinner we got up and walked around a little bit. Will and Rachel co-opted some other people's children and played with them until their mom made them go back to their table. A good time was had by all.

Sunday, Will picked us up for lunch and we hit this great little authentic Mexican restaurant for some quesadillas and fried ice cream (yes deep fried ice cream) before heading to the airport. Our flight was delayed for several hours, but we always have a good time when we are with Will, so we didn't mind much. We finally got into Bloomington around 11pm on Sunday night, and our friends Nikki and Brian were gracious enough to let us stay with them in their new house.

More to come . . .