Bidding My 20's Fairwell!

This past weekend we had our annual girls weekend which doubled as my 30th birthday celebration!

The girls planned the whole thing and kept our destination a secret. Jenny and Haley arrived Thursday evening to pick me up and away we went on our road trip, destination...

Friday afternoon we picked Shelly up at the airport and the festivities began! We started off with lunch at Merchants in downtown Nashville. A passenger on Shelly's flight suggested it and we loved it.

Once our belly's were full we could concentrate on taking in some of what Nashville has to offer.

Local "artists" playing their homemade instruments

Printers Alley, where the music happens!

Friday night we had dinner at Sambuca. The food was great and we enjoyed the live music (except that we had to repeat ourselves 4 times so everyone could be in on the conversation).

Saturday we took a hop on/off trolley tour. In my opinion that was the best way to see the city. We were able to see everything quickly and spend more time at the stops that interested us.

Our first stop was The Parthenon/Centennial Park.

The structure is a full sized replica of the original in Athens, Greece.

Bridgestone Arena, home of the Country Music Awards.

Me, Shelly and baby Kenney at the Country Music Hall of  Fame.

Ryman Auditorium, home of the Opry.

Before dinner we stopped for drinks at another highly recommended restaurant, The Patterson House. All of the ingredients are fresh and the freshly squeezed juices made everything fantastic!

 The setting of the restaurant is reminiscent of the early 1900's. The lighting is low, the waiters all wear suspenders and bow ties and the walls are lined with books.  The check came in the book, Scavengers which had been signed by previous customers. Due to the nature of our weekend we decided to sign on page 30.

After a fabulous meal at Capitol Grille in the Hermitage Hotel, we were planning on taking in some honky tonk music but the chocolate cake put us over the edge so we wern't able to check that off of our list.

We rounded out our last night the same way we had the previous two, in bed chatting and doing what we love most - being together!!

Sunday we checked out and wanted to see one last thing before we had to take Shelly to the airport, so we took a tour of the Belle Meade Mansion.

Thanks so much to the best friends a girl could ask for.

What a great way to step into my 30's!