Midwest Memories

Thursday, January 1, 2009

New Year's and Nashville

Happy New Year!!! We wish all of our friends and family health, happiness and prosperity in 2009!
2008 was an incredible year for us filled with many changes...Ryan graduated from college, we bought a new home, relocated to Indy, started new jobs and basically left all we have ever known to begin a new chapter in our lives...

Last week, we went to the Ale Emporium in Indianapolis with our friend April to watch Rich Hardesty perform. Rich is a musician who performs locally at several colleges, clubs and bars.

Hat look familiar, mama???

How about the scarf??? Isn't Ryan FOXY???

Rich Hardesty's music is a cross between Jack Johnson meets Sublime meets Adam Sandler....He is so fun to listen to...many of his lyrics are Indiana related and some are just plain silly. He also performs lots of covers from artists like Tom Petty and the Dave Matthews Band.

April is so cute!!! We LOVE her! She has been a good friend to us :)

Thanks for a great night, April!!!

On Monday, we headed off to Nashville for a mini-vacation! We had to stop in Louisville to see the sights... Here is that Kentucky skyline and YES the Ohio River IS that brown.....

A stop in Louisville wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Louisville Slugger Museum. Here is Ryan standing in front of the museum's entrance next to a GIGANTIC bat!

The bat weighs 68,000 pounds and is an exact-scale replica of Babe Ruth's bat.

The factory was cool... Here is Ryan checking out a replica of a bat that belonged to Ken Griffey, Jr.

Here I am sitting on a gigantic glove. It was carved out of Kentucky limestone and weighed 34,000 pounds. It was 12' x 9'!!!

One last view of Louisville from the Interstate...

We continued on our trek to Nashville and saw signs for more caves....of course we had to stop!!!

Kentucky is REALLY pretty- we want to come back in the spring when all of the trees are in full bloom...

Here we are in front of the entrance to Diamond Caverns.

The caverns were discovered in the 1800's. They are still considered "active." There are 3 levels to the caverns. On the bottom level is an underground river...

So cool...we are becoming quite the cave dwellers!!!

Check out that "Cave Bacon!' Do you see it??? No really, that's what it is called!

We left the caverns, and arrived in Nashville late Monday afternoon.What a neat place to visit!!!

Here is a picture of Broadway Street. It had several shops, restaurants and fun bars...

Here we are in front of LP Stadium- Home of the Tennessee Titans :)

Home of the Nashville Symphony...

Of course a trip to Nashville wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Country Music Hall of Fame...

I ran into my boyfriend Tim...

Saw Trisha Yearwood's boots...

Faith Hill's dress...

Johnny Cash's suit and Dolly Parton's dress...

Are you ready for some football??? Here is the blazer Hank Williams, Jr. wore in the famous Monday night football commercials...

Gold and platinum records...

George Strait's sportcoat...

Hank William's guitar...

One of Elvis Presley's rides...

Patsy Cline's dress...

We found a little bit of Cali in the Gene Autry display...

We were able to hook up with my friend from high school, Jenn and her adorable daughter Emma. We met up at Rippy's Southern Bar-be-Que for dinner. Jenn moved from Southern California to Nashville 6 years ago. It was great to see each other and catch up!!!

Emma was so darling!!! Ry and I fell in love with her. Here she is holding up the origami Ryan made for her :)

On New Year's Eve, we had a small party at our house with the BLERBS. It was great!

Here we are....Sabrina, Liz and yours truly:

We had a fondue party...it was DELICIOUS! Mmmmmmm...nothing like ending the year with sugar and carbs!!!! ) Just reinforces that New Year's Resolution to lose some pounds...heehee!