The next day we headed downtown to the Nashville Visitor Center because when we went by the day before it was closed. We went down there and bought some souvenirs.
We decided that we pretty much saw everything we wanted to see in the downtown area so we headed back to the hotel. On the way back we noticed this church with gargoyles above the threshold.
We had bought tickets to go to the Grande Ole Opry that night so we got dressed and headed over to the Opry Mills Outlet Mall to do some shopping before heading to the show. While at the mall we ended up eating lunch at the Rainforest Cafe and got to eat by these guys.
After spending way to much money we decided it was time to go wait to go in the Grande Ole Opry.
Me and my sister hanging out waiting for the doors to open.
I am not a huge country music fan, but I do like a few artists. The show was really neat. There were 8 artists performing and each played 3 songs. Most of the artists were up and coming artist, from my understanding. They were all really good. First up was Tyler Farr. He has a song on the radio called "Redneck Crazy," which he played.
While the bands were breaking down and setting up for the next, there was this great announcer guy. I just loved his voice.
The next person up was Terri Clark. I remembered her from when I first listened to country in the 90s. She was great and told a story about Reba McIntyre and did an exact voice impersonation of her.
Dailey & Vincent came out and sang the song "Home" originally made popular by Phillip Phillips. The last song they did was an acappella christian song. It was beautiful.
Then there was Dustin Lynch, it was his birthday and he was so appreciative for being able to play at the Grande Ole Opry.
Eric Paslay was up next and I enjoyed his music probably the most. He had a bit of rock n roll mixed with his country style. He played his hit "Friday Night". After his set was over he just found out the single went gold. He came out and showed us the gold plaque. He seemed like a very humble guy.
The last act of the night was Gloriana. I really enjoyed their style also.
After the shows were over we ended up going to Dave and Busters for some dinner and video games. We had a blast playing games like Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, Mario Kart and more.
The next day was Wednesday the day we needed to start heading back to my sister's house, to get ready for my nieces graduation. We had planned to make a couple of stops on the way out of town first.
I had been wanting to see The Parthenon for awhile now, especially since seeing it on Percy Jackson. This building was amazing. On the bottom floor there is an art gallery with some beautiful paintings.
Upstairs there is this huge statue of Athena, that is absolutely beautiful.
Then we headed to the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. They had these huge sculptures of different bugs made from wood.
This little train set was really cool. They had 2 trains running through the tracks and one was Thomas the Train.
This little tree house was awesome.
I don't know why but I love this photo of this flower.
Ants marching on. If you look closely to the background there are 2 more ants marching along with this one.
The mansion just gorgeous.
View from the back portico.
This was another cool sculpture made of twigs of wood. It was really spectacular to walk through.
After we were done strolling through the gardens, we headed up to the restaurant and ate lunch. Then did some shopping in the gift shop.
We headed back to my sisters house. Driving back down the mountain was a bit tense because it was raining and the road was super windy. We had talked about maybe stopping in Lynchburg to visit the Jack Daniels distillery but decided against it because of the rain.
The next day was graduation day. We ended up doing a bunch of running around getting food and decorations for the party. The graduation didn't start until 7:30pm.
They were going so quickly with the names I couldn't get a good picture of her walking.
I made this little paint bucket for her for her present and hid some money inside for her. It was something I saw on pinterest and thought I would try it out. I bought Jelly Belly Beans in her school colors. I took the cardboard piece of a toilet paper roll and cut it to fit in the middle and then put the beans around it. Then put the money in the middle of the roll. I think it came out cute.
Another pinterest idea that my sister found, little caps made out of Reese's peanut butter cups and Hershey's chocolate. We also made chocolate covered marshmallows which were amazing, you can see them in the background of the picture.
Cap and Diploma - I am so proud of her!
My beautiful niece!!!
I don't have any children of my own so my niece and nephew are like my kids. I have been there for all their big moments in life. I love them both with all my heart.
I stayed one more day and my sister and I just hung out at the house all day. I helped her set up her new computer, she decided to become a Mac person. Then we went through her photo albums and scanned in some pictures of us as kids. That night we sat down relaxed and watched "Frozen" which was a perfect movie to watch with your sister.
I got up the next day and headed home.