April 11, 2014

Basketball: Four Days Four Ways

Oh how I love you basketball. More specifically, college basketball. I enjoy NBA/Pro but I just don't get into it like I do college. One of my friends wanted to go to the Women's Final Four in Nashville TN and basically paid my way for everything so it was a trip I couldn't refuse. 

Last Saturday night was a thrilling night as Kentucky Men's basketball defeated Wisconsin down to the last shot by a freshman. Ok - the freshman part, not so impressive when your whole team is basically freshman. Anyways, we had gone out to eat to watch the games and the vibes in Lexington were insane and wonderful all at the same time. Best part were the idiots at the college contained themselves and didn't burn any couches. Yes they burn things when we WIN (should be opposite).

Sunday we packed up and headed for Nashville around 11:00am and got in around 2:00pm, checked into our hotel and headed downtown to get involved in the Women's Final Four pre-game activities. The first game was at 6:00ish and we got free food pre game. Notre Dame (who I love) won the first match-up and UConn (who I despise) won the second. Had to buy a Notre Dame T-Shirt to try and offset the number of UConn fans that flooded Nashville for Tuesday's final.
Tickets!

Monday we spent the day sightseeing around the city and ate delicious BBQ. For the evening, we had scouted out the best place to watch the Men's Championship game against UConn. Yes UConn had their team in the Men's and Women's championship game at this point. We found a local SMALL bar that the Nashville division of UK alumni was having a game party. Talk about being crammed like sardines. It was great though to be in the company of all Kentucky fans when the city was full of UConn nut jobs (sorry to any of you that are UConn fans but holy crap!). In the end, Kentucky lost what would of been the college's 9th Championship but super proud of the team! We got farther than anyone expected and I love being part of the Big Blue Nation insanity.

Downtown Nashville from the pedestrian bridge.
Tuesday I slept in as late as possible before having to get up, shower and grab breakfast before hotel checkout. Game started at 7:30 so we had plenty of time to kill again. Not a huge country music person, so the Country Music Hall of Fame was cool to go to, but definitely more worth it for a die hard fan. My goal for the day turned into finding any reference to non country music possible. I succeeded somewhat. After walking around the city more and more free pre-game food it was game time. Notre Dame didn't show up to play, it was a terrible game and in the end UConn won... Was still a fun game to watch, and the girl that I was sitting next to was a nice UConn fan so it was a nice break from the others surrounding us. 
Sightings of non country names in the country hall of fame! Made my day.
 
Championship game time!
We drove back after the game, getting back to Lexington around 2:30am on Wednesday. I slept on and off most of the day fighting what I think ended up being a slight stomach bug. I had no appetite and had cold sweats for 5-6 hours. I finally saw my ponies yesterday. This weekend I work Sunday, which would normally be my day off but at least I don't work late either day. Horses are being switched to nighttime turnout today so yay for less dirty stall from Dakota. Echo is still in when it's rainy / muddy / wet out so I'm sure she will be a beast tonight since it's rainy today. Hopefully I can ride Dakota at some point this weekend!

Nashville = capitol of Tennessee. Capitol building...
Full size replica from the Parthenon in Greece. I just know it symbolizes Nashville as the Athens of the south. No idea what the building was / is in Athens. I didn't go in, but it was cool building. I think the one in Nashville is an art museum inside. 
Delicious BBQ!
I became slightly obsessed with the architecture/ shape of this building. 
Entrance to the country music hall of fame.
Won't lie - saw the work jockey and it took me far longer than I wish to admit to realize they didn't mean racing jockey's. 
Whole lotta gold and platinum records. 
Inductee plaques at the hall of fame. 
More non country!
This is how I feel about anything Elvis. A giant thumbs down. 

3 comments:

  1. Don't lie you were happy to see JT's name!

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    1. Oh... I was. Especially since he outsold a country singer. I would have been devastated had it been flipped. I like Eminem too, just not on a JT level.

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  2. What a fun way to spend a couple of days :-D

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