Sparks Start a Flyin' Like the 4th of July

What a weekend! Justin and I were able to get in lots of fair food and fireworks! A lot happened this weekend in Nashville, so I'm going to break it down by festivals.



FRIDAY
FREEDOM FESTIVAL

On Friday, we met up with another couple and their two kids and headed to our town's festival in search of fair food while we waited for fireworks. We got there a few hours early, parked the car, and walked over to the park. We each found the place that we wanted to get food and then met up to eat together. Justin and I were really hoping to find elephant ears, but had no luck. All we could find were funnel cakes. Our friends (who are originally from Kentucky) had never even heard of elephant ears. I thought they were crazy! From what I learned throughout the weekend, apparently elephant ears are a northern thing. No one down here has had them! They don't know what they're missing! Before it got too dark, we headed back to the car, pulled out our chairs and enjoyed the fireworks show.




SATURDAY
HOT CHICKEN FESTIVAL

Justin and I got up Saturday morning and headed into East Nashville to enjoy the Hot Chicken Festival. For those of you who are not familiar with hot chicken, check out some of my earlier posts or visit http://www.nashvillehotchickenfestival.com/ to learn more. By no means was this festival in the best part of town, but it definitely wasn't the worst either. The restaurant I usually go to to get my hot chicken was not participating in this year's festival, so I wanted to try another place, Prince's. Prince's Hot Chicken, from what I understand, is the original. As we were trying to find the end of the line for this vendor, we couldn't believe how long it was. Justin looked at me with that, "Are you serious?" look. Luckily, we found out the extremely long line was for the free hot chicken samples. We waited in line for probably 40 minutes in the hot and humid weather. By the time we got up to place our order, they were already out of the mild and hot flavors, which meant we were stuck with medium. I was a little worried about Justin, as this was his first try at hot chicken. He doesn't typically do spicy food, and I was pretty sure this was going to kick his butt. We had taken our own water, but drank most of it in line due to the heat. So, I told Justin he should probably get some lemonade to quench his thirst. Luckily, we were able to find a shady spot to sit down and enjoy our lunch. The hot chicken was great and Justin enjoyed it. I'm glad we got in line when we did. When we went to leave, I heard the time in line had gone up to 2 hours. Early reports are saying that 7000 - 8000 people showed up!




NASHVILLE FIREWORKS

What an adventure! We boarded the train and headed into Nashville. The crowds of people at Riverfront Park was unbelievable! I heard that some people started camping out at 9:00 AM that morning just to get a seat. Justin looked at me like I was crazy when I told him I wanted to go down and find a place to sit. We were actually able to find a nice little spot down at the park to set up our blanket and wait for the fireworks. Around this same time, we received a text message from a friend telling us about the shooting of Steve McNair. Having no other details than that, I have to admit that I was concerned about our safety. For all I knew, there could be a murderer on the loose amongst all these people (We later found out that this was not suspected to be the case.) What a crazy day in Nashville to say the least!

After we got all set up, we decided to go and try to find some food. This is when all the fun began. It started to sprinkle! I told Justin that I didn't want to go too far to get food. We found something close by and headed back to our spot. Then, it started to rain a little harder. I pulled out my umbrella and we huddled up underneath it. The rain kept coming down, and all I could think was that we were stuck in this all night. Since we brought the train in, we couldn't leave. I had also found out that the fireworks would go on regardless of the weather situation. It finally stopped raining and Justin and I made it though without being too wet.



With the rain clearing, they started the music back up, but we were told that there was more to come. Justin and I pulled up the radar on our cell phones and were coming to the realization that we were going to get soaked! They only let Wynona sing a few songs because they decided to start the fireworks early due to impending severe weather headed our way. THANK GOODNESS!!! The symphony began playing, the fireworks began shooting up into the air, and wow...what a show! I've never seen fireworks like this! About 5-10 minutes into the show, it started sprinkling again, and then raining a little harder. THEN, the wind picked up and the fireworks began to shift in the sky. We knew this wasn't good. Out of nowhere, it began raining...and not a nice steady rain, but torrential downpour-monsoon type rain. There was no hiding from it either. Justin and I were DRENCHED! We stuck it out, watched the rest of the show, then got the heck out of there after the grand finale. By the time we got back to the train, there was not a dry piece of clothing on our bodies. I'm not even joking when I say that I was dripping wet.


All in all, the show was pretty amazing! Would we do it again?...Maybe. But, probably not down at the park.