Nashville, Tennessee

This past weekend I went to Nashville, TN to meet up with my parents there. My dad had a conference in a town nearby and he and my mom arrived a little early. Since they were practically to where I live and the flight was cheap, I decided to meet them halfway. It was especially nice since it was Mother's Day weekend. I was able to make breakfast in bed for my mom and be there in person for the day.

While there, we went to this restaurant called the Aquarium. They have this really cool 10 foot tall aquarium right in the middle of the restaurant. It is really big and it has all kinds of really big fish, sharks, moray eels and manta rays in the tank. While we were there, someone went scuba diving in the tank to feed all of the fish. It was pretty amazing to watch. The food was pretty good too, but the fish were captivating. There was a particularly interesting looking fish called a Shovel-nosed Guitar Fish. It looked like a cross between a manta ray and a shark.

Next door to the restaurant they also had this little area where they had a few more creatures on display like poison dart frogs and different lizards. Best of all, though, was a shallow pool containing several manta rays that you can pet or feed. Some of them were really big. There were two ways to feed them. You could stick your hand under the water with a shrimp stuck between your fingers and your hand in a loose fish. You would hold your hand near the wall and a manta ray would soon sweep over your hand and suck the shrimp right out of your hand. The time that I did it, it felt kind of like a suction cup on my hand. It is pretty scary to do it that way though, because some of those guys are really big and it is a little unnerving when they come swooping down on your hand. The other way that they often get fed is by people kind of holding the shrimp right there on the edge of the pool. The rays have learned that people do this and so they have learned to jump out of the water to get the food. They have to since their mouths are on the bottom of their bodies and not near the edge. It was amazing to watch some of the really big rays hoist themselves 6-7 inches out of the water in a big splash of water just to get a shrimp hanging off the edge of the pool. It was so crazy. They usually hung out for a minute there on the side while they were chewing or digesting or whatever so that you had a good opportunity to pet them between the eyes. They feel soft and a little bit slimy, but it's pretty cool.

One of the other great adventures that we had while in Nashville was going to the Grand Ole Opry. This was actually one of the items on my list of approximately 50 Things I Want to Do in Life. So I was pretty excited about it. I was also excited because there were two performers that were going to be there that I like pretty well: Darryl Worley and Reba McEntyre. They both did an excellent job - and actually, all of them did. I really enjoyed the entire show, even the ones that I had never heard of before. They were all really good and it was definitely a good value for our money. Darryl Worley sang a new song of his that I really enjoyed called "Sounds Like Life to Me" as well as the hit that first made him famous, "I Miss My Friend." Reba sang four songs including her new single, "Strange," and "And Still" which comes from her show as well as another from her show and another one that I don't remember the name of. She's a good stage performer as well as singer though. There was also this gospel barbershop-type group that was really good called Ernie Haas & Signature Sound. They were really good and their final number, an a capella number, received a standing ovation from some people in the crowd. I was really glad that I got to go and I was thoroughly pleased with the entire concert. I was very impressed with the Opry and would love to go again.

On of the other adventures that we had in Nashville was that we went to a place called the Hermitage. It was the home of General Andrew Jackson, war hero of the War of 1812 and two term President of the United States of America. It is one of the best preserved presidential homes. I really liked going there because I enjoy learning about history, especially when you can see where it happened and what shaped it. I liked it because we learned a lot about what it was to live life during that time, both as a land owner and as a slave. It is also interesting to see how different facts are represented and what things are emphasized or demphasized. I also liked it a lot because Andrew Jackson was one of the people that we spent a little more time studying when I took either Block or AP History. The book The Age of Jackson was one of the extra books we had assigned that I actually read instead of just skimming. Anyway, I really enjoyed seeing it and I'm glad that they were able to preserve it so well.

I had a lot of fun seeing my parents and I am glad that I was able to spend some time with them as we explored parts of Nashville together.