Wish upon a star in Nashville

Let's preface this by saying I'm NOT a country music fan...

But even I can see the attraction of Nashville, Tennessee.

It's a town of about one million people, with a throbbing compact downtown area and is filled to the brim with music and dreams.

Everywhere you go, from the local shopping mall to the biggest clubs and venues, there's someone strumming out a tune and singing their heart out.

And I'm slowly coming around to the idea that a song should tell a story. I still think there's a bit too much personal information for my liking, but I can see how some find the heartfelt nature of this music appealing.

On our first day here we visited the Grand Ole Opry area and had a massive bit of luck.

Firstly, let me explain that we are really mean parents who allow our kids to LOOK in amusement arcades but never give them any coins to put in the machines.

For instance, if our kids see shopping centre rides and hop on board we might wobble the thing back and forth with our hands, but that's as good as it gets.

So perhaps this guy saw our poor deprived children pressing all the buttons in the arcade and getting no love back from the games but he just walked up and gave Indy and Dash free cards for unlimited play as he was leaving.

Okay, so guess where we stayed for the next five hours!

When we finally tore ourselves away, Indy told us (holding back tears) that all his dreams had come true.

Thanks free-card man, wherever you may be!

The next day we caught a shuttle into downtown Nashville and roamed the city streets with Dash unleashing his cool moves and air guitar out the front of every bar.

Sometimes there is so much live music that you can hear the cacophony of four or more performances simultaneously.

We walked the pedestrian bridge to check out the river and took in lunch at the Wild Horse Saloon.

More luck....

Disney on Ice was playing at the Arena. It happened to be the Princesses and Heroes version (which maybe is a bit more oriented to girls) but it was the right place and right time.

Sometimes you forget how awesome it is to watch something live.

The kids were enthralled, and we enjoyed it too - the lighting, the costumes, all of the skating stunts.

It was pretty magical actually.

Maybe Nashville is the place where dreams really do come true.