Lemon-Lyman: Vacation, part 1

So we got back from our first-ever weeklong vacation yesterday. I believe it was also the first substantive time I've taken off of any job apart from holidays. It was a very good trip, with an activity itinerary mostly planned by Sarah and a dining itinerary mostly planned by me. Thus I think we struck a good balance of expending and consuming calories.

Our route, traveled by car, took us from our home in Chicagoland all the way to Southern Florida and back, with overnight stays in Nashville, Jacksonville, Orlando, Clearwater, Gainesville, Atlanta and Pigeon Forge (Tenn.) Here are some highlights of the first leg:

Tennessee, round 1

The first day of our trip took us to Nashville, Tennessee, where we met up with our friend Dea. We toured a little around downtown where Dea's apartment is located, saw her top-tier law school (Vanderbilt), ate a behemoth meal at a restaurant called Monell's, and then did very touristy things around Broadway, also known as Nash Vegas.

I found Nashville to have less charm than I'd expected, though parts of it were nice. The best parts, aside from seeing Dea, were eating at Monell's and meeting a dog named Chloe in one of the countless Western Wear/kitch shops on Broadway.

Monell's is a restaurant located in a converted house the Germantown neighborhood. It has a varying nightly menu of Southern cuisine, served family style. Parties are seated together at tables with other guests in the order in which they arrive, so it forces some degree of sociability with total strangers. Dishes such as skillet fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, cheesy hashbrowns, green beans, biscuits, catfish, pulled pork, meatloaf, mac and cheese, etc. are brought out of the kitchen in large bowls to be passed around tables. All you can eat, along with never-emptied glasses of sweet tea.