Nashvegas 2011

This weekend I went to Nashville with Malnar.  She has decided to start anew by packing up and saying so long to Chi-town, but she has never been there, so this was her one and only chance to find an apartment (Uh, yikes right?).  Like Mal, I have never been to Nashville either, so when I saw her post on Facebook that she was going to go to the Keith Urban concert I thought, "Why not?!?....it'd be a fun extended weekend trip."  So aside from apartment hunting, we visited lots o' places, had a fantastic time at the concert, and gained about a million pounds.

First stop: Jack's Bar-B-Que. Located right on the strip, we were starving after 5+ hours in the car. It totally satisfied our fill of southern food. Pulled pork, green beans, mac & cheese, and some warm cornbread. Salivating now, just thinking about it!

Country Music Hall of Fame

This car was so cool.  Webb Pierce's "Gun Car," featuring silver dollars in the dashboard, gun and rifle door handles, and of course the steer horns at the front of the car.  Don't mess with this beauty!

One of the many walls of silver/gold/platinum records.

Taking a "spin" on one of them. I'm so cool.

One of Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood's outfits during the 2009 CMA's.

Absolutely beautiful. Love Carrie, love the dress.

So after the CMHoF, we worked up a quite a little appetite.  I think this should do the trick, don't you?!?

Worth every delicious, carloric bite!

That night we went to DaVinci's Gourmet Pizza.  Although we didn't get any pizza, we enjoyed some FABULOUS pasta dishes.  And wine.

Cheers!

After dinner, we headed out to some bars. Er, I mean bar. Being the cool individuals we are, we only lasted about 30 minutes and one.  And then our beds were calling.  The picture above was taken just outside the Tin Roof. I thought it was such a cool figure. Perfect for Nashville!

Saturday's agenda included breakfast at Noshville, a great diner just around the corner from our hotel.  I loved this sign that hung above the entrance. How funny is that?!?

Noshville

After breakfast and some apartment hunting, we decided to head down to the Opry Mills for some shopping and to check out the Grand Ole Opry.  Only problem?  The shopping center was closed due to the floods they had there a while back. 

At least we got to see it though, right?

But I was in a shopping mode.  So we pulled out the ol Frommer's book and headed to the next best mall, the Mall at Green Hills.

After a couple hours of shopping, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner.  We hit up "PM," a Thai-American bistro that I thought, had the best burgers in Nashville.  Turns out, there's only one of the menu.  Mal had some sushi and I had some Crab Fried Rice.  It was.....interesting.

Finally, it was time for some Keith Urban!!!  His concert was fantastic.  He does a really good job at making it a memorable night for his fans.  Appropriately titled, "Get Closer," he definitely got extremely close to his fans.  He read out about 5 or so people's signs that they had made.  He pulled a few people up from the audience to get their picture taken with him.  He had a "sing-off" with 3 people he pulled from the audience, where the winner got to sign beside him for a song.  And he gave a signed guitar that he played out in the audience to an unsuspecting fan.  It was awesome.

Best of all, he played a little Jonny Cougar.  I'll post that awesome video later.