Day 40 - Nashville, Tennessee

We have had glorious sunshine all day today, though it has been chilly still. We intended to get breakfast at Monell's, a Nashville institution, but by the time we got there they were full for the breakfast serving, so we decided to get lunch (or what is called the 'Sunday meal') there and have a stroll around Germantown while we waited for the next serving to start. A pleasant neighbourhood, and the first settlement in Nashville over 200 years ago, it still has many of the original houses and churches from those times.

The Sunday meal was spectacular! Served family-style, we were seated at a long table in the oldest part of the restaurant with a dozen others, whom we got to know as the meal progressed. Most of them were Vanderbilt students, several at the school of nursing and a couple in pre-med, so Nancy marketed the informatics option! But the food! Dishes and bowls kept appearing - coleslaw, broccoli salad, pickled vegetables, corn pudding (delicious!), 'breakfast casserole' (potatoes, onions and sausage in a scrambled egg mix), mashed potatoes, turnip greens (like Greek horta), biscuits, corn bread, meat loaf with tomato sauce, southern fried chicken, green beans - I think that was everything! And to finish a wonderful chocolate brownie, of which I could only manage 2 bites.

Barely able to move, we drove out through the Bicentennial Park, and headed out to Long Hunter State Park, where we attended the Tennessee State Pow-Wow! We had a wonderful time listening to the drumming and singing, and watching the competing dancers, from under-5s to seniors, traditional, shawl, jingle dress, fancy, grass, from the various different regions of the US and Canada. We finished up by wandering around the various craft stalls, admiring rugs, jewellery, leather work, weaving, and pottery.

Finished up the day with dinner at La Paz, with excellent shrimp fajitas (I couldn't even finish half of mine!) and margaritas, together with Nancy and her nephew Chris, who also lives in Nashville. Spent most of the time talking about food - Chris loves cooking!