A Day Downtown

Today, we woke up early to arrive at a popular breakfast joint - Loveless Cafe. The food aficionado, Martha Stewart, remarked that she ate her best breakfast there. Other positive  comments came from Vanderbilt alumni (Evan and Cammie), Don, and Bobbie (Audrey's Mom). We could not take these comments with a grain of salt and put Loveless Cafe on our itinerary months before the trip.

On our way to the restaurant, we passed a residential area, which we noted has similar houses - large colonials with long white columns ornating the entrance; casual rocking chairs; and sprawling trimmed green lawns. The properties are gorgeous, appearing as if they had be taken from a magazine. We wondered how much a house of that might would cost in California - millions probably. 

The recognizable sign 

We drove up to the property to see the illuminated, famous Loveless Cafe sign - a welcoming sight to us hungry travelers. The restaurant was a one story building and appears to have previously been a house as noted from the screened in porch and sectioning off of the restaurant similar to that of bedrooms.

We entered to pleasant sounds of friendly people conversing and were greeted by our waiter, Evan, who took us to an empty table. Despite it only being 8:00 AM, the restaurant was packed. Inside, there was a homey feel, the walls were covered with framed photographs of famous visitors, a few fireplaces, colorful wallpaper, and old furniture. It definetly felt like we were in Grandma's home. We sat and ordered drinks and meals, completed infantile word searches, and enjoyed each other's presence. While we waited for our meals to arrive,  Evan brought us Loveless' famous biscuits. At the size of a squished tennis ball, the biscuits were soft and fluffy, and tasty in their own simple way. We spread jam and butter on our biscuits  and  devoured them in a few bites, quickly wanting more - I had two of them. 

Hawi's pancake is bigger than her head!

After finishing our meals, Evan asked if we wanted separate checks. In the car ride back, we scrutinized his comment and realized that we certainly have a strange posse. We're all small, appearing young; are ethnically diverse, definetly not related; and seem to have no parental guardian, due to Tori's height and youthful aura. Hilariously, passerbys have probably turned their heads in curiosity as to what our group is up to. 

Following our meal, we drove to the Country Music Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville. It consists of a museum, gift shops, and the Hall of Fame itself. We began with an audio tour of the museum, where we heard the voices of country stars speak to us through microphones about the origins of country music, milestones that popularized the genre, the presence of country in pop culture, and everything in between. I learned that country music is a blend of folk and gospel music that integrated over time, it became popular through the national radio and television. The museum showcased articles of clothing worn by famous musicians along with their instruments. After learning all the historical aspects of country music, we ventured down to the second floor where we got to explore hands on activities. We got to record our own mix tape, featuring Hawi as the lead vocalist and the rest of us were background vocalists. 

The Vanderbilt girls recording music.

Once we had completed the whole walk-through of the museum, we reached the Hall of Fame. It was located in a circular room, for all musicians were equally valued for their musical contributions. The placards displayed the  musicians' face, name, and reasons for the award. The placards were arranged on a series of strips of metal that  represented lines on a sheet of music. The Hall of Fame was architecturally beautiful and venerated well deserving canons of country music. 

The Gods of country music were with us today, since we finally found Music Row. Yesterday we had gotten miserably lost in search for the center and gave up after walking aimlessly for 45 minutes. But the heart of The Music City seems to have a certain magic, freeing us from our lacking ability to tell directions. In the downtown area, nearby modern buildings soar above us. Stadiums occupy large blocks and have large flat screens displaying country artists who'll be performing. But once you enter Music Row, modernity is left aside, and plain old country thrives. Live country music blares from restaurants. People crowd the sidewalks, filing in and out of eateries, shops, and bars. We walked up and down the streets, absorbing the musics, accents, and souvenir shops. The day was hotter than most, the heat radiated off the nearby bodies and sidewalks. At one of the shops, Hawi our lead vocalist decided to apply her musical talent to new avenues - she bought a harmonica. She played for us as we walked along the side walk and, as we returned to our rental car Hawi was able to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. By the end of the trip, Hawi will have her placard in the Hall of Fame, we joked. 

Music Row

After our second session of blogging and bonding, we went to a nice Italian restaurant called, Amerigo. Unfortunately, we had to wait half an hour for a table, lucky for us we brought our Vanderbilt merchandise to take some pictures and the time allotted could be put to good use. Recently, the Chicago and Vanderbilt cohorts have been engaging in a friendly competition, using things like punctuality, blogs, and pictures to butt heads. The Chicago cohort took a few photos and had claimed superiority, but we were prepared to take them down with our own pictures. In the parking lot of the restaurant, there were brick walls that were painted different colors - red, tan, and white. Each wall was used well and we posed smiling, on each other's backs, and jumping.  

We returned to the restaurant and were promptly seated. The place was packed, indicating that it had good food. On the table was a white tablecloth, a faux candle, and a square of paper to prevent staining on the table cloth. Anna pulled out her pens so we could entertain ourselves by drawing, oir waiter, Sara, kindly brought us crayons. While waiting for our food, we began drawing flowers, houses, cats, but soon enough we diversified our drawings and Hawi began drawing cartoon characters. We then played a guessing game, where one would began drawing and the rest of us had to guess what was being drawn. We certainly had a masterpiece, and Sara certainly loved it, it seemed to lighten her mood, since who wants to work on a Saturday night. As we left the restaurant, we finalized the piece, giving many thanks to Sara in different crayon colors. I hope we put a smile on her face.

Our art and thank you note to Sara!!

The last item on our agenda for the day was to visit the Omni Hotel, an expensive, modern, and beautiful hotel in downtown Nashville. Since the building soars so high in the sky, we wanted to see if we could watch the sunset. We entered the upper lobby to watch the skyline and the beautiful sunset. In a nearby stadium, there was a concert, so in addition to the city's beauty, we  listened to live music.  

Admiring the view of the city

We ended the day, with blogging back at the hotel. Tomorrow we get to sleep in a bit and will have orientation for Vanderbilt Summer Academy. I can't wait.