Family Fun

My family (well, half of them) came down for a visit mid-March during baby brother's spring break.  They arrived on a Saturday night, just in time for tacos and margaritas prepared by Carl and myself.

Sunday
On Sunday we ventured into Nashville to take in some history.  We began at my favorite church, Crosspoint.  I've written about it before, but Crosspoint is a non-denominational church with six different campuses- I go to the one in Nashville.  I used to go pretty religiously (ha!) but now that I've been going to Huntsville every weekend that hasn't been happening.  Anyway, I took my family there, it was Carl and Luke's first time, but it wasn't quite the service I was excited to show them.  The thing I love about Crosspoint is that even if you aren't super religious, it is still very relatable and you can get a lot out of it. This particular Sunday's service however was essentially about how they are in a rough patch and are losing attendance as time passes without a new head pastor.  I talked to a friend after who said she really like the service, but to me it felt like I was sitting in a room with a friend as they were getting scolded by their parents.  Perspective, I suppose.

After church we headed to Fort Negley in Nashville.  Luke is a first year history major so he wanted to see all the historical sites in the area.  Unfortunately, Fort Negley has not been kept up very well over the years.  While it was semi-restored, it still kind of looks like it is falling apart. Plus it was chilly and windy and being that Fort Negley was on a hill made is that much worse!

After the Fort we headed down to Broadway in downtown Nashville.  It was definitely NOT prime time for visiting as there was a big basketball game taking place at Bridgestone Arena.  Driving was a pain and parking was even worse.  I have become accustomed to city life so it didn't both me too much, but I'm sure it was driving my dad crazy!  We took Luke down Broadway and down to the river from which you can see the Titans stadium across the way.  We ate lunch at Rock Bottom, one of the few "restaurant-y" places on Broadway (as opposed to bar-y).

Carl left us to head home after lunch, and we traversed over to Murfreesboro to check out Stones River National Battlefield.  It was kept up much better than the Fort and had a nice visitor's center with a museum.  At the battlefield was a large cemetery with thousands of soldiers buried in it.

After the battlefield we headed home for the night. We thought we would try out Logan's Roadhouse for dinner, of which we all decided was not as good as Texas Roadhouse.  The service was slow, the portions were small, and my burger was cold.

Monday/Tuesday
The fam headed to Memphis on Monday/Tuesday and since I couldn't get off work, I didn't get to join them.

Wednesday
On Wednesday I was able to get off and we headed up to Bowling Green, Kentucky, stopping along the way at a couple Roadside Attractions! (Why did I capitalize that? Because its the name of the app I used to find them! You have to pay like 5 bucks to download the whole country, but totally worth it in my opinion.  The app gives you tons of random roadside attractions, everything from graves to the World's Largest Underpants).

Our purpose for heading to Bowling Green was to go to the Corvette Museum and Factory.  We had been there once when my brothers and I were kids but (as I was told, I don't actually remember) I couldn't go on the tour because I didn't have closed-toed shoes with, and my youngest brothers couldn't go for some other reason I cannot remember.

I'll be the first to say I don't know anything about cars, but it was still pretty interesting.  Some fun facts I learned:

• Corvette's are always made custom to order- they do not make a Corvette unless it has been pre-ordered
• You can literally go to the plant and watch your car being made, or you can go and help design the engine!
• It takes a day and a half to fully make a Corvette
• (I thought I learned more than this but apparently I've forgotten it all already)

After the Corvette museum and factory tour, we headed to Chainey's Dairy Barn for lunch and ice cream. Lunch was mediocre, but the ice cream was delish! We visited Ollie's Bargain Hunt (Dad's favorite store in the south) to look at junk cheap stuff we don't need.

We headed back to C-ville and made it back by late afternoon with enough time to relax before heading to Logan's Roadhouse for dinner.  We were not impressed with the joint, the service was slow, my burger was cold, and the steaks were tiny. That being said, we all agreed we wouldn't say "no" to going to the place again, its highly possible it was just an off night.

Thursday morning my family left to head back north and I returned to reality.