Nashville, Tennessee

Last weekend I "surprised" Blake with a little get-away, in celebration of his Step 1 being over. I say "surprised" because a dear friend, cough Kelsey cough, and I may have talked ALL about the upcoming Nashville trip in front of Blake weeks prior. Whoops. Didn't even realize until it was too late. Either way, we were both beyond excited to hop on a plane to Tennessee. Not only did we get to explore a new city, but we got to spend some sweet time with our great friends Julie and Josh! What could be better?

Four days went by so fast.  

Day one. We went over to Musician's Corner at Centenniel park. Live music, and some blanket laying, two of my favorite things.

Here's the Parthenon, in TN.

 Blake found a friend, of course. 

Dinner was take-out from Loveless Cafe. The biscuits, oh the biscuits. Right after you think life can't get any better, you remember the chocolate fudge pie you made your husband buy you. Oh heavens. 

Day two. A little downtown wandering. 

Saw the old Ryman Auditorium. 

And, the batman building. 

Then, grabbed lunch in the Biergarten at Pharmacy Burger. 

We ate some delicious food. Blake and I were pretty disappointed when we got home to Dallas and had to eat normal food again.

The downtime was filled with a lot of this.

Sweet Webster

We stumbled into a Bluegrass Jam Session, and it's official, I'm a fan. It was so cool to see young people and old people get together with their instruments and just create music for the fun and love of it. 


Day three.



We drove a little out of town to canoe down the Harpeth.
I am sad to not have any pictures from on the river, but the name of our rental place was tip-a-canoe and I was not about to take any chances on my iPhone surviving. But flanking each side of the river were Hawaii-like lush greenness, beautiful trees, and a little family of ducks. It was perfect.
The night ended right with Settlers and homemade taquitos.

Day four. We headed out to the new Grand Ole Opry. Pretty much the most touristy thing one could do, but we took the tour. It was surprisingly interesting.

This piece of wood flooring is from the original Ryman and has been sung on by Elvis, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Alan Jackson, and on and on. Crazy.


On kind of a reflective note... I sometimes feel stuck in Dallas. Like I'm waiting for the next big step, and I'm ready for it, but it's still a couple years away. It was more than refreshing to just spend time talking with J & J, nothing else, but just good old fashioned talking. It truly was like a tiny reboot for my soul.

Nashville was so fun. And, good to know, they have a pretty incredible residency program there... I could totally do Nashville, you know.. If I could just pick... We'll see!