A Visit from My Parents

Mom and Dad came down to visit Steve and me over the weekend. They weren't able to help us move, so this was their first time to see our new home. And they did their share of helping us move by bringing me a long list of things I'd left at their house :) It was a blessing to have them here and spend some time with them! On Friday we did a little sightseeing in downtown Nashville while Steve was at work (here they are in front of the Parthenon), and then Steve and I made yummy shish kebabs and we played cards (the men beat the ladies, but Mom and I redeemed ourselves on Saturday night!).

While we were at Centennial Park, we saw some people shooting a country music video! But it wasn't anyone famous--I think someone said her name was Brooke Wade. Anyone ever heard of her? I bet she probably felt kind of dumb as everyone kept walking by and asking the crew, "Who's that?" Here you can tell she's singing a country song: very sad face as she laments that they won't play her songs on the jukebox anymore, among other awful things. (Can you tell I'm not a country fan? :)

We also spent time at Bicentennial Mall, a state park in front of the capitol building. It happened to be Tennessee History Weekend, so besides the regular monuments and displays, we got to see Abe Lincoln and Andrew Jackson, and also see some other historical displays. After my experience as an abstinence educator, this war poster absolutely cracked me up--I had to take a picture :)

On Saturday we went to the Opryland Hotel, which we had been told was a Nashville Must-See. It was indeed spectacular, with incredible fountains and lush gardens and all kinds of opulence. I mean, you can cruise down a river on a boat through the inside of the hotel. No joke. Yet, as we walked through and saw the glory of human wealth and achievement, I wasn't sure what to think. As my mom noted, it's beautiful, and yet it seems obscene that people live like this in America, when so many other countries around the world live in poverty. That feeling was only exacerbated as we walked around Opry Mills, a huge upscale mall next to the hotel.

My parents treated us to dinner at the Aquarium Restaurant, where you can watch all kinds of sharks and fish and eels swimming in a 200,000-gallon tank while you eat (fish). That was fun--and there's no doubt God has a creative imagination when you see animals like the sawfish!

At any rate, now all of our anticipated visitors have come and gone, and life is settling back to normal for Steve and me.