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Summer Mini-Vacation Photo Recap Part 1 – Nashville

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 | Entertainment, Family, Kelly, Kids, Photos, travel

Be prepared for photo overload. That’s all I’m sayin’. These are some of the highlight photos from our trip to Nashville, TN. We went up on Thursday, June 18th and stayed in Nashville until Saturday, June 20th. We had a wonderful time. Nashville is GREAT!! Love it there!!

Our first adventure was dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Here are Mickey and the girls heading in:

Here are the girls in front of the sign:

The girls LOVED Rainforest Cafe. They loved all the animals and decor of the restaurant. It was a lot of fun!! After dinner we hit Build-a-Bear Workshop and each girl got to create a stuffed animal. Macey chose a frog which she named Freddy. Mariana chose a HSM bear which she named Gabriella. We walked around Opry Mills a bit and then called it a night. Our first evening in Nashville was quite fun!

On Friday we got ready to head out to the Nashville Zoo . We stopped at a Shoney’s near our hotel and had their breakfast buffet and then went right out to the zoo so we could be there when they opened. That was a wise plan because it was already HOT first thing in the morning.

We really enjoyed the Nashville Zoo. It was beautifully laid out and had so much to see and do! Here are some highlights from our visit:

Hyacinth Macaws:

Mariana looking cool in the play area:

Macey in the snake tunnel:

Macey talked her sister into coming into the snake tunnel too:

How cool is this play structure?!

There were flowers and plants all over the place. So pretty!

There was also beautiful scenery such as this wagon near the old plantation home and barn:

We got to see so many animals. I won’t post pictures of all of them, but here are a few.

We all thought the girafffes were cool and, of course, we thought of Grammie (Mickey’s mom) when we saw them. She loves giraffes!

The elephants were so pretty too:

Alligator Cove had quite a few gators in a pond. The girls were very fascinated with them.

I thought this stump was pretty cool looking:

Macey pointing up at the gator that was floating “above her head”

The girls got a souvenir cup with fun straws. What is better than a cool drink on a hot day?!

Loved the lamps in the Asian section of the zoo:

The photos don’t cover nearly all of what we saw and did at the zoo. Our visit there was SO much fun and I’d highly recommend the Nashville Zoo to anyone visiting or living in that area. We would love to go back and may visit again in the fall when it’s a touch cooler.

On Saturday evening, we went to Aquarium for dinner. Another hit with them – they loved it!! The atmosphere there is what really makes it. The food is okay (somewhat spendy), but it’s a lot of fun to see all the fish, etc. My camera battery went kaput when we got there, so these are the best photos I have from my phone.

The view from our table:

The girls thought it was VERY cool when the SCUBA diver swam by our table:

Here are Mickey and the girls as we were getting ready to leave after dinner:

After dinner, we went to Stingray Reef to feed the stingrays and ride the carousel. The girls weren’t altogether too sure about feeding stingrays, but they liked it when other people did it. The stingrays literally come right up to the edge of the tank to be fed shrimp. It’s cool to see! The carousel was a hit with the girls too – they always love carousels. Our second night in Nashville was a lot of fun!!

On Saturday morning we went to breakfast at the “famous” Pancake Pantry in Nashville. Our friend Christie had recommended it and said that we’d probably have to wait in line, but that it was worth it. So, we tried to get there early in an attempt to beat the crowd. I have to say that we did NOT beat the crowd, but we only had to wait about 10 minutes and we did beat the “big” rush. The lines was super long just after we got there and was even longer when we left. The food was fantastic! I asked our waitress about the sweet potato pancakes and she recommended them highly, so I got those with some traditional buttermilk pancakes too. DELISH!!

Here is my plate before:

And…after:

What can I say?! Those were some DELICIOUS pancakes! If you’re ever in Nashville for breakfast, definitely give the Pancake Pantry a try. Get there early, but still expect a line.

After breakfast, we went back to the hotel for a bit. Mickey took the girls to the pool while I got us packed up to leave. Our next stop was Chattanooga. And, that will be tomorrow’s update.

In case it wasn’t clear by the pictures, we had a ball in Nashville. There is so much to see and do there. We hope to go back in the fall, as I said above. Great city!!

Stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow…

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