A Trip to Tennessee
On June 16, we set out by plane for Tennessee for a friend's wedding. Though the wedding was in the area of Chattanooga, we stayed with our friend Sarah in Nashville for the night, giving us the opportunity to explore “music city USA.” We were amazed at the amount of clubs and bars that hosted live music. We caught a glimpse of a concert going on down by a river, and some other country music in a cafe. Giant painted guitars were stationed all around the city, and we took many pictures of them.
(click pictures for larger versions)
Another thing that we did in Nashville was visit a replica of the Parthenon.
It had a gigantic statue of Athena inside.
Her shield was fifteen feet high, and she stood in the middle of the structure. It was amazing for us to see this, and here, we took many pictures as well.
The next day, we drove down to Chattanooga where the wedding was to take place. Our friend Bill Brown was getting married to Kate Pride, who he had traveled around the world with. When we tried to find the farm where the ceremony was to take place, we got hopelessly lost until we met up with a store owner who told us where it was. We arrived in time to have the last of the jambalaya supper. The following morning, we had no problem finding the farm and arriving on time, though Rhonda, another of our friends was lost for five hours. The ceremony was as beautiful as the farmland around us.
Since Bill and Kate were great fans of contra dancing, they hired a band to play a dance in their honor. Though Dad did not bring the vibraphone down to the wedding, I did have chances to sit-in with Kaleidoscope, the band. Though it was different than the usual instruments that I had played with, I got used to it and enjoyed it. The wedding was over, and the next day we drove back to Nashville, visiting a cave called Ruby Falls on the way back and taking some scenic drives through the farmland. We arrived at the airport just in time to catch an earlier flight to Charlotte, ending our fantastic journey to Tennessee.
2 Comments:
Hey, Jonathan...it's Ellen Fagan. I loved your account of the Nashville trip - I was there once when I was about your age on a family trip & I had the feeling that we hadn't "done it properly." You filled in a few of the blanks for me. It sounded like a fabulous trip...with the notable exception of wandering around trying to locate the farm where the wedding ceremony was being held. Yikes.
Great photos, too! I was so happy to see my Papa's "concertina" being put to real use; also the intriguing instrument combinations you guys play on at any given time - so adaptable, so cool.
Finally: your dad mentioned in his blog that you both got turned on to Contra music - for the first time - last OCTOBER? How is this possible? Total immersion in well under one year. I had no idea. Wow!
By Ellen Fagan, at 10:55 PM
Actually, apple crisp started February 2004, though our first contra dance gig was in October. Thanks for the feedback, and I've been really enjoying the accordian. It will provide something to do on monotonous summer days.
By Jonathan, at 10:29 AM
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