4th in the music city

Events in Nashville have really spoiled me, I now think every event or activity has to have a live band involved. There is no other way, the radio isn't going to cut it anymore folks.

Before I jump into the my activities from the 4th we need to rewind to the 3rd. Our neighboring town of Smyrna held their fireworks & fun on the 3rd of July. So me & a few friends struggled our way into a parking spot & made our way to the Recreation Park. It was hoppin'. The whole town was there, plus more. We watched the bands for a little while, then decided to go look around at all the fun things that were going on.

This place was kid heaven. I'd never seen so many blow-up/bouncy things. There were TWO bouncy houses, a blow-up slide, a blow-up basketball court, & more. There was face painting, a rock wall, a little train to ride around, and any other "fair" game you can think of. It was overflowing with stands selling snow cones & italian ice, fried turkey legs, pizza, hot dogs, funnel cake, you name it. I did not buy a single thing...I did get a free peach & a free glow stick bracelet though!! YES!

After walking around & waiting in the longest bathroom line ever, we made our way to the grass to watch the fireworks. I was impressed. My favorite firework was this awesome glittery gold one that fell down like a waterfall!! I couldn't get enough, but that was only a taste of firework awesomeness.

Later that night when Brady got home we made a midnight trip to Wally World & got some ingredients for his families famous Chocolate Pancake/Vanilla syrup breakfast that we were hosting the next day. We got carried away & decided to buy some sweet patriotic shirts while we were there too.

On to the 4th.....we woke up, brushed our teeth...too much detail? oh, ok, sorry. After our chocolate pancake party we suited up & headed for the pool! We played way too many games of 500 & Brady got fried (even though he drenched himself in sunscreen). On the way out we stopped at this little BBQ joint called Bar-B-Cuties. Pretty tasty, but nothing special.

When we got to downtown we explored a little, took pictures, then shoved our way through the crowd to, almost, the front of the stage. We stayed for the national anthem, flag ceremony, & a few songs from the band Striking Matches until we almost got a few cigarette burns & our second-hand smoke headache got too bad. We walked up to the bridge & got to see the stadium that the fireworks were going to be lit at. Then we made our way over to the Tennessee Towers where we would watch them.

 

A little back story....our first sunday in our new ward we met a nice lady named Kim. The 4th of July got brought up & it turned out that she worked at the Tennessee Towers & she was going to be watching the fireworks on top of the building! Then she invited us!! back to the story...

We went up the 30 stories to the top of the building & parked our chairs right in front of the railing on the 2nd tallest building in Nashville & got to watch the 2nd best firework show (last year's rating) in America. IT. WAS. AWESOME. Watching 27 minutes of musically choreographed fireworks from on top of a building was THE coolest. It even made the 1 hour wait to get out of our stall in the parking garage worth it.

This was by far the best 4th I've ever had/will ever have again.