Our Nashville Vacation/Honeymoon

Even though we have been married for almost 12 years now, we never really had a honeymoon - and never really took a vacation just for ourselves. So...we are calling our recent July 4th trip to Nashville our honeymoon! It was a really great trip to a truly fun city.

Jeff planned the whole trip-here is what we did:
Thursday, July 3rd

• Arrived in Nashvile around 7ish pm - only took us about 3.5 hrs to drive there
  
• Checked into our very cool and modern downtown hotel, Hotel Indigo, and ate some very posh food and drank a great bottle of wine (Juxtaposition cab) at a restaurant called Flyte
  

Friday, July 4th

• Took a tour - yes, Jeff booked a bus tour :o) - of downtown Nashville, where we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame (see the pic below of the bldg with the large piano keys at the top), the Ryman Auditorium (see theater balcony pic below with the stained glass windows), music / producers row, Broadway street with all of the famous honky tonk bars - i.e. Tootsies, where we did see an up and coming young star called, The Outlaw Kid - Tyler Dickerson. And...little known fact is that Nashville is called the 'Athens of the South' because of the numerous schools and hospitals in the city. They also have an excact replica of the Parthenon!




• Afternoon bus tour was a tour of the star's homes, which included Dolly Pardon (pic to the bottom of soutern-style white home with pillars and July 4th banners in front), Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, one of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's homes, Minnie Pearl, a very modest in a somewhat 'normal' subdivision Trace Adkin's home, an d both Brooks and Dunn home just to name a few.




• Friday evening was dinner at a local restaurant named, Sunset Grill, - where we saw just a few fireworks - and then spent some time a local bar called, the Villager Tavern. (These were both very close to the Vanderbilt and Belmont campuses.) Ironically, the bartender at the Villager spent about 6 years living in Chesterfield, MO - and working at Imo's!

Saturday, July 5th

• Each of us had 1 a hr massage!
  
• Lunch at a famous cajun / bbq restaurant called, South Street


• Was going to tour the micro-brewery called, Yazoo, - but when we got there, we just drank the beer instead and thought it was too hot to take a tour!


• On our way to the showboat, we drove by the Grand Ole Opry and took a little driving tour of Opryland


• Dinner was on the General Jackson showboat, where we actually had a really good dinner, met some cool people (e.g. we met one of the producers of the show, Nashville Star) at our table and saw Tina Turner, Elton John and Elvis sing!

Wow - it was packed weekend, but we already have plans to go back since it is so close and a very exciting town! Enjoy some of the pics of the trip!

More of our Grogan

Ok....so it has been a while since the last post and Grogan has grown into an adult cat! I can't believe it has almost been a year since he became a part of our little family. This is my first male cat, and boy - his personality sure does differ from the other famales I have had! He is extremely friendly and very needy.

Although Nina played fetch pretty well, Grogan will play fetch forever - and will even go up and down stairs to bring the toys back to us. It is really pretty cool. His favorite fetch toys are my hair ties, small foam paint roller, and a few other miscellaneous toys. I had a stash of about 20 elastic hair ties, and I think I am down to about 3. I seriously don't know where he hides them - and he will dig through anything (e.g. purses, make-up bags, etc) to find them!

He is so very fun - and will even put up with me dressing him every once in a while. So...here are some pics over the past year showing his different holiday outfits - Christmas / winter sweater, Valentine's Day scarf, and birthday sailor scarf - just like his dad! :o)