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This past weekend was our 2nd fake anniversary. Unless you have been here before, you wouldn't understand that remark. If you have been here, then you know that we were married on February 29, 2008. And since that date only shows up once every four years, this past weekend was a fake anniversary where we had to choose a day to celebrate. Instead of one day, we chose the whole weekend.
Crazy Man had racked up enough points on his Wyndham card from staying out for his job that we could spend a free night in a hotel. He chose the Wyndham at Union Station in Nashville, TN. I had looked at all of the pictures online, and it looked like a really nice place. The quoted prices were in the amazingly hefty range also.
When we finally were able to get gone from town on Friday, it was after 6pm. We were planning on staying with his sister that night, doing whatever we wanted to do on Saturday, stay at the hotel that night, then come home on Sunday. And that is basically what we did.
On Saturday morning, we wanted to eat at the White Trash Cafe. Upon arriving at their address, we discovered that they were no longer in business. Too bad because what I had read about it said that it was really good. We ended up having to eat at McDonald's. And, by the time we made it there, it was almost dinner time instead of breakfast.
We then went to the flea market at the fairgrounds. We spent several hours wandering around hunting for anything that was interesting enough to spend money on and bring home. We found a couple of things, but nothing fun and interesting enough to share.
Once we finished at the flea market, we said good-bye to his sister and made our way to the hotel. We were kind of concerned about where to park, but when I went inside, the lady at the front desk was telling someone else that they could either use the valet parking or park in an open lot themselves, about a half block away. The valet parking was only about $6 more, and we could come and go as many times as we wanted to. Plus that parking was just outside the front doors of the hotel. We went with valet!
When I checked us in, I was told that our certificate from Wyndham had not arrived yet. I told her that we would work on getting that as soon as we got into the room. She gave me two room key cards and said that we would be in room 111. She told me that to get there, I would have to "go through that door across the lobby and take the elevator around the corner to the first floor."
Silly me! I thought I was on the first floor. Nope. The main lobby happened to be on the third floor. And, I guess that made sense after thinking about it. After all, the hotel used to be an old train station. And, you can't very well have the trains coming through the lobby, now can you?!
So, out to the truck to get Crazy Man and our suitcase. We got the guy to valet park our truck and in we go to find our room.
We get off the elevator, after going down two levels, and step off into a darkened hallway. I started looking around and realized that there were just a few actual rooms to stay in. Mostly there was a meeting room and all the other rooms that it takes to run a hotel. I was not really excited about this, but figured that I would reserve judgment until I saw the room. After all, it had to be good since it was supposed to cost nearly $300 a night.
When I walked into the room, I was nearly in tears. It was a nice room with a king sized bed, a couple of night stands, a chair, a flat screen tv with a business type table against the wall...and no place to walk. They had squeezed all of this into a tiny little space with seven foot ceilings, which made it seem even smaller. I thought that maybe the view would save it. But when I opened the curtain, I found this sight:
Crazy Man had racked up enough points on his Wyndham card from staying out for his job that we could spend a free night in a hotel. He chose the Wyndham at Union Station in Nashville, TN. I had looked at all of the pictures online, and it looked like a really nice place. The quoted prices were in the amazingly hefty range also.
When we finally were able to get gone from town on Friday, it was after 6pm. We were planning on staying with his sister that night, doing whatever we wanted to do on Saturday, stay at the hotel that night, then come home on Sunday. And that is basically what we did.
On Saturday morning, we wanted to eat at the White Trash Cafe. Upon arriving at their address, we discovered that they were no longer in business. Too bad because what I had read about it said that it was really good. We ended up having to eat at McDonald's. And, by the time we made it there, it was almost dinner time instead of breakfast.
We then went to the flea market at the fairgrounds. We spent several hours wandering around hunting for anything that was interesting enough to spend money on and bring home. We found a couple of things, but nothing fun and interesting enough to share.
Once we finished at the flea market, we said good-bye to his sister and made our way to the hotel. We were kind of concerned about where to park, but when I went inside, the lady at the front desk was telling someone else that they could either use the valet parking or park in an open lot themselves, about a half block away. The valet parking was only about $6 more, and we could come and go as many times as we wanted to. Plus that parking was just outside the front doors of the hotel. We went with valet!
When I checked us in, I was told that our certificate from Wyndham had not arrived yet. I told her that we would work on getting that as soon as we got into the room. She gave me two room key cards and said that we would be in room 111. She told me that to get there, I would have to "go through that door across the lobby and take the elevator around the corner to the first floor."
Silly me! I thought I was on the first floor. Nope. The main lobby happened to be on the third floor. And, I guess that made sense after thinking about it. After all, the hotel used to be an old train station. And, you can't very well have the trains coming through the lobby, now can you?!
So, out to the truck to get Crazy Man and our suitcase. We got the guy to valet park our truck and in we go to find our room.
We get off the elevator, after going down two levels, and step off into a darkened hallway. I started looking around and realized that there were just a few actual rooms to stay in. Mostly there was a meeting room and all the other rooms that it takes to run a hotel. I was not really excited about this, but figured that I would reserve judgment until I saw the room. After all, it had to be good since it was supposed to cost nearly $300 a night.
When I walked into the room, I was nearly in tears. It was a nice room with a king sized bed, a couple of night stands, a chair, a flat screen tv with a business type table against the wall...and no place to walk. They had squeezed all of this into a tiny little space with seven foot ceilings, which made it seem even smaller. I thought that maybe the view would save it. But when I opened the curtain, I found this sight:
On the other side of this fence were the trains that come and go at all hours of the day and night. I can sleep with train noise...as long as I have a couple of weeks to get used to it. One night? Not gonna happen.
I asked Crazy Man if he would mind if I asked if there was a different room available. He said that he didn't care. So, while he was attempting to get our voucher faxed, I requested a different room since I felt like we had been banished to the dungeon.
She re-keyed our cards for room 623. This is what our second view looked like:
Not much to see, but at least there was something! And, the train was not on the other side of the fence.
From standing next to the bathroom area, this is what the room looked like:
This room felt much bigger, probably because of the twelve foot ceilings.
We went up one floor so that we could get some cool pictures like this one:
Once we got all settled in to our new room, we decided to go out and see what we could see until it was time for supper. We found the Batman Building, which I am thinking is one of my favorite buildings:
I asked Crazy Man if he would mind if I asked if there was a different room available. He said that he didn't care. So, while he was attempting to get our voucher faxed, I requested a different room since I felt like we had been banished to the dungeon.
She re-keyed our cards for room 623. This is what our second view looked like:
From standing next to the bathroom area, this is what the room looked like:
We went up one floor so that we could get some cool pictures like this one:
And like these of the lobby:
We made our way to the mall once we realized just how close to the action we were and could walk instead of having to pay to park. This is what Crazy Man got me for our anniversary:
I love going to Build-A-Bear! I don't always come home with something, but this time we found Sgt. N. Cognito who says that he loves me when you press his foot!
By about 5pm we were starting to get hungry, so we made our way back toward the hotel. We had gotten wind of this place:
Doesn't look like much but a house, huh? This is Monell's. They serve down home food. Silly me didn't take the camera inside, so you will just have to trust me on the sights. They took us into a back room where there were two long tables set up with about 15 chairs around them. The waiter told us to find a seat, but not to leave any empty chairs between us and the others sitting at the table.
We ended up eating supper with 12 other people. None of the plates matched. The only things offered for us to drink were sweet and unsweet tea and water. In the middle of the table was a lazy susan which held dessert plates and spoons and the drinks along with condiments.
And then they started to bring out bowls of food! Potato salad, slaw, green beans, cucumbers and onions, macaroni and cheese, corn pudding, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, meat loaf, pulled pork, banana pudding, biscuits and cornbread and several other things that I have forgotten! You get to eat your fill of all of this. And when it is gone, they bring more!
It was wonderful! We really are looking forward to going back to try their breakfast one morning, since one of the folks we ate with said that it was even better than the meal we ate.
We waddled our way back to the truck and dropped the truck off at the hotel. We walked the few blocks to see what there was to see. We ended up going here:
The worst part about this was that most of the businesses that used to be there are no longer. Matter of fact, the only sign I even remember seeing advertised naked karaoke! And, we definitely did not want to see that!
We finally saw all there was to see and went into this world famous bar:
We stayed for an hour or so and then made our way out again. It took us probably 20 minutes to get out of the joint since there were people jammed in there so tight you couldn't move.
Walking back, I took a couple of pictures of the outside of our hotel:
This one is my absolute favorite one though:
I love how the clouds make it look all spooky looking!
On Sunday morning, Crazy Man wanted to eat at the Loveless Cafe. So, we headed that way on our way out of town. Once we got there, they told us it was going to be an hour wait. And they were right on about the time frame. Just shy of 60 minutes after we arrived, we were seated.
They are supposed to have some great biscuits. Good enough to have beaten Bobby Flay in a showdown! Yeah...they were good. But the best thing they had was actually the blackberry preserves. Or at least I thought so!
Once we finished up there, it home again. We had a great weekend for our anniversary. Crazy Man says that he is going to try to make each one better. As long as we are together, then the next one will be better, no matter what he plans. I am looking forward to many more. Both fake and real!
