The rest of the trip

Here are some pictures from the rest of the trip.  Ash's parents were so generous to let us use their amazing cabin for a couple of days and we took full advantage of the scenery while we were there.  Although the cabin was really nice inside, we spent basically every waking minute outdoors, either on one of the multiple porches, or in the Smokey Mountains.  We had no cell service on the mountain, and couldn't figure out how to work the TV, so once we unpacked, hiked around a bit, we looked at each other and thought... hmm what are we going to do with ourselves until dinner?  There was a pack of cards in the house so we drove down the mountain (we wanted to check out the trailhead for our hike the next day anyway), looked up instructions on how to play two-player games, and saved  the screenshots on our phone so we could play gin rummy and speed while we enjoyed our Magic Hat beers on the porch that evening.  Haha- we would be so lost without technology!

We said goodbye to our mountain getaway and headed south to Alexander City, Alabama, where our friends Mathieu and Hannah were celebrating their wedding.  I didn't take too many photos (and sadly none of Hannah in her wedding gown... only her "exit" dress).  We had a blast, though.  We were right on Lake Martin and the weather was perfect. The bride and groom's families really know how to throw a great party! Congratulations to the new Dr. and Mrs.!

David and the groom, Mathieu

Girls at the reception

Groomsmen being... themselves.

Congratulations!

 

A Shreveport Surprise & Nashville

Catching up on life

So I forgot to mention that we had postponed our departure for the road trip by a day because our good friends M & J were going to be coming through town on Saturday night.  They live in Alabama, but have family in Dallas, so whenever they drive through, we get to be their lucky hosts.  We always look forward to their visits and have so much fun when they're stopping through.  They arrived mid-afternoon and we were all sitting around the house catching up on the events of the past few months, when there was a knock on the door.  A knock at the door is kind of strange for us because we don't really have any friends who would stop by without calling first so I figured it was probably a neighbor passing out a flyer or something like that. But when David went to open the door, we were so surprised to see our friend Anne!  She had driven in from Dallas to surprise us and spend the night. We ate a delicious meal at Wine Country (I had the crab cake which was incredible) and just had the best time. It was a fantastic way to kick off the vacation.  

Girls before dinner

Wall of amazing guitars

Back to the road trip: We left Memphis mid-morning on Tuesday to arrive in Nashville in time for lunch with M and A downtown.  We had researched a few tourist-y spots in Nashville that we wanted to visit, so after lunch, A went back to work while we hit up Gruhn's Guitars and Hatch Show Print with M.  We brought home some posters as souvenirs although David would much rather us have brought home a more memorable purchase (see photo of the $25k guitar he begged to be able to hold). 

David's dream guitar... (keep dreaming!)

After the guitar store, we still had time left on the parking meter so Martha suggested that we grab a beer at Tootsies, the legendary Nashville honky-tonk with all-purple interior decorations.  There was a band playing and we thought they were pretty good, so we gave them a tip.  They asked if we had any special requests and David mentioned that he would like to hear some Waylon Jennings.  Well wouldn't you know that Waylon's brother Tommy happened to be sitting in the back of the bar! He came up to the microphone and played Waylon's greatest hits and told stories about the old days when they were getting run out of Nashville by that new country sound.  They came back to Nashville with their "outlaw country" sound and changed the scene! Tommy sounded just like his brother and it was a perfect Nashville afternoon.  That night, we had a super fun dinner at Tin Angel with Marth, Ash, and the gentlemen in their lives.  The next morning we headed toward the mountains.  It was a quick visit but reminded me how much I love that city (and our friends!!)

This place is legendary

Tommy Jennings at Tootsie's

Dinner at Tin Angel