Imagine Dance Challenge- Day 3 (Monday) - No Limit Challenge, a Penske truck at the Parthenon, and a special award

We'd found out on Sunday that one of Abby's group routines made it to the No Limit Challenge that would be held on Monday evening at 6:30 pm. Abby's dance teacher wanted the girls to practice the routine at 3:00 pm. We had to check out of our hotel by 11:00 am. That gave us a few hours to explore Nashville a little bit. I had already done some research on things to do in Nashville and knew if we had a block of time that I wanted to go downtown to Centennial Park. The park is located near downtown Nashville and was about a twenty minute drive from the Opryland Gaylord.

Fun fact: I'd been to Nashville once before this trip. It was to run the Nashville Country Music Marathon in 2008. I drove down with some friends who were running the half and met up with a friend who'd moved to Georgia recently and was running the half. I remember so little about the trip except that my marathon time was bad (it was the first marathon that I ran after having three kids), my friend Heather from Georgia and I shared a room at the host hotel, a Marriott, and the hotel was located near the starting line of the marathon, and the view out of the window of our hotel room was Vanderbilt University's football field. That is just about all that I remember of the weekend. Anyway, as the girls and I were driving towards Centennial Park and I saw VU and recognized the Marriott where we stayed all those years ago for the marathon, I suddenly remembered why Centennial Park sounded so familiar to me- that is where the marathon started. I think that I blocked most of the details of the marathon from my mind but some of them started to come back to me as we approached Centennial Park.

Centennial Park was built to commemorate Nashville's Centennial Exposition in 1897. A full scale replica of the Parthenon was built as the piece d' resistance of the exposition/ park. Its detail to the actual Parthenon was so accurate, that when restoration work was needing to be done on the real Parthenon in Greece, workers from Greece came to Nashville to look at the Parthenon in Centennial Park. Pretty cool! Also cool, inside the Parthenon is an art museum. Unfortunately, the art museum is closed once a week and that day is Monday which is the day we were there. In addition to the Parthenon, Centennial Park has walking trails, a pond, a lake, a place for outdoor musical performances and more. I thought it was the perfect place to spend some time with the girls before Abby had to practice for the No Limits Challenge.


Here is one view of the Parthenon

Lots of interesting info...

Apparently, some women from the Nashville area were influential with the Women's Suffrage movement.

The back...

We walked around a pond and saw some duckies...

...and turtles

A family was throwing pieces of bread to the ducks. There were lots of takers.

I wanted to get some pictures of the girls in this pretty area. But it started to rain and then Abby received a phone call.

I took this picture of Abby while she was on the phone with Tammy. Tammy called Abby to tell her that Abby was going to be receiving a special award at the competition and asked if we could come to the next award session to receive it. Well, yes, we could do that. With the rain and all, our time at the park would need to be cut short anyway. And how exciting that Abby would be receiving another award!

We stopped to take a few more photos before heading back to the Opryland.

This was the front of the Parthenon- a Penske truck was parked smack dab in front of it.

Kinda of took away from the aesthetic of the building...

At the Opryland Event Center, Abby was one of six recipients of a Showmanship Award. The awards were given to dancers whom judges had noticed in group routines had stood out for their excellent showmanship. There were probably at least 500 dancers at this competition so to be noticed in this way by the judges was really an accomplishment.

Soon after those awards ended, it was time to get ready for the No Limits Challenge. The girls practiced at the Opryland's convention center although the performance would be at the events center. They got ready at the convention center, too. Isabelle and Abby hung out together while they were getting ready.

The girls plus Mikayla, Isabella's sister

Here is the view from where we were sitting in the convention center. Pretty pretty!

The girls pose before performing Wild Party one last time at the No Limits Challenge.

After the girls performed, Abby changed back into street clothes and I took pictures of her with her showmanship plaque.

The No Limits Challenge started at 6:30 pm. We thought that it would conclude in two or two and half hours and then we'd head out of Nashville for home. The event ended up taking waaaaaay longer than that. It ended around 10:00 pm which was 11:00 pm our time (Eastern). We rolled into Springboro around 4:40 am (no stops! I'd gassed up and we'd emptied bladders before we left). Not a fun drive but one advantage of being a bad sleeper is that I never have to worry about falling asleep at the wheel :). The girls did not finish the No Limits Challenge in the top three (they were competing against seven others). Below is a picture of the trophies for the top three finishers; alas, these alluded us.