Nashville 2010

Why Nashville you may ask (or actually, many of you did!).....Well, Kyle and I are both big country music fans, neither one of us had been there before and we thought what better place than Nashville to introduce Koen to great music! So we packed up the car on Monday night and started driving south first thing Tuesday morning. We made it to Chicago (our first stop) with enough time to hang out on Michigan Ave, do some sight seeing and then head over to Adam Sieve (Kyle's college friend) and Micaiah's place for a dinner. They grilled us an amazing feast of kabob's, veggies and of course a few beers. Koen was entertained by Micaiah the whole time, it was great! After a night of amazing food and great conversation, we bid farewell to them in the morning and were on our way. After passing through Indianapolis and Louisville....we we arrived in Nashville just 7 hours later! For spending the most part of two days in his car seat, Koen did a great job! He napped, smiled, babbled, ate.....Kyle and I took turns entertaining him in the back seat. He loved being on the road!

When we arrived in Nashville, we took the hotel shuttle right into downtown and spent some time walking around and shopping. We ate dinner at the Hard Rock and then called it a night, as we were all exhausted. The following day, we spent touring the Country Music Hall of Fame...we loved it! We shopped a bit, tried to get into the CMT building (since we weren't famous they turned us down!), had a few beers at the only bar that let Koen in the door :), and enjoyed the great weather. Friday we spent the majority of the day at the Grand Old Opry. We had a behind the scenes tour and walked through the Museum of Country Music. Again, Koen was so well behaved and HAPPY! There was country music playing everywhere and he loved being outside! We tried to get a hotel room at the Grand Old Opry Land but they were full so we took it as a sign to start heading north. By midnight, we arrived in Chicago again! Enough time to grab Koen out out of the car and crash at Sieve's place for the night. Saturday morning we shopped around their neighborhood....had burgers for lunch....and sushi for dinner. Sunday morning, we packed our bags and headed north to Madison for a short visit with the Gustavson family! We went to a place called Ella's.... the perfect place for kids. I've never seen anything like it! A merry-go-round in the parking lot, trinkets everywhere, ice cream, great food.... It was a great last stop on our first road trip with Koen!

We are already planning our next trip down to Nashville :) Pics to come!