Nashville 2011

Jefferson has technically been to Nashville once before. Of course, he was in the Mom's belly at the time. He claims to not remember that trip, so we decided it was time to return. We arrived in time for lunch and went to one of our favorite places. At Monell's you sit at a table with strangers and pass to the left. The only problem was that they were still serving breakfast. Initial disappointment that we would not be eating the delicious fried chicken and fixins lunch was replaced with extreme joy at the breakfast spread. Biscuits and gravy, cinnamon rolls, cheese grits, corn pudding, hash browns, eggs, pancakes, and fried apples. Then the platter heaped with bacon, sausage and country ham arrived. Then they brought fried chicken! It was magical. Yes, I described a meal as magical.









We don't have any photos of us for this part of the trip because we have a strict family policy of no photos taken while grazing the trough. I will say that Jefferson ate as much the Mom. It was disgusting. After Monell's we went to what is easily the most touristy area of Nashville ... The District. The District is where every two-bit singer-songwriter trying to make it in country music warbles and crows. It's awful. It's also home of Hatch Show Print. They've been making rad prints via letterpress since the 1880s, including some iconic concert posters.








Jefferson was such a good boy in the store that the staff let him pick a free postcard from the rack seen on the right. The next stop was Third Man Records, which is the store/studio/concert venue operated by Jack White.









It's located in a, um, troubling neighborhood. You park either on the street (yikes!) or in one of the three (!) parking spaces within the fence surrounding the building. We were lucky enough to park in the fence. The store is about the size of an Amtrak sleeper room, but it was fun. We bought a live Conan O'Brien album (!) and got to see a disturbing machine in which monkeys play 45 seconds of a song. Jefferson spent all of our quarters.









The next morning we were the first patrons of the zoo.









We had to overcome some disagreement regarding which way to go first.









Stinkerbug picked "rock" so we went to the playground first. Then this snake ate him. Serves him right.












After escaping the snake, Jefferson conquered this dastardly alligator. Take that, stumpy!












Oh no! Revenge!









This is what you get when you tell Jefferson to stick his finger in the elephant's mouth and act like it hurts. What a ding-dong.









We had fun saying this guy looked like the Mom. Sometimes 2-Boyz gang up on Mom.












This is in the middle of the meerkat habitat. To get to it, you had to go through something that looked like the crawlspace at my parents' old house. I sold it to the mom as a lovely bonding moment between mother and boy. Chump! I mean "Say 'cheese'!"









This is exactly what it looks like.









So is this.