I know I've written about my love for Tennessee. There's something that I just cannot put into words about the state. I don't know how else to describe it: I love Tennessee.
Since Mike and I weren't able to travel to NYC this past November like we had originally planned, we decided to take a vacation closer to home that we could drive to. A friend of mine who lives in TN had invited Mike and I down to stay with her for a weekend, so we finally took her up on the offer this past weekend. I'm so glad we were able to make 5 hour trip south. We had such a great time and can't wait to go back again. (I'm secretly wishing that someday we can just MOVE there!)
Friday night after we arrived in Nashville we went to get appetizers with Meredith and her friend. When we got downtown, we were surprised to find the Nashville Christmas Race and Parade. It was quite comical watching all of the runners in their various Christmas decorated outfits. We saw many reindeer, elves, and Santa's running the race. We also saw a Firehouse running, which was neat, but the best was a family dressed up as Mary & Joseph. (Sorry, no pictures. We didn't take the camera with us that night!)
After appetizers we headed to the Skillet / tobyMac concert. (One of Mike and I's favorite bands is Skillet.) We had a GREAT time and probably one of the best concerts we've seen (behind Jeremy Camp in October!) Skillet's lead singer surprised everyone and played a hymn on his acoustic guitar and then tobyMac busted out some Christmas songs! There was a point in the concert when Toby came out into the audience to sing, and sure enough, he climbed into the stands right next to us!! That was GREAT!
We ducked out of the concert a little early and headed to the Flying Saucer to meet up with some of Meredith's co-workers and a new band her label was signing. (For my beer loving friends, you would LOVE that place. They had over 200 different styles of beer there!)
Saturday morning we had two different options for "Nashville" type breakfasts: The Pancake Pantry and Loveless Cafe. My only question was which one had grits? All I wanted was real southern grits! We choose Loveless and man, oh, man am I glad we went there!!! BEST grits and biscuits I've ever had! I'm not sure I can go back to Cracker Barrel now and enjoy grits there - it just won't measure up to Loveless' grits :-)
After entering our carbs coma from all of the biscuits, we headed towards Arrington Vineyards, which was founded by Kix Brooks (of the former "Brooks & Dunn fame.) On our way, we drove past the Nachez Trace Parkway Bridge. Beautiful and BIG!!!!
At Arrington, we were able to enjoy the beautiful Tennessee scenery (and do a little wine tasting, too!)
Our last big "tourist" visit I wanted to do on this trip was to visit the Opryland Hotel. I'm sure you all heard that with the floods Nashville received this past Spring, the Hotel was shut down for 6 months due to flood damage. The Hotel had only reopened 3 weeks ago, so I really wanted to go see it. Meredith had also told us about the Christmas lights, so I wanted to see that too!
We had a great time walking around inside the Hotel. I never realized how GINOURMOUS that place is! You could spend an entire day just walking around inside. Now I understand why so many Senior Citizen groups take bus trips there ;-)
Saturday night ended with the 3 of us (Meredith, Mike, and myself) eating pizza and watching the movie "Elf" back at her condo. What a great ending to a great day!
On Sunday, we went to church with Meredith before heading back to Indiana. Now for us who don't live in the "Bible Belt" going to church on Sunday normally doesn't involve that much traffic. NOT IN NASHVILLE!!! We had to sit in traffic, just like a week day to get to church! WOW!!!! The best part of going to church? Mike and I actually got to worship TOGETHER! Normally when we're home, Mike is up on the platform playing guitar and singing, so it's a rarity that we get to worship together. I LOVE it when we can worship together. Those are always special moments for me.
While it wasn't quite Christmas Day when we were in Tennessee, we saw the beauty that God has created in the Tennessee landscape, we saw it snow in Nashville (gasp!), saw Mary & Joseph carrying baby Jesus (albeit they were running in a race...) worshipped the birth of Jesus, and spent some quality time with a great friend, I'll say that's as close as we're going to get to a "tender Tennessee Christmas" until we move there someday.
Thanks Meredith for a great weekend! We can't wait to see you again. And all those plans we made for 3 years down the road? MARK YOUR CALENDAR, GIRL! :-)
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