Celebrating Independence!

Exactly a week later, I'm reflecting on how we celebrated the Fourth of July. If you remember from earlier posts, our friends Joe and Christine were in town, but left the morning of the fourth. To ensure they enjoyed their holiday weekend, we made sure to do a few cool things on Sunday, the third. 

On Joe and Christine's last full day in Nashville, we did what every tourist in Nashville should do: visited the Grand Ole Opry. We didn't see a show, but instead took the backstage tour. It was really neat to learn the history of the Opry. Our tour guide told us about each room in the Opry as well as how the Opry was affected by the flood in 2010. We also had the chance to stand center stage and sing a song. Maybe one day Brandon will have the chance to play guitar or have a song he wrote sang on that same stage. 

Joe and Christine at the Opry.

The Opry Post Office

The bling-bling dressing room.

This shows how high the water was after the flood.

Brandon and I at the Opry. The lighter wood center is from the Ryman Auditorium. 

Joe and Christine, center stage. 

In addition to touring the Opry, we also gave Joe and Christine a tour of Music Row and a few celebrity houses. Remember my post about John Rich's house (of country band Big and Rich)? I took a picture of it this time so you could see how ridiculous it is: 

After Joe and Christine left, Brandon and I relaxed until later on the fourth, when we met with friends to watch fireworks. Among the many great things about Nashville is the lack of laws concerning fireworks. We watched the downtown fireworks from the top of a parking garage on campus, but we could see firework shows in nearby neighborhoods/cities surrounding the garage. Literally, we saw at least five different firework shows that night. The downtown show was the biggest and best. Here are a few pictures and one video from it: 

The video is a bit shaky - Sorry!

I loved watching the fireworks - the only thing that would have made it better is if we were actually downtown. Brandon and I decided that next year, we're going to fight the crowds in order to be closer to the firework show. We're still very happy with how we celebrated - we were in great company and had a wonderful time! 

Our company for the fireworks.