The Honeymoon

Destination: Nashville, Tenn.
Day 1: We arrived in Nashville about 2:30 and headed straight to the CMA festival. Now before you get excited, let me say we were not impressed. Unless you have a lot of money and time to spare, I wouldn't recommend it. And we are HUGE country fans! We did meet a nice couple who noticed our shirts. Mine said I love my husband and Bradley's said I love my wife. Our sister-in-law made them fo us :) The couple had been married for 20 some odd years. When we told them it was day 1 for us, they were so sweet and congragulated us! When we decided to ditch the festivities, we drove to a small suburb of Nashville and got a room. I then introduced Bradley to Shoney's. The boy had never ate there in his life! Can you believe that? The waitress at Shoney's also noticed our shirts and wanted to know where we got them. She was a little bummed to find out someone made them. After dinner, we went back to the room and watched a really good movie with a horrible ending. Don't you just hate those kinds of movies?

Day 2: We got up, checked out of the hotel, and went to church at the Central Church of Christ in Nashville. It happened to be across from this fabulous resturaunt called Panera Bread, so we ate breakfast and then to church. Why this church? Well, Bradley read a book a while back called It's All About God. The book included a lot of insights from a guy named Iams. Iams was around when the church was running about a thousand members and when they opened the girls home next door. Bradley was intrigued by this guy and really wanted to go to the church to hear more about the history. It was kind of disappointing to find out that nobody knew who we were talking about or about the book. The church who once ran a thousand members was now running about 80. So that was sad, but they did have some nifty newspaper clippings from back in the day so we read those before church started. After church, we went to Nashville Shores, a waterpark. We had a blast. After sliding down all of the slides, we got something to eat, and dried off only to discover a banana boat! So we rode the banana boat with some strangers who seemed to be pretty rad. At the last minute we all decided to jump of the boat. When we did, the boast rammed right into the back of the jet ski when it stopped. It was hilarious. It was the strangers idea to jump. Someone counted to three and they said Bradley and I were the first ones to jump so they decided they better jump too. How nice of them:) After the banana boat we road a 30 minute boat ride and sat on the deck to dry off- again. After we dried off, we changed clothes and went to check into the Gaylord Opryland. It is absolutely beautiful! We got bumped up to a garden room since it was our honeymoon and then when we got there, they were having fire alarm testings so they bummed us up to a suite. It was really nice! After we got settled in, we changed clothes and got ready to go to the Wildhorse Saloon, where we ate dinner and saw Pam Tillis in concert! We also got her autograph and a picture taken with her!!! Now that was fun!

Day 3: That morning, we had appointments to get a couple's massage at the spa in the hotel. That was so nice and so relaxing! We did not want to leave! Bradley got the deep tissue massage and I got aroma therapy. Bradley smelt like oranges afterwards and I smelt like grapes... In case anyone wanted to know :) After the massages, we spent much of the day at the opryland mall where we played glow in the dark put put and watched The Hangover- that movie is hilarious!! We also got matching tatoos. Before you freak out, they are fake and are about to come off. They are double hearts with 6.12.09 under them. Bradley's is on his right upper arm and mine is on my right ankle. The girl who did them is from Isreal. She moved to NYC to dance. She is a ballroom dancer. She also lived in Lubbock for a little while so that was cool. She met her husband over here who also happened to be from Isreal. We told her that we just got married and she asked how old I was. When I told her 20, she was like oh my gosh that is so young. In her country, both male and female serve in the army for at least 2 years once they turn 18. Most people do not get married until their late 20s.
When we got back to the hotel, we rode the riverboat. We learned a lot of interesting facts. For one, the river is filled up with water from all over the world. The hotel send bottles to several countries and all 50 states and asked them to fill it up with water from lakes, rivers, etc, so we were actually floating on international water. Another fact: The Gaylord Opryland is the largest hotel without a casino. After the boat ride we ate dinner at an extremely upscale resturaunt in the hotel. Bradley was asked to remove his hat before we went in. We were definitely underdressed, but the waiters were so nice. One was from Egypt. He wanted to open a fast food Asian resturaunt. The other was from the Phillipines- his story wasn't so interesting. He moved over here to be with family. When they found out it was our honeymoon, they brought us a cake that said congratulations :)

Day 4: We checked out of the hotel an headed downtown where we toured the Ryman Auditorium. That was really cool. We also got our picture on the stage! We then headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which was cool but probably something we will only do once. It was noon when we finished and we had several hours to spare, so we drove to the town we stayed in the first night and caught a really bad storm. We decided to wait it out in Target where we got one camera developed. After the storm passed, we decided to just drive around, so we did. And we saw some really pretty country. We decided if we ever move, we will move there. The city is beautiful and the country is beautiful. After we drove around for a few hours, we headed back to the city for the Grand Ol Opry! We had a few minutes to spare, so we went over to the Grand Ol Opry Museum. We went back to the opryhouse and took our seats in the middle section in the second row! The show was so much fun. My favorite starts from the night were The Isaacs and Rebecca Lynn Howard! It was definitely an experience and I would love to do it again! After the show, we got in the truck and started our way back home. We spent the night somewhere in Arkansas at a rinky dink motel, but we didn't care because we were so tired! We got home about 4:30 right in the middle of a bad wind storm. We rushed to the vet to pick up Paris, who was so glad to see us and came home to a very content Annabelle who could really care less if we came home or not.
Overall, we had an amazing time, but it is so nice to be home!