Rainy Fun in Nashville

                A while ago, 3 months to be exact,

        (I know. I know.   But who ever said blogposts 
            and calendars must be perfectly aligned? 
                           Who, I ask you?)

        we coordinated a July 4 vacation with our New Jersey "kids". 
 Our Alaska girl did the planning, thanks to the internet and her expertise, and traveled vicariously through us.

We each drove approximately 850 miles to meet in the middle. This happened to be Nashville, Tennessee.
Known for having the 4th best firework display in the USA.

****************

The first night we stopped in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Bill Clinton's presidential library is in this city

and we especially like visiting presidential libraries.

You can learn A LOT about not just the president,

but the culture and world issues of that era.

And sit in the presidential chair around the cabinet's

personalized table.  

*Note that his chair is a bit taller than the others.

Just in case you wondered who was in charge.

We were so excited to connect in Nashville-

and we did so at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

It was raining.  Hard.  Soggy puddles hard.

And whether the holiday weekend or the wet weather,

EVERYONE wanted to go there.  

The lines to get in went on forever.

Hillary and Drew arrived before us and did the waiting.

By the time we got there, they had our tickets in hand

and we just waltzed right in.  Nice, huh?

The sunshine you see here is fleeting.

We had a few moments (literally) at the famous

Grand Ole Opry when we needed sunblock.
(Doesn't our rock star son-in-law look like he just belongs 
in front of that famous music hall??
The smiling fan with him thinks so!)

99% of our holiday weekend was spent under

one of these big umbrellas.

This heroic man saved the day for us by running

quite a ways to the car in the sudden downpour

to retrieve said umbrellas 
(which we had not thought to carry) 
while we waited in Andrew Jackson's home, 
all dry and cozy.

(After all, Hill and Drew HAD waited on the line the day before.  Only fair...)

Once we opened these big umbrellas,

we realized that slave cabins had doorways much

narrower and it took quick twists and ducks to get in and out of them without getting drenched.

Look closely and you can see the torrential rains.

Good thing the audio tour headsets were waterproof.

(At least I hope they were!)

Thank you to marketing that provided us

such great umbrellas.  All 4 came from the trunk of the Texas car, I might add.  The state that NEVER has any rain!

Getting soaked isn't fun,

but drying off in a cozy coffee house is!

Warm cocoa was yummy

and this extra artistic flair made it even better.

We spent hours there--drying out,

playing cards, laughing and eating.

And photographing smiling strangers, apparently.

We have so many memories of that weekend.
Adjoining rooms and consequent silliness prevailed.

4th of July night continued to rain.
We coerced the manager of our hotel to let us "borrow" a random room on an upper floor that overlooked the Titan's stadium, where the firework display was.  The Nashville symphony had recorded its synchronized concert (Violins don't do well in heavy rain.  Neither do musicians, for that matter.)
so we turned on the radio and oohed and ahhed
appropriately. 
Then happily (and dryly), 
we took the elevator back to our rooms.  
How easy was that!?