More Nashville

Our hotel was right across the street from the arena where the Predators ice hockey team plays.

We squeezed in so much in 3 days in Nashville.  Here are some other highlights.

Bridge over the Cumberland River.

Country Music Hall of Fame

LOVED the Johnny Cash museum!

We attended a song writer session at the Hall of Fame.  We listened to Matt Jenkins talk about the songs he has written, including Fell in Love in the Back of a Cop Car and Setting the World on Fire.

Also at the Hall of Fame, we attended a bango seminar!

Grand Ole Opry

The first day in Nashville included a trip to the Grand Ole Opry.  The Opry is the longest running live radio show in the US - it started in 1925.  We started with a backstage pass and then went to the evening show.  The Opry started in the Ryman Theater which is called the mother church of country music but needed a larger venue so it moved to the Grand Ole Opry in the 70's.

Singed for a charity auction

There was a display backstage highlighting the tv show, Nashville, which does filming in the big backstage auditorium.  We also saw the 12 dressing rooms and family room which the artists use while waiting to go on stage.

We got to stand on the circle which is a round of wood from the original stage at the Ryman Theater.  This is a spot that is very important in the country music world because it has so much history..

These were the performers we saw.

G's 17th Birthday in Nashville

We went to Nashville for a long weekend for G's 17th birthday.  We didn't think we could out do her last birthday trip to the Enchantments but this one was as good!

We got in late on Thursday nite and stayed in a beautiful 2 room suite at the Hilton Downtown.  The location was perfect - we overlooked Honky Tonk Row!

 We spent Friday:

• Doing a College Tour (Lipscomb)
• Doing a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry
• Attending a show at the Grand Ole Opry

We spent Saturday:

• Going to the Country Music Hall of Fame
• Going to the Johnny Cash Museum
• Having lunch at the Frothy Monkey

This was Sam - an Uber drivers dog

An urban park in parking spaces

 We spent Sunday:

• Doing another college tour (Belmont)
• Wandering around the downtown Nashville
• Having a lunch of desserts on a roof top bar overlooking the Cumberland River

Other highlights included:

• The Uber drivers of Nashville
• Learning that Nashville is the Bachelorette Party Headquarters of the US (We saw over 20 groups of women!)
• The Pure Romance conference
• A gas line break leading to gas shortages - we worried about our Uber drivers having enough gas

Bachelorettes in a wagon pulled by a tractor

I walked across the river and took this pic of the city

Cumberland River

I learned so much on this trip about music, musicians and the South.  And I became particularly fond of pimento cheese!

I found Elvis on an early morning walk

Wildhorse Saloon

Dessert for lunch

Timber!

We have about 6 trees at the cabin that have succumbed to the bark beetle.  And these are BIG trees.  Jim headed up last weekend to meet some tree people for bids for removal.  True to "mountain time experience", the first two people failed to show!  After a weekend of fits and starts, he finally got two bids - $2000 and $2600.

So now we have to schedule removal time!

Cash - 10 weeks

This is a pic of Cash as 10 weeks.  No word on his family yet but he is a sweet snugly boy who weighs 23 pounds!

Maisy

Maisy - she looks just like her mama

This is Hops' pup, who now has a family who is calling her Maisy!  She is 10 weeks old and 20 lbs.  She will be moving to the Los Angeles area and will live 35 minutes from a dog beach were she will get to play.  Her family also has a cabin in Big Bear that she will go to!  So basically it sounds like she gets to live the same lifestyle as her mama!  It makes me so happy. 

Great Grandma's Apple Cake

When I was in Kentucky earlier this summer, I went through my Aunt's recipe book and copied a recipe that was my Great Grandmothers.  Tonite I made it for the first time.  The assessment on it from all of it was its "ok".  We all think it needs some jazzing up.

Apple Cake
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Sift together

1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons oil

Mix together and then add dry mixture from above.  Pour into greased 13 by 9 pan.

Peel and slice about 6 apples.  Pour over batter in pan.

Mix and pour on top of apples:
 3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Bake 350 for 30 to 35 minutes.

NARF Walkathon

Me, Grace and Hops volunteered at the NARF walkathon today in the Furry Friends booth.  NARF stands for Nike Animal Rescue Foundation, which is a local dog rescue foundation, which also happens to be where Ahi came from 7 years ago!

There are a lot of people involved in both NARF and Furry Friends so Furry Friends has a booth at the event to educate an recruit.  We hung out for a few hours and talked to people who were interested in getting involved in pet therapy.   We also saw the chihuahua lady who fostered Ahi!

The best of the day was when we won this dog bed full of toys in a raffle!  All the dogs were so excited when we brought them home.  Ahi stood in the bed for a long time sniffing each toy and finally took a tennis ball and brought it upstairs to her bed!

Carrie Underwood

I took Grace, Bug and Karina to Carrie Underwood last night and it was AMAZING!  The Swon Brothers and Easton Corbin were openers and then Carrie came up and did the most amazing 2 hour show.  Bug put it a great way..."it was so great I didn't even know what to do"!  Every song was a hit and was done so well.

End of Maternity Leave

Hops' maternity leave is over - she went back to work today!  We went to the nursing facility for a visit.  A couple highlights:

• There was a woman visiting with her elderly mother who I thought would cry when we came into the room to see if they wanted a visit with a therapy dog!  They were so happy!

• There was an old Asian toothless man who chased Hops with his walker!  Literally picked it up and pounded it on the ground in front of him a couple times in her direction.  He laughed when she did a big mean deep bark at him!

Happy 13th Birthday Daisy Mae

Daisy Mae's 13th birthday was Labor Day weekend.  We took all day Saturday to celebrate and let her do her favorite thing - hang out on the boat and swim all day!   She even managed to jump off the boat a couple times.  I tried to get her to take it easy but as soon as I turned my back she would jump in!

After dinner we sang happy birthday to her.  But I had to get her to walk out from her bed in the bedroom first.  She walked out, did a circle and went back to bed!  So tired from her day at the lake!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day - 2016

We spent Labor Day weekend at the cabin with Brian and Fam, my folks and Jim's folks.  On Monday, everyone went home except for us and Jim's folks, so we spent a few hours out on the boat.  It was super fun because Roy had never been out on it before so we gave him the full experience:  tour around the lake, watching the dogs play in the water off the SUP and lunch/ice cream from the snack shack!

Wonderland

Susan and Shannon are in the middle - we hiked with them last year

My dear friend, Susan, who we hiked with last year in Washington, did the Wonderland trail with a few gals when we were in Hawaii.  We were supposed to go but there was a catastrophic breakdown of the permitting system so they couldn't get a permit ahead of time. That meant they had to show up a ranger station and hope they got a permit.  They did!  But it was too risky for us to take off two weeks, fly to Washington and hope for a permit.  So we opted for the sure thing of relaxing on the beach instead.

Susan was instructed to think about us every day - which she did by wearing the friendship bracelet we gave her for last years hike.  Here is is with Mt Rainer in the background.

I loved my hour long debrief with Susan once she was off the trail.  And the story about these shoes was my favorite.  She lost one of her crocs - which are her camp shoes - while on the trail.  Camp shoes are critical because getting out of your hiking boots at the end of the day is necessary for your poor stinky, tired feet!  Once she noticed the shoe was gone, she ran back on the trail to look for it.  No luck.  So she designed a new shoe with items they had with them!  Pefect!  And she used it most of the trip....until they met a lady at a ranger station who told them about a pair of flip flops a trail angel left a few miles away.  Unfortunately it was  few miles in the wrong direction.  But later in the day as they were hiking they came upon a trail marker with the flip flops and a note say "I hope these will work for you"!  The lady drove to get the flip flops, found a trail that would cross their trail and hiked in to leave them for Susan!  Trail Magic strikes again!

Great Grandmothers

I keep forgetting to post this pic of our mom's with their Great Grandpups!  Love it!

Back to School

Drew and Amanda are back at school.  They spent last week in the first week of classes and getting settled into their new apartments.  I LOVE this pic of Amanda's bathroom.  Makes me giggle!