Nashville

Last week we took a quick overnight jaunt to Nashville, mostly to see my cousin Alex call a baseball game there.  But we also took in some of the local sights, starting with the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens.

They had a lot of bug-shaped exhibits, including a few the kids could play in.

The Japanes Garden was very pretty.

Perhaps the highlight was when we asked a groundskeeper for directions, and he gave us a ride in a golf cart.

That's Bru in the distance, in front of what I called the Monster House.

After that we went to a Science museum, which was pretty impressive and had one really impressive exhibit that simulated a moonwalk.  Hannah and Bru tried it out.

Lucky preferred this shoot-things-to-measure-moon-pressure gun.

Bru quote: "Jupiter is the biggest planet in the whole world!"

Lifting a car

Driving an ambulance

After that we went to Nashville's only kosher vegan Indian restaurant.  I really blew it by only taking this one picture, but the place was wild.  We basically didn't recognize one thing on the menu, and we ordered everything mild -- but some of it was still very hot.  I can't even imagine what the "Spicy 3" level (after Mild, Regular, Spicy 1, and Spicy 2) tasted like.

Rachelle had to put in a special order to get a knife... apparently Indians take that whole non-violence thing pretty seriously.

Then we were off to see the Oklahoma City RedHawks take on the Nashville Sounds!

Herschel Greer stadium is a bit of a dump, but the scoreboard was a nice touch.

Alex really is a terrific broadcaster, and the RedHawks gave us a good game with a come-from-behind win in the 9th inning!

After the game the kids got to run the bases.  If you watch closely, you can see Lucky knock over some toddler at around ten seconds in.

The next morning, after our complimentary breakfast from the La Quinta Inn & Suites, we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum.

Here they are tossing pennies into a fountain.  Lucky made a wish to keep an Israeli soldier safe.  Bru wished for "a whole pie."

Lucky found his song.

This is the roadster from Smokey & The Bandit II, in case you didn't know... though really, how could you not?

A large part of the museum for the kids was collecting badges from various exhibits, the most interesting of which had them mix and sing their own versions of popular songs.

When you collect all the badges, you are Certified Country.

Of course.