Louisville to Music City, USA - Nashville!! DC Day 9!!

April 5th, 2011

Today we hit the road by 915 and headed for Elizabethtown!  We thought it would be quaint but it wasn't that special.  I'm sure we just didn't go in the right area? If you've been to Elizabethtown and thought it was beautiful please let me know! I looked it up and the movie Elizabethtown with Orlando Bloom and Kristen Dunst was actually filmed in Louisville and another town because they don't have the older architecture anymore.  They did however have a cool building (which looked like a court house) in the middle of a big roundabout at the end of their main street and a really interesting looking historical graveyard.  I saw some flyers when we were in our next destination for historical tours and such of Elizabethtown and that's why I think we just missed the good stuff.

Such a quiet main street

We decided to visit this guy...

We had to do something, so we saw a sign and went to Abe Lincoln's Birthplace in Hodgesville, Kentucky! They built this huge memorial around where he was born in a log cabin.  It's quite the shrine!

Ta-Da!

Not a bad view..

We also drank from the same sinkhole spring that Abe did!

They had a Nancy Lincoln Inn named after Abe's mum, that was mainly a gift shop, but you could stay in these super cute cabins for $60/night. Looked fun.

Rocking on Nancy's Porch

Ashley and I had a great time looking around the gift shop where they had everything from toy guys to Abe Lincoln outfits to 'hillbilly toothbrushes' (a stick with corn kernels on it) to slave auction documents to this...

American by Birth, Southern by the Grace of God. 

Amazing.  Kentucky had some pretty great accents.  The park ranger at Lincoln's birth place said there was a Tim Horton's in Kentucky or something that he use to work near so he 'knew some of our folk once.' Yup. We then took a bunch of back country roads on a little Kentucky tour on our way to Nashville!  

We arrived in Nashville around 130 and checked into the Music City Hostel! I would definitely recommend this place if you're going to Nashville. It's about a 15 minute walk to broadway and the people who run it are so chill and friendly! We walked in and there was a guy from Ontario, a girl from Calgary, and a guy from Australia just singing having a great time.  We also met a really nice guy from Slovakia whose name I forget (Tomas maybe?).  We threw our bags in our rooms and hoofed it down to Broadway to check the place out.  Ashley didn't want to drive so we stayed in this general area but it was awesome! We saw the Music Hall of Fame and went all up and down the streets in the area.  

Then we had a yummy dinner at Diana's Sweet Shoppe (I had a roasted red pepper and fresh mozzarella pesto panini..YUM!) and unfortunately were too full for dessert.  We wandered over to The Second Fiddle where we pulled up some stools and tried some random beers! My first was a Shiner Bock from Shiner, Texas.  I loved it, Ashley wasn't such a fan. I forget what she had..a Red Tire or something but it wasn't that good, we went for the old faithful after that (Sorry Dad!) - Bud Light Lime! I know it's awful beer, but it's cheap and somehow went so well with 'Chicken Fried' and all the other country being sung by the band.  The singers were Mike Seals and Robyn Ariston and they were really good! 

It won't let me upload a video currently..

Ashley took a great video which I'm going to try and steal from her and post for you all to hear them!  We listened for quite a long time before heading back to the hostel to change! After our wardrobe change we went back to Broadway, did a little dancing, then got Nashville Predator tickets for $10!!!! It was insane! We went in and enjoyed about a period of hockey (Nashville won 6-2 I think?) and then went to Tootsie's to dance the night away :)

You should have seen our hate Mike Fisher faces..

Ashley is wearing shorts...promise!

Disney Challenge Day 9: Favourite Original Character

Favourite Original Character means between the Fab Five I think...aka Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto. I'm going to count Daisy and Chip and Dale in this question as well. Not that it matters because my favourite is this guy: 

The real question is how could Pluto NOT be your favourite?

Pluto is friendly, reliable and so very loveable.  I always feel bad for him when he gets teased by the chipmunks and then Mickey gets upset at Pluto for barking or something.  Geez Mickey ease up, it's not Pluto's fault he's being teased. Below is Pluto's first major role in the cartoon Playful Pluto from 1934 directed by Burt Gillett.  The most memorable scene in the short is when Pluto gets stuck on fly paper.  This scene, which was animated by Norm Ferguson, was vital in the history of character animation as it's the first time an animated character really seemed to have a mind of his own! (end history lesson, cue cartoon!)