Tennessee Vacation Day 5: P!NK (and not much else)
So, today wasn't the most interesting day of our vacation. I think we'd both seen most of what we wanted to see in Nashville, and we would've been ready to drive back home today, except that the P!nk concert here is tonight. We've been counting on her to finish our vacation off with a big BANG.
So today, we didn't do a whole much. We slept in, watched TV, then walked back to Centennial Park, since it's so near our hotel. Sara brought her book and sat on a bench and read, and I walked around the lake and the outside of the Parthenon some more. I didn't pay to go inside it again, and it was kinda boring, but I also like the idea of really lingering and spending time at the places you like on vacation, rather than just rushing from one place to the next. Too many of our vacations have been like that.
After enough time in the park that even I got tired of it, we walked to a Great American Cookie Company down the street. We hadn't been to one of these in a looong time (since the one in our mall closed down), and we were pretty excited. I've gotten cookie cakes from the grocery store since then, but they're just not the same. Sara got a slice of cake, and I got my old favorite, a double doozie. From there, we walked to a Martin's Barbecue Joint, a place near our hotel, for lunch, and it was pretty underwhelming. Their barbecue sauce was so watery and tasteless, and the green beans were served in a soggy paper holder. Oh, well.
Back at the hotel, we rested for a while, then got ready to leave for the Pink concert. For as much as we'd stressed over driving there (and boy, had we stressed), it really wasn't very hard or long. Parking was the real challenge, which is what we'd expected. Geodis Park has done some nasty things to the neighborhood around it by building a venue with more seats than they have parking spots for. One residential street right outside the arena was full of houses renting their front yards out as parking lots. We paid an older black lady to park in her front yard. It was kinda pricey, and I had to parallel park, which I hadn't done in literally decades, but the lady was really nice and helpful. I was so impressed with her hustle!
Inside the venue, it was crazy crowded. Sara and I got there ealy, so there was plenty of time to walk around and lots of eateries (although we didn't get anything except an overpriced bottle of water). Sara and I always have to count something when we're in a crowd; first we tried counting men in the audience (there weren't many there, and all the ones who were there were with women), then tried women wearing pink (but that was too hard), and finally settled on women wearing belly shirts. I forget the final number now, but it was high!
The moral of this story is that I think I might be getting too old for concerts. I mean, Pink's show was great... once it actually got started. But mostly what I remember is the waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. There was a looong, not very good pre-show with a DJ doing mashups. Our section of seating in the arena was facing the sun, and it was really long, slow wait for it to go down, too. Then Brandi Carlisle did her opening show. And then, finally, Pink came on; she opened with "Get This Party Started." I also liked when her daughter Willow came onstage for "Cover Me in Sunshine," which was a surprise. Pink said later, I love that she always gets more applause than I do. The most memorable part was the closing number, "So What," when she zip-lined all around the arena and out over the audience at crazy heights! She did flips and spins and all kinds of moves that almost made me nauseous just from watching. I got a little of it on video with my phone, and it looked amazing even from our crappy seats, but I almost didn't record any because I was just sitting there with my jaw hanging open.
Also mostly what I remember is trying to get back to the hotel afterwards. The streets around the venue were crazy-crowded. We found the car fine, and I pulled out of the front yard where I'd parked fine, but the streets were so clogged with people and other cars that it was a parking lot for a looong time. I inched along and still came too close to hitting multiple people and cars. It was pretty late by the time we finally made it back to the hotel, and I'm glad that the only thing on our to-do list for tomorrow is checking out and driving home. We still have plenty of snacks left for the trip (we really packed too many), and I can't wait to see the cats!
Distance walked today: 4.7 miles.
So today, we didn't do a whole much. We slept in, watched TV, then walked back to Centennial Park, since it's so near our hotel. Sara brought her book and sat on a bench and read, and I walked around the lake and the outside of the Parthenon some more. I didn't pay to go inside it again, and it was kinda boring, but I also like the idea of really lingering and spending time at the places you like on vacation, rather than just rushing from one place to the next. Too many of our vacations have been like that.
After enough time in the park that even I got tired of it, we walked to a Great American Cookie Company down the street. We hadn't been to one of these in a looong time (since the one in our mall closed down), and we were pretty excited. I've gotten cookie cakes from the grocery store since then, but they're just not the same. Sara got a slice of cake, and I got my old favorite, a double doozie. From there, we walked to a Martin's Barbecue Joint, a place near our hotel, for lunch, and it was pretty underwhelming. Their barbecue sauce was so watery and tasteless, and the green beans were served in a soggy paper holder. Oh, well.
Back at the hotel, we rested for a while, then got ready to leave for the Pink concert. For as much as we'd stressed over driving there (and boy, had we stressed), it really wasn't very hard or long. Parking was the real challenge, which is what we'd expected. Geodis Park has done some nasty things to the neighborhood around it by building a venue with more seats than they have parking spots for. One residential street right outside the arena was full of houses renting their front yards out as parking lots. We paid an older black lady to park in her front yard. It was kinda pricey, and I had to parallel park, which I hadn't done in literally decades, but the lady was really nice and helpful. I was so impressed with her hustle!
Inside the venue, it was crazy crowded. Sara and I got there ealy, so there was plenty of time to walk around and lots of eateries (although we didn't get anything except an overpriced bottle of water). Sara and I always have to count something when we're in a crowd; first we tried counting men in the audience (there weren't many there, and all the ones who were there were with women), then tried women wearing pink (but that was too hard), and finally settled on women wearing belly shirts. I forget the final number now, but it was high!
The moral of this story is that I think I might be getting too old for concerts. I mean, Pink's show was great... once it actually got started. But mostly what I remember is the waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. There was a looong, not very good pre-show with a DJ doing mashups. Our section of seating in the arena was facing the sun, and it was really long, slow wait for it to go down, too. Then Brandi Carlisle did her opening show. And then, finally, Pink came on; she opened with "Get This Party Started." I also liked when her daughter Willow came onstage for "Cover Me in Sunshine," which was a surprise. Pink said later, I love that she always gets more applause than I do. The most memorable part was the closing number, "So What," when she zip-lined all around the arena and out over the audience at crazy heights! She did flips and spins and all kinds of moves that almost made me nauseous just from watching. I got a little of it on video with my phone, and it looked amazing even from our crappy seats, but I almost didn't record any because I was just sitting there with my jaw hanging open.
Also mostly what I remember is trying to get back to the hotel afterwards. The streets around the venue were crazy-crowded. We found the car fine, and I pulled out of the front yard where I'd parked fine, but the streets were so clogged with people and other cars that it was a parking lot for a looong time. I inched along and still came too close to hitting multiple people and cars. It was pretty late by the time we finally made it back to the hotel, and I'm glad that the only thing on our to-do list for tomorrow is checking out and driving home. We still have plenty of snacks left for the trip (we really packed too many), and I can't wait to see the cats!
Distance walked today: 4.7 miles.