Birthday Surprises, Part 2 : NASHVILLE!!

My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to
Nashville.
[& this entry is backdated..]

Have I mentioned lately how much these people ROCK?!

I woke up this morning, obediently packed a bag of stuff that I hoped would suffice whatever excursion was planned for the rest of the weekend, and loaded up for the drive to an undisclosed point B.

Well, undisclosed until the signs started adding up and eventually flat-out stated NASHVILLE, EXIT HERE.

My friends brought me to Nashville.

My friends brought me to Nashville.
My friends brought me to Nashville.
My friends brought me to Nashville!

It's photo overload time. I'll try to group this together as concisely as possible:

First things first: We landed in Nashville and voted for food before hotel check-in:
Hog Heaven was our stop: an off-the-path, dive BBQ place that I will see again.

this place. yesssssss!

After lunch, we started off again, en route to our hotel, which I didn't realize was THE Opryland Hotel, until we passed through the gates:

opryland! 

beautiful opryland!! ♥

We toured the inside of Opryland for almost 2 hours, and we still didn't see the entire thing; this place reminds me of The Alamo in Texas, with the cute water and restaurants. We've decided already that we'll be back:

best! ♥

favorites, in nashville!

We wouldn't have been taking full advantage of our tourist status without a trip to Opry Mills, so once we'd toured what we could of Opryland, we set off on a course for the mall:

opry mills!
rainforest cafe | aquarium restaurant

 We ate dinner at the Aquarium Restaurant to round out our shopping excursion [of which we all took full advantage, fyi ;).. ] and headed back to the hotel to ready up for the night, and take one last tour of the Christmas set up inside Opryland:

merry christmas, here at opryland!! 

The time finally came for us to hit the main drag in Nashville, and I felt privileged to be taking 3 of my closest friends, all of whom have never been to Nashville.

broadway! 

If you've never been to Nashville, I would highly recommend that it goes on your bucket list. Anywhere on your list will do, but if you live in the continental U.S., put it close to the top. The place is a blast. :D

a synopsis of my night with these incredible people!!
rob, ali, damanji: i love you guys. ♥

Here's a hilarious kicker for the night:

there is... no way.. hahaha... 

^ That guy? His name is Zach, and I haven't seen him in 11 years. I come to Nashville for ONE weekend, and run into him, 7 hours away from our small hometown and totally without warning. Chalk this up for MVHS, and our graduating class of 2003 - Zach it was GREAT seeing you - what a small frikkin' world, and an incredibly pleasant surprise!!

[I'm still not over running into a high school alum down here!]

It finally came time for us to bid adieu to downtown Nashville, #hashtagthepanda included:

hilarious :p 

Rob managed to get the four of us, achy feet and all, back to Opryland, where the gorgeous lights met us and reminded us one last time for the night that this place is just... perfect.

♥ opryland | nashville, tn

Goodnight, Nashville!

xo | cmd