After toying around with the idea for what seemed like years (really, a couple months), I decided we needed a Fall Break getaway, and I literally threw a dart at a map and it landed on Nashville, Tennessee. OK...not really a dart...but we had never been, and we decided it sounded like a doable trip with our 7 month old nugget.
So, off we went on Saturday. Noelle did amazingly well the whole way there (5 hours!). She didn't cry. She slept most of the time or played with her toys. She ate in a high chair at Wendy's (because you aren't American if you haven't been in a high chair at a fast food joint before 1 year of age).
We arrived safely to our hotel...Aloft in Cool Springs, TN. It was a really cool, modern little hotel that had an elevator that was nearly all charcoal gray and had curtains hanging in it. The floor of the elevator had this blue gel stuff that turned white when you stood on it. Cool, huh? (or creepy when you are standing in it with strangers)
Our room was neat. It had a cow print painting above the bed. The bathroom was subway tiled (like the way my future kitchen back splash will be), and the free shampoo and soap? From Bliss spa. Don't tell Luke, but I paid $36 for body scrub from that brand once. Here they are, giving the crap away for free? Don't think I didn't throw the baby sized shampoos and soaps in my bag. I ride dirty like that.
Saturday night, we headed to Vanderbilt's campus and hung out at Centennial Park. They have a replica of the Parthenon there. I am still trying to figure out why a park in Tennessee has a replica of a structure that was built to honor the goddess Athena, but it was pretty cool to see and made for some cute pictures.
We ate at a great pizza place, thanks to Amanda Eichenberger's recommendation, and we headed back to the hotel to swim. Noelle was adorable in her little swimsuit and was splashing and playing like a little maniacal nugget. She squealed and laughed and hissed (the thing she does now when she smiles and blows air out of her crinkly nose...it sounds like she is hissing). Her diaper swelled up like some fast-rising bread dough, and I totally didn't care that the sign said "no diapers in the pool unless wearing rubber pants." My daughter does not wear rubber pants. Nor will she ever. Period.
Anyway, Sunday, we got up and went to breakfast at a place called J. Christopher's. It was yummy. I had pumpkin pancakes. Our waitress was from Noblesville! Crazy, right? We had a great chat with her and headed out to the zoo. The Nashville Zoo is soooo pretty. The habitats for the animals are just so well designed and really, really cool. The Indy Zoo probably has more animals, but the Nashville Zoo was prettier to look at. The only thing I missed was the aquarium/dolphin show. I wish it would have had one of those. Other than that, it was a totally great place, and Noelle had a great time!
After the zoo, we went downtown. We had no idea the Titans had a home game, so it was pretty busy. We were on a mission to find this place called the Cupcake Collection. It was a bakery I had heard about. I love cupcakes and decided that we had to find it. Finally, we found it, and Luke enjoyed a sweet potato cupcake while I had a wedding cake cupcake. Soooo good. I wish we could have bought some to take home, but it was pretty warm outside that day. Melted cupcakes don't taste as good.
We ate at a place down by the water and listened to the football game. I guess a difference I noticed was if we were in Indy on a Colts home game Sunday, the restaurants/streets would be crawling with people in Colts jerseys, just trying to be close to the game. There was really no one walking around in a Titans jersey (for obvious reasons... haha), and we got right in to a restaurant that was literally a stone's throw away from the stadium.
After lunch, we walked down the streets and marveled at all the cowboy boot stores. We also loved walking by each bar...which seemed to have a spot in the front with an aspiring music artist singing away. It was fun to walk past each doorway and hear something different each time. It definitely was everything we thought Nashville would be.
We did make the trek to the Opryland area, just wanting to see the Grand Ole Opry and the hotel from the outside. They were still working on repairing the flood damage, so we couldn't get in at all. After that, we went back to the hotel to swim once more and then get ready for dinner.
We found a restaurant called Saffire in Franklin, TN. We enjoyed a really great dinner there. I loved that none of the tables/chairs/center pieces matched in this restaurant. It was really funky and dark and cool in there. Noelle slept most of the time, so we were able to enjoy a nice, long dinner. It was a great ending to a fun trip.
The next day, we were up before the sun and ready to head out. Our trip home was uneventful, though about 30 minutes before we were home, Noelle decided she was done with the trip and wanted to be out of the car. She cried the rest of the way home, but I suppose it was a small price to pay for how well she did the rest of the time.
Now it is back to the daily grind. {enter long-winded sigh here}
