Busy Summer, Lazy River

Ashlee bought us season passes to the nearby water park, Nashville Shores, this summer and we have been enjoying it a lot, especially floating around in inner tubes on their lazy river.  We also began closing out this busy summer with a few more fun activities in and out of the water.

That's Percy Priest Lake in the distance, the wave pool and a big section of the lazy river (photo courtesy of the Nashville Shores Facebook Page)

Speaking of water fun, this has also been the "Summer of the Inflatables" for some reason.  Ashlee and our friend, Wayne, have really gotten into buying large inflatable animals to goof around in on the water (despite neither of them having a pool).  Above is a great shot of all three of us launching ourselves onto some of them at the pool owned by our friends, Danny and Brenda, who were gracious enough to allow us to invade their home with our "herd" of blown-up animals.  Nice shot, Danny!

Wednesday, 7/29 - My friend and poker buddy, John Gallaher, invited us to the restored Capitol Theater on the square in Lebanon tonight to watch his final table play in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas back in July that was live-streamed online.  John finished 6th with a payout just under $90K!  Very impressive!  We appreciate him renting this beautiful venue and providing us with free booze and cake to celebrate his success.  

Thursday, 7/30 -  We went and saw Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation in IMAX tonight with our friend, Wayne.  It was pretty good although how Ethan Hunt can wreck a motorcycle doing a 100 mph with no helmet or protective wear and come out without a scratch is amazing??  All three of us had a great dinner before at The Hop Stop on nearby Gallatin Pike.

Friday, 7/31 -  We were excited and fortunate to see living legend, Dolly Parton at The Ryman tonight.  Since she is a living legend and this was her first show in Nashville in over 12 years, tickets quickly sold out.  So fast, in fact, we had to sit in separate seats since singles were all we could get.   We had dinner at Puckett's Grocery downtown before the show with our friends, Wayne, Bridgette and Michalyn who were also going to the show.  Dolly's theme was "Pure and Simple" and she played for over an hour and half at the ripe age of 69!

This was also our first look at the completed addition to The Ryman included a new entrance (which looks like an old record player in my opinion) and a cafe.  They didn't touch the original Mother Church, of course, and that's important especially when someone like Dolly strolls onto the stage.  Below is a quick clip of her finale and signature song:

Monday, 8/3 - It's "The Return of Fred."  Now showing only in our back yard!!   Man, has he grown!  Welcome back buddy!

Saturday, 8/8 - Today it was another backyard water slide day.  Since our 4th of July Sliding soiree was adults-only, we felt a little guilty that our niece, Ella, didn't get to partake in the fun, so, what the heck, we rented the exact same slide again today.  Ella had a blast on it (as did we again) as well as several of our friends and their kids and grand-kids.  And what's better than root beer (with an adult kick) at a backyard water slide day?

Friday, 8/14 - We had tickets to see Howie Day at The City Winery tonight.  We had dinner there with our friend Bethany too.  Beforehand, we spent the afternoon running a few errands downtown and also stopped by a local art gallery to check out some amazing Vivian Meyer prints.   We also stopped by the Bridgestone Arena where the Nashville Predators were hosting an open house. We have committed to a 15-game flex plan for this upcoming season along with our friends, Wayne, Danny and Brenda, not only to cheer on our favorite hockey team again, but to also get access to tickets to the NHL All Star Weekend which is taking place in Nashville this season.

The Sherrick and Paul Gallery is located in the impressive Houston Station, a beautifully restored hosiery mill complex full of creative businesses and artistic endeavors.  It' was a perfect place to display some of  the historic and stunning images created by Vivian Meier.  And at a price of $2,000 to $3,000 each, it's was a pleasure just to see them in person.

Vastly underrated is how to describe Howie Day as a live performer.  We really enjoyed his simple, acoustic show and his art of sampling his own created sounds with effect pedals was really impressive.  He had a good opener as well, a young balladeer by the name of  Casey Buckley. This new downtown venue continues to impress us as well.

Saturday, 8/23 - On our way to Chattanooga today we stopped in Jasper for a sunset kayak on Nickajack Lake at the large bat cave located there.  We had read about tours being offered here to see the night-time emergence of  the estimated 100,000 gray bats that call the cave home from April to October each year, and decided to check it out on our own.  A pretty large crowd had gathered by dusk, but unfortunately, so had a nasty-looking storm.  We only got to see a few dozen bats emerge before we had to high-tail it back to shore to dodge some nasty lightning.  Despite the less-than-stellar results, we enjoyed the experience and hope to try it again someday.