2010 Begins!

Our 2010 began in Chattanooga, TN, at the home of Staci & Creed.  Our boys were in Dunwoody with Poppi and MeMa.  Art and I enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast of crepes/pancakes with Karl, Staci, and Creed.  Karl then took off to enjoy New Year's Day with Laura while Staci and I did a Jillian workout.  Joy and Joanna were coming up later that day for the start of the 1st Annual Sister Trip.  All 4 of us made plans to take an overnight trip to Nashville, TN (a first for me) with just us - no parents, husbands, kids, boyfriends, etc. 

J&J roll in late afternoon, and we get mobilized.  In the meantime, Creed and Art prepare for their overnight with no wives by queing up as many Matt Damon movies as time would allow.

Staci drives and the rest of us choose seats (shotgun!) that we will, for some reason, keep for the next 30 hours.  2 hours and one gas station stop later we are in Nashville, headed toward our hotel. First impression of Nashville:  COLD COLD COLD.  Must strangle Jackie who said "you can wear open toed shoes even in the winter". Thx to Staci and Joanna who did all the research for the hotel!  We lie around a bit, watch some tv, shower, then get ready to go out to dinner.

Sh, Joanna, Joy, Staci - dinner at Tin Roof - so cold!

Ok, dinner lasts a few hours, and by then it's still embarassingly early...too early to go to a live music venue (can't bring myself to type bar or club).  So where can we go???? Hmmm....Starbucks it is.  Art would die a thousand deaths.  We are all TIRED, COLD, and lethargic.  I am throwing out hints that I am too old for this and we should head back to the hotel and watch movies in our pjs.  Joanna, wisely, keeps the momentum up by reminding us that we'd be horrified in the morning if we drove up here and never went to hear any music.  Pretty slow going at Starbucks.  Joanna had brought along THE WORLD'S LARGEST crossword puzzle...or at least a really big one from the ATL paper, so we worked on that for awhile.

Staci, cold and draging at Starbucks

Joy, cold and sleepy at Starbucks

Joy shooting daggers at the paparazzi

Back to our assigned seats in the car...still cold.  BTW, that hat went straight to the Goodwill bag after this trip - I could feel the wind on my head between the color seams.  Not good!

Perhaps we would have been warmer on the FreeAtLastPartyBus??

We park and walk the block down to broadway to the MUSIC VENUE that Staci and Joanna went to last time they were in town.  The Stage.  Ahhh...warmth.  Joy did this nature-defying, amazing, trick with her coat.  She walks up to the balcony, says "Portable coat check" and shoves her winter jacket into her tiny purse and walks on.  WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?!  {editor's note: I tried to get her to repeat it, so I could video it, later in January and again in March, but to no avail...she did not want to share her sorcery with me}.  We were able to stake out 4 barstools ( I HATE standing) and had a great view of the band.

Happy and WARM!

The band, the crowd, the crowd at The Stage

What I really liked about this place, besides the bar stools (again, HATE standing), was the variety in the crowd.  There were young, sorority-row types with their flouncy, revealing clothes.  There were older couples (yes, older than ME), there were cowboys, there was even one guy, mid-50s maybe, who was seriously rocking out, traveling the breadth of the venue - he even ended up on the balcony next to us, and we could barely contain our excitement.

Ok.  It's near 2am.  I really am tired now, and basically decide we're leaving.

The view of Broadway.  Ahhh yes, IT WAS SNOWING!!  As I recall, I left Chicago to get away from the snow.  So cold.  Back to our assigned seats and off to the hotel.  But not to bed.  Oh no, tall 4 crazy girls watched 2 episodes of Law & Order b/f finally going to sleep around 4am.  Yikes.  We all woke up around 11am and had about an hour to shower and get out of the room.  Coffee.  I hate to embarass everyone but it must be documented.  We watched one, maybe two episodes of...can I type it??...Full House while getting ready.  Oh my.


It's noon, but I'm desperate for breakfast food, not lunch.  We ask the lady at the front desk where we can get breakfast.  She is little help.  Staci's Blackberry is much more useful.  We find a pancake place, but when we get there, yikes!, there is a line out the door.  We call a neighboring place, Fido's, and find out they "do" breakfast.  Saved!  A long line there too, but at least it's inside!  Food was excellent.

Here we are at "breakfast" at nearly 2pm.  Cold here too!

Joanna took a picture of her food

Now we're thinking we'd like to 1) see the Grand Ole Opry and 2) see some attractions of Nashville.  We did after all drive all the way up here.  Joanna had the foresight to print out some stuff for us to do.  Then we made her get out at the visitor center and get some maps & suggestions.  We called the Opry and were told they don't do tours now.  K.  And the Country Music Hall of Fame was seriously expensive.  For the record, I know almost nothing about country music, nor do I particularly care for it.  It's alright.  So I don't care too much what we do.  We ended up driving down some road that has all the famous music label record companies...never saw anyone famous.  We drove around Vandy a bit - beautiful campus.  Then off to the Parthenon.  Very cool looking.  Too cold.  We made Joanna get out of the car and read us some of the informative plaques.

Accurate, detailed replica

Joy, consenting to roll down the window for a picture

Later Nashville!!  We're off to the Opry!

Lifesize nativity scene

A bit of getting lost, driving through restricted areas, we find this...still nowhere near the Grand Ole Opry, but this is fun to look at.

More lifesize navtivity scene

Finally, after some serious driving around the OUTLET MALL (I am still irked that the Opry is smack dab in the middle of an outlet mall...not sure why, but definitely am.), we spot the elusive GOO, or Grand Ole Opry.

Opry shot 1

Opry shot 2

By this time, it's getting to be pretty late, nearing 4pm, and we still have a 2hr drive back to Chattanooga, so off we go to a small gift shop, talk Staci out of buying cowboy(girl?) boots, and hit the road.  We have to stop at a MASSIVE fireworks place for a pit stop and called Art and Creed, asking them if they want to meet us somewhere for dinner.  Creed informs us that he and Art have already started dinner, WHAT GOOD HUSBANDS, and we'd be having grilled chicken and salad.  YUM!  Well done boys.  After dinner Joy headed back to ATL while Art and I agonized over whether or not to stay another night.  We wanted to go to church w/ mom in the morning, which means leaving at 8am.  Back and forth and back and forth, we finally decide to stay, as does Joanna (whom we will drop off at Joy's to get her car and meet Joy at church).  Fun night of looking at style books and watching a movie (a Matt Damon one!): Bourne whatever-the-last-one-is...ultimatium maybe?  Alarm goes off at 7am, shower, Joanna showers, Art showers, down some coffee and bagels, and drive to ATL.

What a fun trip.  I hope it can be an annual thing!!