Nash Vegas

This past weekend, I went with my 3 nieces, 1 nephew, & 1 mom to Nashville for family vacation. It was fun playing tourist to Nashville on Friday. I dated someone that lived there for so long that I never thought of Nashville in that way.  On Friday, we went to Opry Mills mall and Opryland Hotel. Neither were first experiences for me but again, it was the first time I viewed Nashville as a tourist. We had dinner at a restaurant called Rainforest Café. That was new… and odd in a scary way. I question, who thought it was smart to put a bunch of scary animals and a thunder storm in one way and invite people to come in for dinner?  They take your picture and then try to sale it to you for $10 + they have a gift shop right outside the restaurant. They make money by being a unique looking place to eat. The cuisine is American.  That night, we went to the African-American Festival. It reminded me of Juneteenth in Memphis with slightly better vendors.

On the riverboat ride at Opryland Hotel. 

Inside the Rainforest Cafe

Trio at the A-A Festival sporting the new glasses they all bought

Saturday, we went to Adventure Science Center. I took the kids about 2 years ago and they loved it. It was the reason I suggested Nashville once we realized Pigeon Forge was not going to work for us. The best part of that for me was having  friend Cynthia and her son that’s now 9 come out. I hadn't seen them in 2 years. They spent the entire afternoon with us at the Science Center, then ate dinner with us at Monell’s. That was truly a ridiculous amount of food. Good, but not great. An incredible amount.  I think we all left satisfied.

Sunday, we returned home. They dropped me in Jackson, where I took a brief nap before driving to Memphis to celebrate the twins' 10th birthday. Now, I am back, cozy in bed and ready for sleep.

The gray sky of this trip was the rental van we used. It was the only time I’ve been embarrassed to travel in a rental vehicle. Besides being ugly, missing all knobs from the radio area, and having a broken CD player, the dang thing wouldn’t start on Saturday. Apparently, Vans2Go last changed the battery in 2006. Mom ended up dropping us off at the Science Center and having to spend over 2 hours getting the van serviced. Stay far away from Vans2Go Memphis. They seem like shady characters and their van sucked.

Cheers to my first (immediate) family vacation.