Louisville, Kentucky

I went to Louisville, Kentucky on the Saturday of our road trip. 

Carson saw me out to the car, and wrote this message to other drivers. Thanks? 

Worth mentioning is that there was quite the snowstorm two days before this trip. Until that happened, I'd planned to basically drop Carson off in Nashville, head immediately to Louisville, spend the night, bring Erica back with me to Nashville, explore the city, and then meet up with Zack to return her to him. The snow and roads weren't bad on my drive up, but I saw lots of cars still stuck deep in snow on the sides of the road that had clearly been there for a day or so, all with police tape on them. I was glad I didn't try to make the trip a day earlier because I probably would have been fine, but who knows?

 My destination: The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Zack and Erica live on campus there in the cutest little apartment. They've done a great job in a small space. Erica gave me the grand tour of the school.

They had some neat exhibits in the library that Carson would have loved.

Zack returned, and we set off to explore Louisville. We went to the walking bridge that begins in Louisville and ends across the river in Indiana. You can get a good view of Louisville from there.

We didn't walk all the way across because as you can see, it was covered in snow and ice.

The Belle of Louisville, sitting in a nearly flooded waterfront. They got lots of snow and it was supposed to get really flooded when it melted.

And here's the Louisville Slugger Museum. We didn't go in because I was only in the city for 5 hours, but it looked neat!

And the worst name for an arena goes to.... The KFC Yum! Center

 Next we went to the site of the Kentucky Derby: Churchill Downs. Tours were more than we wanted to pay, so we went to the gift shop. Same thing, right? We couldn't see the track from there, but we still had fun.

We went to a cute area with lots of shops and restaurants. We went to a place called "Why Louisville" that had lots of tshirts and things.

We had Qdoba for lunch because I've never been there before. It was pretty good!

Next we went to the grave of Colonel Harland Sanders... that's right, the Kentucky Fried Chicken guy.

We went back to campus next, and met up with GraceAnna who's also from my hometown, in her minivan there. We got to catch up while her girls played in the parked car, as they were out running errands when we texted to meet up. Her sweet newborn son was napping at home with his daddy. GraceAnna's husband attends SBTS as well, and her dad was my pastor growing up. Small world, isn't it?

We wrapped up the trip with a roomie picture, before I headed back to Tennessee. It was a total trip of 10 hours, since Nashville was 2.5 hours away and I was only there for 5 hours, but I'm glad that I made the trek! And despite the snow on the ground, it was around 40 degrees. That was a relief!

Until next time, Louisville!

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is in Central time, so we arrived at about 1 local time. Just in time for lunch. As we drove toward the city, I looked up restaurant reviews on TripAdvisor. It steered us to Pharmacy Burger, which I felt like I'd heard of before. It was crowded and there was a little wait, but it was worth it.

Carson had a Farm Burger while I went on a limb and had the Stroganoff burger. I'd read about it in reviews and our waiter recommended it. It was excellent. We really enjoyed this place.

We checked into our hotel where the conference was held, changed and freshened up, and then went to see The Parthenon. That's right, there's a to-scale model of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee! The museum underneath closed at 4:30 and even though we got there at 4, it was already locked up. Oh well! Carson, especially, LOVED this. 

We drove around Vanderbilt's campus, which was right across the street. 

Carson had to be back for his conference that night. I loved his nametag. He says he didn't put a prefix in his registration, so they put "Professor", His colleagues' nametags said "Mr.". All weekend, people thought he was just a really young full professor. 

Carson hung out with his friends after the first session, while I hung out in the hotel room and went to bed early. 

On Saturday, I went to Louisville and Carson went to his conference in the hotel. For dinner that night, we joined his colleagues at the hotel restaurant. 

On Sunday, Carson had a little more conference, then we headed out at about 12. Our first stop was to the Gaylord Opryland. Parking was $21.00, or free for 20 minutes, so we booked it into this place and really powerwalked around to see everything and still park for free. I've been to the one in Orlando and it's similar, but still, so impressive. Our new goal is to stay in one of these sometime. 

We drove into downtown Nashville afterward and explored. We were unable to escape paying for parking so we forked over our life savings.

This was our favorite Nashville building. Doesn't it look just like Batman's head?

This area is on Broadway Street. Nashville was bigger than we anticipated so this was just a little part of the city. 

Yeah that's a cat on top of this guy's guitar. 

We got cheap hot dogs for lunch, knowing that we were going to splurge a little more on dinner for my birthday. We ate them in front of this fountain at the Symphony. It's right next to the Bridgestone Arena and one street over from the main street.

Overall impression of Nashville: we really liked it. Carson's decided he could live there because there are things to do outside and four seasons and there's lots to do, a university... oh, and the Parthenon. 

Next, we were off to Atlanta!