Wil Says:
9/07
Wednesday was our first non-travel day. We went down to the
complimentary hotel breakfast and soon we thought we were in a hospital lobby.
We picked up our food from the buffet and grabbed chairs at
a long high table. The woman opposite immediately started talking to us and
Anita, bless her kind soul, responded and asked her about herself. She was
there visiting her son in the ICU of the nearby hospital. The guy 3 chairs down
listened to the conversation and soon joined in that he was a 2 month survivor
of an heart transplant. While these people were shedding their personal medical
trials and tribulations a guy walked in looking like he just got up from the
table of brain surgery. All bandaged up.
It was a relief when Gary picked us up to take us on a tour
of the city, showed us his house and took us to lunch. After dropping us off it
was nap time again.
As the day was fading we took the shuttle to downtown. Main
street is packed with bars and live music blasting from everywhere.
We strolled
around for an hour or two before returning to the hotel for the evening.
That’s it for today.
Anita Says:
Today, we stayed put and enjoyed a day of rest while
visiting an old friend and exploring the city.
The weather was still good, but we are not used to the hot
and humid.
The hotel was a little “odd”. I picked a hotel close to
Music Row, but what I did not know was that it was center to all kinds of
Hospitals – cancer centers, heart transplant center, etc and teaching hospitals
from the VanderBilt University.
Lest did I know that the Lord had a plan, he brought several
people over my path during breakfast that morning that needed prayer – a mother
whose 25 yrs old son had a stroke and was in ICU, another patient who was there
for a check-up after a heart transplant, one more patient with some or other
head contraption looking like he is from a scene out of Matrix.
As if the introduction at breakfast was not enough. During
the day my cough and sore throat worsened and on our quest for a pharmacy we
ended up in a store where they provide IV feeding for cancer patients/medication
for kidney transplants and they sent us to one of the hospitals.
Still not done yet, at the end of the day as we were on our
way home from a night out in town, the hotel buss stopped at the cancer center
to pick up a visitor who stayed in our hotel. Mmmmm….God always has a plan.
Gary picked us up around 9:30 am from our hotel for a visit
to his home and a tour through the city. Gary was born and raised here, so we
trust that he knows the area quite well. He is an architect friend of mine (I
worked with him at John Wayne Airport) who moved here in January after
retirement. We enjoyed driving through his quiet, oldish neighborhood, but very
neat. According to Gary, his close neighbors are all original residents (homes
were constructed in the 50ties) as was his aunt from whom he inherited the
home.
The inside of his home is out of an “architect’s magazine” –
no words to describe.
He received the “home of the month” award from his Home
Owners Association.The lots are so big, and it is so green! I think the west
coast starved me – I couldn’t get enough of the green.
We detoured through the city
on our way to the Parthenon, an exact replica of the
original one in Greece.
The building was surrounded by a tranquil lake and peaceful
park.
We had a great lunch with Gary and returned to the hotel for
an afternoon nap to escape the humid heat of Nashville.
In the afternoon we walked downtown. The buildings impressed
me.
And I loved the bicycle station. Check out a bike here,
explore the city and park whenever you are tired check the bike back into a
similar station same or different venue.
Downtown was bright and musicky. It was a cacophony of sounds
as the one bar’s music drowned out the next.
This was not exactly our scene on a Thursday night.
Until we speak again.
