Nashville Road Trip with Friends

For a couple years now, Heather and I have planned on taking a day trip to Nashville to walk on the pedestrian bridge and drive around downtown in music row.  Whether it was one thing or another, we kept missing out on opportunities to go.  A couple weeks ago, her husband had to work and mine was out of town, so Heather, Zoe and I loaded up the car and headed south for the day.  We planned on going to Marcy Jo's Mealhouse for breakfast which is about an hour on the other side of Nashville and then to drive back into Nasvhille to walk the pedestrian bridge.  The weather on this day was pretty chilly, but beautiful and sunny!

An unattractive selfie at a Tennessee rest stop.  Did I mention it was sunny and the sun was in our eyes?  That coupled with the wind and my jacked up selfie stick and this is what you get!

I had seen pics of Marcy Jo's before and thought it would be a neat road trip to go eat it, and the pics of the food looked delicious.  It wasn't until I started following the blog of Joey and Rory that I realized that Marcy Jo was the sister of Joey.  Joey and Rory lived just down the road from the restaurant so we wanted to drive by their house too.  Earlier this year, Joey passed away from her two-year battle with breast cancer.  You can read all about them in their blog. If you are a reader of their blog, the restaurant and their home will be all too familiar.

The following was taken off of the back of the postcard I bought while there:  Marcy Jo's Mealhouse - On the corner on Highways 99 and 431, in the small community of Pottsville, TN sits a refurbished old mercantile store built in the 1890's.  Once a major gathering place for the farmers and families of the area, it's now a charming country restaurant, thriving with new life, great fellowship and food.  Opened in January 2007 by sisters-in-law Joey Martin and Marcy Gary, the eatery has quickly become one of the most popular restaurants and music venues in middle Tennessee.  Whether it's the breads and bakery items that are homemade every morning or the gourmet country cooking that came from family recipes, you're sure to love your visit.  You never know, Joey and Rory might even pull out their guitar and sing you a song while you're there.  If you're in the area stop in and visit.

Our breakfast was really good.  The three of us shared this huge cinnamon with delicious cream cheese icing.

Heather and I both had the french toast breakfast - mine was stuffed with strawberries and cream cheese, hers was plain.

And then Zoe had the biscuit and gravy breakfast.  While my breakfast was good, that biscuit and gravy was really good!  This place is definitely going to be added to our stop anytime we travel south for vacations.

And this is Joey and Rory's Tennessee farm.  Once again if you are a blog reader of theirs, then you will be familiar with their farm.

Traveling back down the road I noticed alot of turkey's in the field.  Upon closer look, they were vultures...

...mealing on a buffet of cow!  BLECH!

We finally made it back into Nashville to walk the pedestrian bridge.  It was definitely chilly on the bridge that day and really windy.  Our hair can attest to that!  Not the most flattering pictures to follow, but we had a great time making memories!

And as cold as it was, I couldn't believe all the people out and about hanging out in Nashville listening to tunes and enjoying their drinks of choice.  

Tuckered out.  It's hard work sitting in the back seat and doing nothing.  

We stopped in Bowling Green for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants - Chuy's.  Thanks Heather ;)

Fun at Reid's Orchard

Back at the beginning of October, Gavin and I headed over to Reid's Orchard on Sunday afternoon on my way to take him home.  I went to get my fall flowers and pumpkins and I knew he'd love playing in their play area.  They have one of the cheaper-priced play areas with lots to do.  And I like that you only have to pay for the child to get in the play area and not the adults too. 

Stace had to tie these shoes more times than she would like.  He seriously needs to learn to tie his shoes, or I'm gonna get him some white velcro shoes to wear!  LOL!!  I've tried to teach him a couple times, but he's left-handed and isn't getting it.  

He wanted to ride the zip line, but couldn't get the hang of letting go and swinging out.  I think he was really a little bit too big for the kids' zip line.  

We played for quite a while and then we headed to their store so that I could pick out my mums and pumpkins, and for apple cider slushes.  It didn't take as long as I had thought so we headed back to the play area for some more play.  We left right before they closed.  Aunt Stace offered Gavin a ride on the wagon without realizing that the push was uphill.  Oh Em Gee!

A Cold Day at Holiday World!

Every year my work gives us tickets to Holiday World.  I normally like to go in the summer to enjoy Splashin' Safari, and then once in the fall to enjoy the rides.  We never made it during the summer, so we had extra tickets for the fall trip and were able to take Gavin's little friend Jacob with us.

I always enjoying going on one of their last days open.  Usually the weather is alot cooler, the park isn't crowded and you can usually get a close parking spot, and there isn't any wait in the lines.  The only thing I timed right on this trip was the weather being cooler :/  Regardless, we all had a great time opening and closing the park!

Shawn and I with the hooligan boys.  I don't think there was one serious picture taken all day.  There was some form of fingers being displayed in the deuces sign (or in Gavin's words, peace!), or tongues being stuck out.  I've given up on decent pictures!

In the fall at HW, they have whats called Halloween weekends, with lots of extra Halloween themed attractions.  One of our favorites is the 3D haunted house.  The spinner room always gets us!

Something new we did was Carnival Chaos.  They had different carnival-themed things inside.  One of the things was you had to enter in and walk through this blown up black plastic area.  It was almost like squeezing your way through an opening and I didn't think we were ever going to see the light at the end.  It was Jacob, me, Gavin, and Shawn.  About halfway through, Jacob turned around and grabbed ahold of me and asked me to carry him out.  It was hilarious!  Gavin was attached to the back of me as well!  It wasn't scary at all, but just really weird.

It was alot more crowded than I had hoped, so rides were taking longer than planned.

Lunch in Holidog Town and then back to riding rides!

The boys LOVED Raging Rapids.  Despite the fact that it was only about 50 degrees that afternoon, they rode that ride and rode it some more.  It was actually the only ride without a line so the boys just stayed on it again and again.  I had to make them get off of it so we could go do some other stuff.  

And then on the way back past it, they had to ride it a few more times

Who doesn't love ice cream when it's freezing cold outside!

This kids mouth was permanently colored from all the Hi-C and ice cream he had!

The last ride of the night and it was freezing cold!

Pictures in front of Santa and then time to go boys!

Final stop - Angelo's in Rockport for pizza and bread sticks!  We all had a great time at Holiday World.  Jacob was the perfect choice to go with us and him and Gavin had a great time!