Nashville

For the National School Board Conference I got to go to Nashville, home of country music. Most of my time was spent in awesome lectures. I loved it learning, but I also loved walking in the beautiful weather in a city I'd never been to before. I'm not a huge fan of country music or alcohol, which seemed to be the main attractions of the town, but there were still some things about the city that made me love it and I'm not just talking about the buy one pair get two free boot sales. Yep, came home with a bunch of little boy sized cowboy boots. Here are some of the things I saw that made me smile.

I wanted to take this guy home. What happened to these works of art? Why don't we have karaoke machines that look like this?

Not all of Elvis' music speaks to me but I do love his "Fools Rush In" and I couldn't help but like these blue suede shoes.

I have a special place in my heart for Patsy Cline. When I was in Junior High I was a member of Muse Machine, a program which got us discount tickets to music and theater performances. I signed up to go to the nutcracker that year, but too many people signed up for it so instead they sent me to a play entitled, "Always, Patsy Cline". I went expecting to be bored but instead I was moved. After I got over the liberal use of the word "hell" I laughed and I cried. I loved the music. I love me some Patsy Cline.

She was also the first woman in the Hall of Fame so the feminist in me likes her even more now.

Nashville sported some pretty creative murals. This was my favorite.

These buildings are the iconic towers of the Nashville skyline. They are nicknamed R2D2 and Batman.

The art museum was closed which was sad, but at least we got to see the sculptures on the outside.

Union Station had beautiful stained glass. This is the arched ceiling.

I want these windows in my house. Stained glass is just so amazing.

I have pictures of many of favorite things, but there are some that just didn't get photographed that I'd like to mention. One evening, I went with Leslie and Amy to a brewery to listen to a marimba and vocal concert. It was so beautiful and different. One of the songs was "Blackbird" which I hadn't heard in many years. It rekindled my love of that song.
I don't have any pictures of the delicious food that we ate or of the house rootbeers that I drank but it was so good. Luckily, our hotel was a fair distance from downtown so I was able to walk off most, okay some, of the extra calories.
We went to an all female singer/songwriter event where up and coming ladies performed original music. I loved it and totally bought the t-shirt. Being there took me back to my roots as a girl born in Arkansas who would visit my relatives every summer and listen to the country music blaring on the radios in my uncle's trucks. There's something about that twang that feels like home.