Nashville Girls' Weekend

On November 1, 2013, I had something AMAZING planned. I had a weekend planned with 2 of my nearest and dearest friends. Naturally the night before I was to leave to go to Nashville, Sawyer had a TERRIBLE night of sleep. I ended up not getting to bed until after 2 and had to get up at 6 am. Well, as I was finishing getting stuff together that morning, I ran down to the basement around 6:45 am and found that water had backed up into the basement. The sump pump wasn't working. So we called our land lord and he had a new one put in by 8:30 that morning. Mom picked up the kids and was gone by 8:15 and I was actually on the road with all of my errands run by a little before 9 (was supposed to be on the road by 8.)

The 7 hour drive was pretty awesome by myself. I went to a few truck stops (out of convenience). Those places just freak me out. People can be creepy....

Niki drove from Greenville and Leslie flew from Charleston. Niki picked up Leslie from the airport and we all met at our amazing hotel right at the same time.

We stayed at the Opryland Hotel and Resort.

AMAZING!!!

We hugged and checked in and we got settled in our fabulous room.

We ran to get some snacks and drinks at Kroger and a really sketchy liquor store and then we headed to the hotel to stay for the night. 

We decided to eat at the hotel that night. They had about 15 different eating options. We ate at a Jack Daniels restaurant. AMAZING.

We got done in time to enjoy drinks by the water show.

This was in ONE of FIVE sections of the hotel.

We headed back to the room and had lots of girl talk. Oh how I have missed these girls. We all were so excited for the super soft beds and the decent bedtime!

On Saturday morning we woke up and took our time getting ready.

Then we headed to downtown Nashville.

Beautiful, right????

We ate lunch at B.B. Kings for lunch. (Alex and I had eaten there right after we got married. I was so excited to eat there again.)

Our waitress was so great and we were the first table she had ever waited on. 

We then hit the streets of Nashville just looking for some fabulousness.

The riverfront area...

I love this little area. So pretty.

We walked up and down Broadway and we ended up ducking into The Stage to listen to a band...and because it was pouring down rain. As we were in there, there was a motorcycle rally/parade/crew that drove by.

It went on for about ten minutes! I have no idea what it was for but it was really cool!

Then we headed into the World Famous Tootsies.

Jake Maurer and the Naked Truth was playing at Tootsies. Jake and I were friends in high school (and he has appeared in other parts of my blog). We went to see his official Nashville show. He and his band rock!

Jake and the band are on the left side of this photo. The drunk bachelor party from Pennsylvania is on the right side of the photo. They were hilarious to watch!!

The workers at Tootsies work like a well oiled machine. They are amazing. This poor beer guy walked by about 70 times when we were there. I thought he deserved a photo. :)

Leslie and her friend....

That is a lot of denim :)

I HATE this picture of me but I LOVE my friends!!

I brought red lipstick.

Leslie and I wanted to apply it when things started to get rowdy :)

Here we are on our barstools. We stood at the end of the bar for awhile but we finally ended up getting three barstools all together. It was fabulous! We sat and people watched and had a great time.

Some men said they would take our picture. I had to lighten these bc they messed with all of my stuff on the camera.

Niki also put some lipstick on. We were a crew!!

I couldn't get over that lady's long hair behind Leslie. WHOA.

Tootsie's Orchid Lounge

And here is Jake and my awkward-ness. The person taking the pictures couldn't figure it out. So annoying. Took 5 tries. I finally was wanting to ruin the pic apparently.

Broadway

Love these guys...

She is a good shot!

They had Christmas lights up!!!

We had an awesome day downtown. Then we headed to eat our dinner. We drove back to the mall right next to the hotel and at at the Rainforest Cafe. It was ANOTHER delicious choice! Then we headed back to the hotel and vegged out and enjoy our last night with just the girls. 

We all were asleep by a decent time. Niki and I both woke up randomly. She woke up and checked out at 3:30 am. I woke up around 3:45 and couldn't fall back asleep so I just got on the road. (We both knew we had long drives and wanted to get on the road to home. This was also the night of the time change which gave us an extra hour of sleep.) Leslie slept in and checked out at normal time and took a cab to the airport.

I left Nashville at 4:30 and was home by noon. I was great by my sweet baby girl who had been waiting for me. She missed me like crazy. (And I missed her.)

Niki and Leslie, thank you for such an amazing weekend. Thank you for being such great friend. Thank you for taking time out of your schedules and for spending the money to come visit and have a weekend of fun. You girls are really the best. I am so lucky to have you both in my life. 

Long distance relationships of any kind are difficult. I am just so thankful to have friends that truly appreciate me and my friendship. Great times, amazing friends, fabulous weekend.