What to do in Nashville at night?
Maybe I’m spoiled.
In the last 6 months, I’ve done a lot of traveling, mostly to big cities such as Orlando, DC, and NYC. This week however, I find myself in Nashville, TN for training on Microsoft SharePoint, and — outside of the class — bored to ever-lovin’ death.
Twice this week so far, I’ve ended up at the converted Opry Mills Mall (formerly known as Opryland Amusement Park) watching movies. “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Bride Wars” respectively, but outside of that, I’ve religiously checked the events calendars such as eventful.com and found that there’s absolutely NOTHING to do in Nashville on the average week night.
Might as well be Huntsville for all that matters.
If you’re reading this and can lead me out of this conundrum sometime this week, please let me know.. 
I mean, for Jiminy Cricket’s sake, my entertainment for last night consisted of driving to the local Wal-mart in the midst of January in the vain hope of finding swim trunks so I could enjoy the hotel’s indoor pool / sauna.
Save me!
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… The last 32 days…
Ok, for those of you who don’t know me, I spent about the last 8 years self-employed, meaning I never took a day off unless sick, never left my computer room, and was generally always, ALWAYS working.
Since taking the new job in May, one of my new tasks is traveling to promote the project I’m working on. This all came into stark contrast to my former life when I checked my Frequent Flyer miles the other day and realized that in exactly 32 days, I’ve traveled 7511 miles on no less than 12 trips.
Orlando, DC, Atlanta, NYC, DC, and I’m sure that I’ve forgotten some by now. Each usually a 4 day trip. The TiVo is loaded down, I’m exhausted, and my sleep schedule is truly fubar, but I am having a GREAT time.
Wish there were something about the Internet made of wood to knock on, but I love what I’m doing now.
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Day 4: structural collapse
Day 4, and I’m literally too tired to stay awake. Woke up, went to display at the show. Everyone broke down a little early, so after breaking down the booth, I went to change into street clothes and found myself waking up and groggy 3 hours later. No Disney park for me today, so I walked out the door of the hotel and straight into Downtown Disney for a bit of a stroll and some last minute shopping.
A quick boat ride later, and I’m at the other end of the big mall, standing in line to see the latest Bond flick, Quantum of Solace.
One-paragraph review is that the latest Bond flick is much more consistent with the action in this second installment of the “reimagined Bond” starring Daniel Craig. To me, he’s much more Bond-like, much less cheesy than Roger Moore or others. This movie however really feels very much like an episodic sequel to the last movie, picking up exactly where the last left off.
Would it stand on its own? I don’t think it would because of the tightly wound continuance, but I believe that the writing for this movie was completed before the last one even wrapped. It’s that tightly linked to the last.
6.5 out of 10.
After the movie, rather than catching the boat back, I strolled the entire mall, ending up at a forgettable chain, pseudo-irish pub in search of a real Irish stew. Unfortunately since the Henry the VIII hotel in Saint Louis closed about 10 years ago, all I’ve found in “Irish Pubs” was canned beef stew with a little Guiness poured in.. Yuck…
Ended up with a yuppy Chicken dish and topped it off with a sip of 12-year-old Glenfiddich single malt scotch. Suitable, but somehow disappointing.
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Day 3: Disney's Magic Kingdom
Did I mention I am exhausted?
Anyway, I’m a firm believer that every child in the world has been indoctrinated into the world of Disney by way of a trip to the Magic Kingdom. My first trip here I believe, was around age 7.
Little sister was still about the size of a sack of potatoes and had not yet reached the age where she broke Goofy’s nose during her first-ever theme park visit.
I also have this awe-inspired memory of the roof of the A-framed “Disney Contemporary Hotel” (by far their oldest btw) which seemed to be about a thousand feet tall to my 7 year old mind.
Fast forward 35 years and the roof has gotten a little lower. The doors a little tighter, and I’m still able to get away with buying and wearing totally stupid hats. In this case, a traditional cowboy hat intended to keep the sun off that I forgot to mention buying yesterday.
Keeping with the exhausted mantra, sorry for babbling, but stepping into the Magic Kingdom still invokes that feeling of giddy childishness in me. The desire to run from ride to ride, consuming copious amounts of soda, and just getting completely swept away in the moment.
Today, I had three hours to play by the time the bus got us there. Not a lot of time, but miraculously the rides were not crowded at all. In fact, the worst wait I saw was for the kid’s rides in Tomorrowland.
In fact, I pretty much bounced between Pirates of the Carribean, Space Mountain, and Haunted Mansion repeatedly without more than a 10 minute wait at any. Wait. Sorry, check that. It was a 25 minute wait for Space Mountain so only once this time.
As for the rest, the Hall of Presidents was closed to make way for our newest President, and — sadly I must report that — I’ve become a Pirates of the Caribbean purist.
I find that while I love some of the updates to the Haunted Mansion (to include tips of the hat to the horrible Eddie Murphy movie adaptation of the same name), I am upset that they’ve re-tooled Pirates of the Caribbean to be mostly about Captain Jack Sparrow and the Pirates trilogy.
It’s just not the same any more.. Whimper, whine, sob…
Now generations of children will be raised to think that the ride is JUST about the movie, meaning that as soon as people forget about the movie, the ride — which has stood for almost 3 decades — will become phased out and meaningless.
The price of progress I guess, but I’m glad to say I’m one of the people who fondly remembers the ride as it should have remained.
Tomorrow, I’ve still got one day left on my pass, and since the show is over, I’m debating whether to do the “Disney’s Hollywood” park, or just spend the night tooling around Disney Downtown (which is literally 3 minutes walk from the hotel I’m staying in) and catching the new Bond flick.
I hate to waste the Disney ticket (since I’m leaving EARLY Saturday AM for the DC show) but frankly I may simply be too tired to traverse another theme park. I’m SURE crawling the 2 square mile shopping mall will be MUCH easier… RIGHT….
Then again, going to see Bond here will fill my quota for the hobby of seeing a movie in every state I’ve ever visited.
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Day 2: Disney's Animal Kingdom
Day 2 of my scurrying around at Disney. Display floor of the show closed, I’m exhausted, but hey, this is Orlando and it’s federal crime to be in Orlando and not feeding your money directly into the mouth of “The Mouse” (local name for Disney enterprises), so here I am. Off to the Animal Kingdom.
Another of the Disney Parks that I’ve never been to, the Animal Kingdom held a lot of promise for me, since I love Zoos, and I am in fact, a member of the great ape family..
Sadly, I found myself disappointed with this park. The highly taunted Safari was nice, and by the time I arrived it was still light enough that they were out in abundance. The problem is, this was about like riding through a zoo on a Segway at 20mph. “Ooh, look over there at that Lioness, oops, you missed it” kinda thing.
The rest of the park was nice enough, and I’m sure that if I weren’t exhausted, I’d be far more forgiving, but being in a place that charges $10 for a VERY badly prepared McDonald’s cheeseburger, fries and a Coke, it sort of starts to wear on your sensibilities.
Frankly though, light or not, there just didn’t seem that much to do at the Animal Kingdom for an adult.
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Day 1: Epcot
This week, I’m down in Orlando for an actual, honest-to-goodness trade show. Lots of work and coordination between the show and work, but it leaves me the hours between 4 pm and 9 or so to go experience the World that is Disney.
Specifically, since I’d never been before and figure I’ve only got 3 hours to play, I headed straight to Epcot Center after checking into the hotel. Originally, I thought the park closed at 7, but — yay is me — it closes at 9pm on a Tuesday for some unknown reason…
Let me just say that for years, I had been told how horrible Epcot was, and how it was a waste of time. It was also on the list of restricted activities from the ex when we were here about 10 years ago, which makes it all the more fitting to suddenly remember that I’m walking around her favorite place on Earth (Disney) on what I refer to as my “ex-iversary”.
In fact, of all four Disney parks, the only one I’ve ever been to was the Magic Kingdom, though I’m one of the rare who’s actually been to the “World” in Florida as well as the “Land” park in Cali… I was 4 at the time, but the parentals have pictures, so yeah, I’ve gotz me some proof..
Anyway, I honestly feel that Epcot very much equals the Magic Kingdom park in my mind. Where the Kingdom has the overwhelming sense of “It’s a small world” and fond memories, Epcot is a more relaxed, adult place which still has rides, shops, and — dare I say it…. — BEER… I’m all about a beautiful place that has world-wide brews available and can serve me authentic food from 7 countries…
Picked up a pint in Scotland, strolled through the shops, and stopped in Japan for a great (albeit expensive) meal at the Teppan Edo steak house.
Then, just to re-think the whole beer idea, I decided to go on the rides. For those of you visiting Epcot, here’s a great tip if you’re single (or there alone as I was). Epcot LOVES single riders. Apparently they need single riders to help fill the seats, since families are seemingly always in odd numbers.
Not once or twice, but 6 times was I whisked aboard a ride with a long 30+ minute wait to walk past the crowds as though I had the magic “fast pass”. The longest wait at “Test Track” was 90 minutes. I was able to board and ride in 4 minutes. I LOVE EPCOT!
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