My mom organized a conference and as a result got us tickets to the Friday Night Opry. Good times! There is some weird family joke that one of these days I'm going to get in a fistfight with Little Jimmy Dickens; sure enough he was one of the hosts that night. It was a ton of fun as it always is but I was a little upset that the dancers don't perform on Fridays, only Saturday night. Still, the house got rocked by Charlie Daniels. He's a badass.

Now, before you go pooh-poohing the Opry, I want you to recognize it for the institution it is. When a performer is asked to join the Opry that performer is obligated to perform a certain number of times per year. And sure, some have seen more successful days, but this contractual agreement means that even the one hittiest of wonders still have an outlet. The crowd loves it--like I said, I was at the Friday Night Opry, not even the biggest night, and the house was PACKED, people were having a GREAT time. In fact, the house is often packed and people always have a great time. While I have little love for country music produced after 1990 I do have mad love for the Opry.

In addition, the Opry is now available on XM.

But let's move on.

Saturday I decided to take a trip downtown to visit the classy Hermitage Hotel where Mom was staying. I needed to bring her a couple of things and, let's be honest, wanted to check out the hotel. It's ridiculously cool and luxurious and I really wanted to see the men's restroom. I'll explain more on that later.

Mom handed me the room key in a small book/envelope; inside the book was a map of the immediate area around the hotel. This helped me plan my downtown visit. I am terrible at geography and the downtown area is a mystery wrapped in an enigma and covered in a gorgeously intricately designed Nudie suit. I started at the Library and walked over to Mom's room where an immaculately dressed doorman opened the door for me. Yes, I said "thank you" and thought about even saying "but you don't have to do that for ME. I'm only visiting."

Here's her room:
Foyer table


Bathroom (not pictured: the large shower and the water closet)


Bed (there were tiny directed reading lights in the ceiling for each side of the bed)


View from Mom's room


My flash doesn't work so this hallway looks ultra eerie. I'd never set foot in this hotel before but several years ago I had a particularly vivid dream about a hotel with nearly identical hallways.


These classy phones had the hotel's insignia on the center of the dial. The insignia was very similar to that of the Hollywood Tower Hotel (Disney fans will love that)


more in next post...

Labels: downtown, nashville, opry