Today Was Lit, Like Lightning Bugs

Today was our last full day in Nashville before officially starting VSA. We had a pretty laid back itinerary planned for the day, with breakfast planned but the rest of the day up to us, hopefully working in a few other activities around the city. 

Joceline posing with the Loveless Cafe neon

The main activity we had planned for today was going to the Loveless Cafe, a restaurant famous for it’s breakfast. In order to get to the cafe in time, as its about a half hour from our hotel, we were all downstairs ready to go by 9 AM. I grabbed a banana before heading out, as I wasn't sure what kind of a wait we would have at the cafe. That action of mine ended up saving me, as upon arriving at the cafe, after a short car ride filled with pop music, we were told the wait for a table was about an hour and twenty minutes. Yes, you read that right.

Luckily, the Loveless Cafe sits in the middle of a small property, and stationed around it there are some fun gift shops that you can browse while you wait. We worked our way through these stores, it was fun looking at the selections of items which ranged from gag gifts to sophisticated art featuring the city of Nashville. We came across the Parcel Store, where you can send items, such as the Loveless Cafe’s signature preserves or honey, to your friends and family (or even to yourself). A few of us decided to send a postcard to people back home, but were interrupted by our buzzer going off (the one that notified us that the tables were ready-yay!) so we quickly finished up and went to enjoy a truly amazing meal. 

I had looked at the Lovless Cafe’s menu earlier, so I came into the restaurant having a bit of an idea about what it would be like. I wasn't wrong, per say, the food was just as homey as I had imagined, but the ambience of the restaurant is what really impressed me. I felt like I was eating in a families house, all the servers were personable and positive, and they really wanted you to feel at home. Maybe it’s just the southern accent, but pretty much everyone I’ve met here has been personable in a way people back home aren't (for the most part). They ask us questions about where were from, and actually want to know the answers, and it’s comforting when they tell you about their stories and experiences. It makes you feel like your not quite 2,300 miles away from your family.

Chocolate chip pancakes!

Also, the killer chocolate chip pancakes helped with the vibe. They were each about an inch thick, and absorbed syrup like no other pancake I’ve ever seen. My order came with three pancakes, and I was only able to finish what I decided was about 5/8ths of one because of how filling they were (and maybe the three biscuits I had prior to them, I’ll get to that in a bit). We took our leftovers to go, and I’m looking foreword to my midnight snack tonight.

As I mentioned, we were also served homemade biscuits, each of us had three, and each of us could have exclusively eaten those for breakfast and been completely satisfied. The biscuits came with three different preserves, my personal favorite was the blackberry, but all of them were readily good. The blackberry preserve wasn't too sweet, and you could tell it was made of actual fruit, something thats increasingly a rare thing to come across. The other two were peach and strawberry flavored. Imagine the sweetest peach you've ever tasted, multiply the intense feeling of bliss you have when you eat something so perfect (we all know that feeling) by ten, and there you have the taste of the peach preserve, and the same goes for strawberry. They were all so delicious.  

A friend we made at the plantation 

We finished up our breakfast and drove over to the Belle Meade Plantation, where we took at tour of the large mansion house that is the plantations main attraction, afterwards walking around the grounds and viewing smaller buildings. I was really excited to tour the mansion, architecture has always been of interest to me, so being able to experience a mansion of that quality which has been curated ever so carefully was really fun. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the mansion because of how fragile the artifacts within the house are. I don’t know if I can do the house’s furniture and other articacts justice through my writing, so I encourage any of you to visit it yourself (you'll be happy you did). While on the tour we were taken through each main room, where we were shown portraits of various family members, five generations of the Hardings had lived in the house, portraits of their most prized possessions, their horses, and given the opportunity to look at the furniture and learn more about basic life in the past.

I mentioned the horses in the last paragraph, the Hardings were heavily invested in horse racing.  They were the proud owners of numerous studs, one of which, Bonnie Scotland, fathered many prize wining thoroughbreds. These horses were the main source of income for the family, which I found very interesting as horses don't generally come to mind when you think about plantations. We finished our tours and then explored the property more, visiting other buildings and reading more about the families history. 

Our massive rice crispy treats

Directly after we were finished at the plantation we went to the famous Bluebird Cafe, this was my favorite part of the day (once we got in to the cafe, that is). The restaurant is famous for its live music, so much that people line up outside before performances hours early in order to get seats. We were told this so we arrived about two hours early, and then sat in what little shade we could find until the doors opened at around 5:30 PM. I’m not sure how exactly we kept busy for so long, Evan and I played a game of Life on my phone and Joceline and I ate a massive rice crispy treat, but within what didn't seemed like not too much time we were inside and ready to listen to some music.

I had no idea who was playing, a woman waiting in line with us mentioned that it was an Australian guy, but that wasn't very specific. I’m actually happy that we didn't know the artists, though, because it was really cool to go in without any expectations and be completely amazed. I've been to concerts before, but ones with hundreds and thousands of people, not intimate venues such as the Bluebird Cafe. Because of that, this experience is one that I’ll remember forever. There were five musicians on stage, four singers and one guitarist, all of them were good friends but each had a different back story and style. Bruce Wallace played my favorite music, he had really funny backstories and kept the crowd engaged with his songs about a taxi diver named Charlie, and a girls high standards for dating, that song was titled Emily’s List (heres the link to the song, if you'd like to check it out https://www.reverbnation.com/brucewallace). All of the artists had their own styles, and I enjoyed getting to hear a variety of music in such an intimate setting. 

A poster at the cafe

There was a special performance mid show that was really exciting, a young man by the name of Adam was called up about halfway through the preformsnce by one of the artists to share a song with all of us. I was slightly confused as to why a stranger in the crowd would be playing, but Adam quickly introduced himself and shared that he writes songs for a living but doesn't usually perform them as he's more behind the scenes. When I heard this I couldn't help but question why, exactly, he was up there in the first place is he didn't like performing, but it was then revealed that he was sharing a song written for his girlfriend. He played his song, titled Needle and Thread, and towards the end he sang a verse about getting down on one knee. Adam proposed to his now fiancé, Katie. It was a cute end to our night, and all of the crowd enjoyed the fact that we got to witness such a special moment for the couple. 

After leaving the cafe we went on a last minute trip to take some pictures at Vanderbilt, it was successful but took much longer than expected. Also it was a lot more walking than I had guessed, but I really enjoyed getting to spend time with my cohort trying out silly poses for pictures. After this we headed back to the hotel, again very tired after a fun but full day in Nashville.  

The Bluebird Cafe as we left