I woke up on day 3 of CMA Fest wondering how anything could be as good as the night before. We were all beginning to feel a little worn out. The free breakfast at the hotel was starting to lose its luster. Have you ever had that experience where even though there are tons of choices, since the choices have been the same each day, there’s no longer anything you want? My made-to-order omelet was not as good as the day before, and there were no cheese grits. Nothing looked or tasted good, except the fresh fruit. That was still amazing.
We were going on a tour of the Yazoo brewery at 3:30, and I wanted to drive down music row. Other than that, we didn’t have any plans. Heather wasn’t happy with how her “I heart country music” t-shirt fit, so she wanted to get another one. So we headed down to Broadway after breakfast to do that. We tried to talk the guys into getting shirts, but they said the shirts were too dark and heavy. So we used their e-mail addresses and got another shirt for ourselves.
Carhartt was giving away these very cute pink bags at their booth in the convention center, and Heather and I really wanted one. We went over there, but were told they weren’t giving them away until 1:30.
There wasn’t really anything else we wanted to do. No one wanted to go to listen to music at the Riverfront or other stages. We had explored everything else. I suggested going to the Country Music Hall of Fame, or tour the Ryman, but no one wanted to do that. We were hot. And tired. We decided to go back to the hotel…we got some frozen Starbucks drinks and relaxed in the lobby, reading books and catching up on Facebook.
Later that afternoon, we got in the car, and drove to what was possibly Music Row-I’m not sure. It wasn’t much, but I had been told not to expect much. Then we went to this place that sold homemade popsicles, called Las Paletas. I found it online, but when we got there, Heather realized she had seen it on Food Network. It was amazing. There were several interesting flavors, and people filed in the shop, asked for their popsicles, paid and left. The line never ended. Heather and I got avocado flavor, and the boys got chocolate with chili. They were really good, but I felt like I rushed through mine and didn’t enjoy it because I was concerned about making it to the brewery tour on time. I really wanted to get another one and try to savor it, but I resisted the temptation.
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| Enjoying our popsicles! |
There was a gourmet burger place next to the popsicle store that looked really good. We could see people eating delicious looking burgers and stacks of onion rings through the window. We decided we would come back for dinner.
We headed off to Yazoo brewery for a fun tour and some delicious beer.
Then we headed back to the burger place, “Burger-Up”. We started with fried mushrooms and a cheese spread-delicious. Then our burgers came…the boys got more basic ones, beef with cheddar and some other toppings. Heather and I split a beef burger with pesto and goat cheese, and a lamb burger with goat cheese and some other toppings. Although the boys’ burgers tasted good (we had bites), ours did not. The beef tasted really strong, almost “off”, and the lamb was even stronger. Since the boys’ tasted ok-we wondered if the goat cheese or the pesto was what made it taste bad. Anyway, it was a big disappointment. Thankfully, the onion rings were crazy good.
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| I took this photo because one of our cooks always invites me to eat at her school and describes the food as "bangin', yo"...as in 'come have some bbq chicken; it's bangin', yo." |
Concert time! The only artist I was dying to see that night was Little Big Town, so I wondered how the concert would go. The evening started with Chris Young, and then it was Little Big Town’s turn. I love them, but they chose a weird set, I thought, for CMA Fest. They did “A Little More You”, “Shut Up Train”, “Born This Way” (EPIC!), “Little White Church”, another slow one, and “Boondocks”. I thought it was weird that they didn’t perform “Kiss Goodbye” or “The Reason Why”. Also, slow songs at CMA Fest are mood killers. You get the audience on their feet, singing and dancing along, and then you sing a slow song. Guess what happens-everyone sits down. Or goes and gets a beer.
Josh Turner was next, and as he was singing “Your Man”, the crowd went crazy. I couldn’t figure out why at first, but then I saw that Scotty McCreery had joined him on stage. After Josh was Trace Atkins, and then Martina McBride, who was joined by Lauren Alaina, again to a screaming crowd. Martina McBride enjoyed a standing ovation, but we felt she kind of “milked” it…instead of moving on with her set, she just let the crowd keep cheering for her. Rascal Flatts went last. They handed out lights to everyone in the audience, and we were to turn them on during “I Won’t Let Go”. Perhaps you will see that on TV! They closed their set with a medley of songs from my high school and college days that they performed with Little Big Town. That was great! Thompson Square also performed 2 songs between sets, and Big & Rich with Gretchen Wilson performed the “Fake ID” song.
Every performance was very good-I enjoyed the night much more than I thought I would. Of course, though, I am partial to Little Big Friends.
We headed back to the hotel, and had a drink in the bar before turning in. It was 1 AM, every table and seat was taken, and there was one server. Poor thing! But she did great. Heather’s chocolate martini was the winner.
Tomorrow-Pancakes and Bucky Covington
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