Wow the girls and I had such a fantastic summer. We were able to knock a couple of things off
of our bucket list. I know! I hate the term bucket list, but what is a
good alternative? We ended our Summer months
by hitting the road to Nashville August 29th – September 2nd
with some friends. On our last trip we
traveled by a bus at every stop, on this trip we added a tee shirt at every
stop.
We started our trip late Thursday afternoon, her a girl has
to work until quitting time. We really
were chasing the sunshine as we began our trip, in fact there were several
times that we couldn’t see the road or the cars in front of us for the
road. Scary!!! Especially while we were starting to go
through the hills. But we made it and we
stopped in Virginia a few exits before we hit JMU.
After a delicious breakfast and greeting the hotel mascot,
we made our way to Gatlinburg and Ripley’s Aquarium and Odditorium. I don’t know if you have ever been in a
Ripley’s before or not, but both places were so interactive. We got to walk under the shark exhibit and
touch the rays. We missed getting to be
outside with the penguins, but feeding time can’t be delayed. Then we headed over to the Odditorium, which
is actually a pretty vigorous walk from the aquarium, up hill and once again
with the sun in our eyes. But we
actually fell in love with Gatlinburg and have now added it to our bucket list.
Once we had looked, and walked, our fill, we made our way to
Nashville by was of Pigeon Forge. Yep,
you guessed it, this location has also made it to our bucket list. It seems counter productive that we check one
thing off and add 2 more, but we just can’t help ourselves. Anyway, we finally made it to our base of
operations for the weekend. We stayed at
the Embassy suites by the airport. Such
a fantastic hotel, I would recommend it if you are heading to Nashville. It’s like 20 minutes from everything.
We started our Saturday bright and early by meeting up with
family and checking out the zoo. This
zoo really was amazing, we only managed to see about half of it, but it will
not be a hardship to go back again. We
loved the safari side and bears, tigers and reptiles. Yes, those are monkeys in the bathroom. They even have several rides that you can
check out during your visit.
From there we drove out for a little history lesson and
checked out the Parthenon. The first level
is a museum, sorry no pictures allowed, and then you go upstairs and get to be
awed by the scale of the place. The magnificence
of the sculptures with the gold and marble.
I would recommend this to you if you even have just a little love of
history. The best part is that the structure
is situated in the middle of a big park.
We ended our Saturday with a trip to the Grand Ole
Opry. We saw so many fantastic
performers, although my favorite had to be the comedian. So hilarious, I admit we even checked him out
on YouTube during our drive home Monday.
I always love going to the Opry, the old-style seating, the excitement
of the audience and just the overall experience. It was just so amazing to be able to sit where
so many people had before.
Sunday was just as busy and spectacular as Saturday. I might have actually enjoyed it the
most. We took a trip on the General
Jackson Riverboat, taking in the sights, enjoying a scrumptious meal and a
during lunch performance as well as performances on deck. The captain took us in to see the pilot house
and then we just relaxed on deck for the rest of the trip. It was a fabulous day for it, not too hot,
not too cold, just perfect really.
After we disembarked we just walked across the parking lot
to check out Madame Tussauds wax museum.
The tour was not too long, but it was so much fun to walk around and
read all of the placards and getting to see what the people looked like. We took a ton of pictures with each of the likenesses
and of course grabbed another tee-shirt.
We ended up Sunday just hanging out at the mall. We were going to eat at the Aquarium restaurant,
but with an hour long wait we decided to grab stuff from Walmart to heat up in microwave
in our room. We watched TV and chilled
the rest of the night to make sure we were well rested for the 11-hour drive
home.
Monday, we packed the car up bright and early to head back
home. Getting the trunk packed up was an
experience that everyone in the vicinity had a good laugh over. Hey, we are all girls and we had a few hours
at the mall it was bound to happen. Of
course, we were moving right along and then we ended up stuck in traffic after
lunch, pushing are arrival home back by several hours. Was I tired, and ready to get out of the
car. But it was an exciting trip that I
would love to do all over again.
Happy Reading
Sydney
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