I Can't See a Thing and Tiger Lady, Oh My! A Nov Mother & Daughter TR Update 5/7

[Pluto0809]

I was hoping to do a full update today but DH & I are taking a long weekend to visit Nashville, TN. I'm taking tomorrow and Monday off so I need to get some projects finished at work. The great thing about the Nashville trip is I get to have a DIS meet with oopsiDAISY! I'm really looking forward to meeting her. Maybe I'll even do a mini TR of our weekend.

So for today, I'm just going to ramble about day 2 of my upcoming solo trip.

Friday I will be heading to MK for the whole day. The park is open 9 am to 9 pm on this day. I'll probably be up early and get a small breakfast at the ASMu food court.

I plan on making rope drop to see the opening show. Then I will head straight back to Fantasyland (well maybe a PP picture or two along the way), grab a FP for Peter Pan and then get in line for ETWB. I really want to see this show one time since it's new. I doubt it's something I'll want to see every time. I'm really interested in seeing the themeing more than the actual show.

Once I'm done there, I'll finish up the rest of Fantasyland. I want to ride Peter Pan, Little Mermaid, IASW and see Philharmagic. Also, if the lines not too long, Barnstormer (or whatever it's called now) since I've never ridden it. I want to try a LeFou's brew and something from the new bakery in Storybook Circus.

I'm thinking about lunch at either CHH or Casey's. I should try somewhere new but those two are my favorites and I keep going back. The only other CS I've eaten at in MK is Cosmic Ray's.

The rest of the day will be spent riding rides in the rest of the park. Some of my must dos are Pirates, Jungle Cruise, BTMR, SM, Laugh Floor, Buzz Lightyear and TTA. I love Splash Mountain too but it's down for renovations plus I only ride it if it's really hot.

My orginal plans included an early dinner at The Plaza Restaurant followed by MSEP and Wishes. That all changed when I was able to snag a reservation at BOG! I am really excited to eat there. I will take lots of pictures for my TR.

My reservation is at 7:30 so the park will be closed or almost closed when I'm done. I may try to catch the second MSEP at 9 pm but if it's too crowded, I'll probably do some shopping on Main Street and maybe get a treat at the Confectionary since the Bakery is closed while I'm there.

HS is the only park open later than MK and it's only till 10 pm. So I'll head back to my room and call it an early night.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I recommend doing ETWB once, but I know I won't be rushing back. The theming was the best part for me, the "show" itself was only a couple minutes and since I wasn't it nor was anyone I knew I found it boring. But maybe you will like it more!

Sounds like a fun day, and I'm so excited for you that you scored that BOG time. I can't wait to read your review of it!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

I do hope you will do a mini TR of your weekend in our beautiful city...mostly because I am curious about what you all choose to do while you are here! There is just so much fun stuff to do in Nashville!

I love your MK CS choices...those two are my favorites, too! I love a good Casey's hot dog! We like to grab a dog and sit on a curb for a parade. Good times!

Cannot wait to hear how BOG is! Congrats on landing THAT ADR!

 

[KatMark]

Day 2 plans sound great. I hope you love BOG as much as we did (I can't wait to be back and eat there in June).

Have a great time in Nashville. One of these days I really want to visit there.

 

[DMGeurts]

I am so annoyed with myself that I fell SOOOOO far behind... I am so sorry... I try to hard to keep up with every TR and PTR I follow, but since I don't actually "subscribe" to any, and I just look for the little white arrow in front of the posts - I sometimes miss them.

Anyways... I loved the update and the pictures of the new FLE... I cannot wait to go to the bathroom in there, everyone talks about it.

As usual - you and your mom are so adorable.

And how exciting that you have another trip coming up... Some day - I hope to take multiple trips to WDW in one year.

D~

 

[Pluto0809]

I am so annoyed with myself that I fell SOOOOO far behind... I am so sorry... I try to hard to keep up with every TR and PTR I follow, but since I don't actually "subscribe" to any, and I just look for the little white arrow in front of the posts - I sometimes miss them.

Anyways... I loved the update and the pictures of the new FLE... I cannot wait to go to the bathroom in there, everyone talks about it.

As usual - you and your mom are so adorable.

And how exciting that you have another trip coming up... Some day - I hope to take multiple trips to WDW in one year.

D~

Don't worry about being behind. I know how real life can get in the way of time on the DIS. I can't keep up with the ones I read and I have subscriptions to all of them!

The bathroom was really nice in new FL. I wanted to take more pictures but was getting some strange looks. Guess people don't appreciate picture taking in a bathroom!

 

[ronnmel]

I had some free time and read all your updates (except the PTR ones). I love your gazillion Animal Kingdom pictures. It often is such an under-appreciated park, but I love it there.

 

[Pluto0809]

I recommend doing ETWB once, but I know I won't be rushing back. The theming was the best part for me, the "show" itself was only a couple minutes and since I wasn't it nor was anyone I knew I found it boring. But maybe you will like it more!

Sounds like a fun day, and I'm so excited for you that you scored that BOG time. I can't wait to read your review of it!

I do think ETWB will be a one time thing for me. Well maybe I'll go with the kids in 2014 but definitely not with an adult group.

I can't wait to try BOG!

I do hope you will do a mini TR of your weekend in our beautiful city...mostly because I am curious about what you all choose to do while you are here! There is just so much fun stuff to do in Nashville!

I love your MK CS choices...those two are my favorites, too! I love a good Casey's hot dog! We like to grab a dog and sit on a curb for a parade. Good times!

Cannot wait to hear how BOG is! Congrats on landing THAT ADR!

I am writing the Mini Nashville TR right now. Unfortunately, work has been crazy the last two days so I haven't had much DIS time. Hopefully I'll get it up in the next day or so.

You know it's a great day when you biggest choice is whether to eat at Casey's or CHH! I'll probably still be agonizing over that decision the day of!

Day 2 plans sound great. I hope you love BOG as much as we did (I can't wait to be back and eat there in June).

Have a great time in Nashville. One of these days I really want to visit there.

I just know I'm going to love BOG! We had a wonderful time in Nashville. Mini TR to follow.

I had some free time and read all your updates (except the PTR ones). I love your gazillion Animal Kingdom pictures. It often is such an under-appreciated park, but I love it there.

The welcome smilie seems to have disappeared so I guess this one will have to do: Glad you have joined in!

No worries on the PTR updates, they really are just a bunch of rambles on my part!

I agree that AK is under-appreciated. I always seem to take the most pictures there. I have more coming up later in the TR.

 

[Pluto0809]

DH (Jim) and I took a quick trip to Nashville this weekend. The main purpose of the trip was for Jim to see a concert but since neither of us had been to Nashville before, we decided to see some of the sights while we were there. I took lots of photos so I thought I would share!

We got off to a later start on Friday morning. Jim doesn’t like driving my Equinox (says it’s too big) and he has a truck so we decided to rent a car. We headed out of the house a little after 8 am and dropped the dogs off at the boarders. The boarding place we use is part of our vets office and the babies get an extra-large luxury suite with a TV. Yes they are very spoiled.

We picked up the car, a Toyota Corolla and stopped back at home to drop off my car and load up the rental with our bags. We finally got on the road about 10 am. How that stuff took 2 hours I’m not sure but apparently it did!

It was rainy the whole drive but we made good time and arrived in Nashville about 1:30 pm. Well actually it was 12:30 pm since Nashville is in Central time zone. We stayed at a Best Western Plus near Music Row. Jim picked that hotel because it was near to the concert venue. The Best Western was pretty plain on the outside but the lobby was beautiful. Our Room was nice with theming, and while not Disney, was better than most hotels. Here are some photos:

We were starving at this point and had seen some restaurants across the street so we walked over there and ate at an Irish Pub called Dan McGuiness. Sorry, no food porn pictures this go round. It’s one thing to do that at Disney but out in the real world, not so much. We got a Scotch Egg appetizer which is one of my favorites and I had fish and chips and Jim had a blackened fish sandwich. The food was excellent, my fish was good and the fries where some of the best I’ve ever had. Jim must have liked his sandwich because he ate it in two bites.

After lunch we decided to head to the County Music Hall of Fame (CMHF).

We got there just in time to take the last Studio B tour.

Studio B was where many hit songs were recorded by artists such as Dolly Parton, Roy Orbison and Elvis. We took a bus to Music Row. We had a whole group of Asian people with us (I’m horrible at telling what country people are from but Jim said they were Japanese. I believe him because he works with a lot of international people). It was very obvious that they loved Elvis. Any time the guide would mention him, they would go absolutely nuts. The even took pictures of the tour bus because it had Elvis on the side. It made for a very fun tour and I had the giggles a few times. It's probably how people view me every time I go crazy over Disney.

Here’s the outside of the building:

Doesn’t look like much does it? Right inside the door, there was a wall dedicated to Elvis:

Here are some other famous faces that have recorded at Studio B:

Old recording equipment:

Elvis played this piano!

The lights in the room all had these four colors. Elvis asked to have them installed so he could have the appropriate lighting to go with the mood of the song he was recording. If it was a sad song, the lighting would be blue, Christmas would be red and green, etc.

A few more pictures from inside Studio B:

After the tour was over, they took us back to the CMHF and Jim and I walked through the rest of the museum. They had a special display dedicated to Patsy Cline and we went there first. She collected Salt & Pepper shakers:

Some costumes and a display of her albums:

Continued in Next Post

 

[Pluto0809]

The rest of the 2nd floor was one long gallery:

They had these signs above the displays and I thought they were really interesting:

I took a lot of random photos as we walked along the gallery. I don’t remember what everything was so I’ll just post the pictures for your enjoyment.

Webb Pierce’s Silver Dollar Convertible (not sure who he was but the car was awesome):

Elvis’ Solid Gold Cadillac:

Elvis’ Gold Piano:

And I think that is all the Elvis stuff.

Hee Haw! I grew up watching this show:

Continued in Next Post

 

[Pluto0809]

Some more random photos:

And then we came to the guys that I know and like. Alan Jackson & Travis Tritt:

I was so excited to see this radio. Alan Jackson sings about this old radio on his hit Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow which happens to be one of my favorite country songs.

Garth Brooks:

Brad Paisley:

And the last photo I took was of this Taylor Swift dress. I’m not a huge fan of hers but the dress was beautiful:

We stopped in the gift shop for a minute and I got a key chain. I also got one later in the weekend that was just Nashville. I collect key chains from the places I visit. Here’s the two from this weekend:

After the CMHF, we drove down Broadway and I snapped a few pictures out the window. It’s funny on the first one, you can see the reflection of my Pluto bag in the car window:

Most of the tourist attractions closed at 5 pm so we headed back to the hotel and watched some TV for a while. We were going to go back out to eat but neither of us were very hungry. Jim ended up eating the leftovers from lunch and I grabbed a bag of pretzels from the vending machine.

 

[Pluto0809]

On Saturday, we slept in a little (well I did, Jim is always up by 6 am) because we didn’t have anywhere to be till 10 am. Our hotel had a complimentary breakfast so we ate really quickly. I made a waffle and Jim had some eggs and sausage.

We left the hotel around 9 am because Jim wanted to scope out the concert venue so he knew were to go Sunday night. I was not going to the concert with him, more on that later. It didn’t take us too long to find the place thanks to GPS so we ended up getting to the Opry Mills mall really early. We had a special DIS meet at the Disney Outlet at 10 am.

We drove over to the Opryland hotel and were going to walk around the lobby but it cost $20 just to park. We thought we might go back later and park in the Outlet lot and walk over but that never happened.

We were still pretty early when we got back to the mall so we decided to walk around and see if there were any stores that we wanted to go to besides the Disney Outlet. We did find a few but of course nothing was open. Jim found a store that he was drooling over. It was called The Pepper Palace and was all different kinds of hot sauces. Hot sauces are pretty much a food group to him. The store opened 10 minutes early so we went in to look around.

As we were looking, I was pretty sure I saw Connie (OopsiDAISY) walk by so I said to Jim we better go. I will admit that I was very nervous about the Meet and Greet. I have no idea why I get so worked up but I’ve always been like that. I drive myself nuts worrying about stuff like “what if she doesn’t like me?” “what if I say something stupid?”. That morning I had told Jim I was nervous and being the smart aleck he is he said “What, are you afraid she’s going to be a serial killer?”

I didn’t have anything to worry about! Connie was really nice and we had a good talk about Disney and then we went our separate ways to do some shopping. Jim also enjoyed talking with her son Gabe and he decided that they were not serial killers. Here’s a picture to prove that we met:

I was keeping an eye on Connie as we shopped because I had a few items in the car for her kids. I love shopping for kids, I have nine under the age of 7 in my family that I send gifts to all the time. When we talked about meeting, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get some stuff for her kids.

When she was checking out, I sent Jim out to the car and we talked for a few minutes till he came back. Gabe was so sweet and thanked me immediately for the gift. I’m glad he liked it!

Connie and Gabe left to go to the Lego store but I wasn’t quite done shopping. I sent Jim back to the Pepper Palace so I could shop in peace. I was putting together a birthday gift for my Cousin’s girl who turns two at the end of February. Here’s what I ended up getting for her:

Yep, way overboard as usual!

I couldn’t leave myself out so I got this Pluto Vinylmation:

And this cute PJ set. It’s already on my guest bed to be packed for my trip in two weeks:

After I checked out, I headed towards the Pepper Palace to see what Jim was up too. He spent almost as much as I did in the Disney Store on hot sauce! Here’s what he bought. I had to turn the one bottle backwards because it has a very bad picture and some naughty words on the front:

We walked back around the rest of the mall and Jim bought some new boxers at Banana Republic. They are so much cheaper at the outlet:

We also stopped in a store called It’s Sugar which was all candy. They had these massive Rice Krispy Treats in the window and I was thinking about getting one for my boss. She loves Rice Krispy Treats. That idea went out the window when I saw the price of $25. I like my boss but not that much! Jim did find a few naughty notepads that he bought. No picture because of the bad words on them.

The last store we stopped in had all kinds of Tennessee Merchandise. Jim wanted a Nashville Predators shirt and he found this set:

Funny thing is, I bought him the same exact set at Disney but with Toronto Maple Leafs. He really is a creature of habit. We also found a little gift to bring home to the babies:

By the time we finished shopping, it was almost noon so we decided to get lunch at the Rainforest Café. We hadn’t eaten at one since our Honeymoon 14 years ago. We sat right by the Elephants. I ordered the Paradise Pot Roast and I think Jim got a burger. They came around and took pictures and we decided to get a package. Sorry, these are actually a picture of a picture because I don’t have a scanner.

And then they came around again with the Frog and Jim had to be a goofball:

Yes, the frog is sitting on his lap.

We shopped in the store a bit and Jim got this t-shirt. Front:

Back:

And I found this necklace:

I doubt I’ll ever wear it but it’s so rare for me to find something with my name on it, I couldn’t resist.

Continued in Next Post

 

[Pluto0809]

After lunch, we headed to the Belle Meade Plantation. It’s an old plantation where they used to raise Thoroughbred race horses. Many famous race horses can trace their lineage back to this plantation.

We took a tour of the Mansion which was very interesting but no photography was allowed. Then we walked around the grounds and took some pictures:

Damage to the columns on the Mansion from the Civil War:

More plantation pictures:

We also did a wine tasting at the plantation. They make wine and sell it there and all the profits go to the preservation of the plantation. Being the good Samaritans we are, we bought two bottles to bring home. They came with a cute carrying bag:

We spent a couple of hours at the plantation and then headed back to the hotel. We stopped along the way at a grocery store to get some snacks and drinks. We relaxed for a while and then about 7 pm decided to head to Broadway Street in Downtown. Our plan was to park, walk around a bit and then get some dinner. Well that didn’t happen! The closest parking place we could find was 5 blocks away.

We ended up going back to the hotel and then walking across the street to a small restaurant called Little Chicago. We both got a small pizza, cheese for me and supreme for Jim. I’m not ashamed to admit that I ate all six pieces of mine. Jim only ate three but he also got cheese sticks to start the meal.

Then we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

 

[Pluto0809]

Sunday started out with another lazy morning. Nothing was open until 11 am so we weren’t in a hurry to leave. We took advantage of the free breakfast again. I had a bagel and a banana. The bagel was horrible, it definitely didn’t compare to the ones in Disney! It was cloudy and supposed to rain later so Jim wanted to stop at Wal-Mart and get a poncho. His concert was that night and since there was no seating he would have to stand outside for a while.

After Wal-Mart, we headed to Lane Motor Museum. This one was all Jim. The museum was all old cars, mostly foreign ones. I did take a lot of pictures but I have no idea what I was taking so I’ll just post the pictures:

Luckily we were only there for about an hour.

Next, we decided to try out Broadway Street again for lunch and then head to the Tennessee State Museum (TSM). Unfortunately by the time we got there, it was pouring rain. We parked in a lot that Jim thought was halfway between Broadway and the TSM. Well, we were actually about a mile from Broadway. We stood under an awning for a minute trying to decide what to do and then I realized the awning was for a restaurant called Pucketts. We decided to go in eat there. My first thought when we walked in was “it smells like Cracker Barrel”. And I was right, it was Cracker Barrel with a bar! I had fried chicken, mac & cheese and french fries and Jim had a patty melt and a salad. It was actually pretty good.

We were only two blocks from the TSM so we braved the raindrops and headed there. I only took a few pictures because there just wasn’t that much interesting to take.

Since we ate lunch a little later, I realized that I wasn’t going to be hungry before Jim left for his concert at 5:45. So we ran back to the grocery store and I got a sub and some soup for my dinner. Jim was going to eat the leftovers from dinner the night before.

We went back to the hotel, Jim got ready for his concert and headed out and I put on my comfy cloths, watched some TV and played on Jim’s computer. He had an awesome time at the concert. He took lots of pictures but most were blurry. Here’s one of him with the band he went to see, Lacuna Coil:

And here’s a picture of the lead singer from the band that opened. I think they were called Avatar:

Yes, he’s wearing an executioner’s mask. And that is why I didn’t go to the concert with him! He actually left after Lacuna Coil as they were the second band and got back to the room about 10 pm.

We were up pretty early on Monday because we were anxious to see our doggies. We still didn’t manage to get on the road till 9 am which was 10 am Atlanta time. We made a quick stop at an Easy Spirit Outlet store for me but I didn’t find anything. We got lunch there at a Long John Silvers and ate in the car.

We got home about 1:30 pm, took the rental car back, did some grocery shopping and then picked up the dogs. And that’s the end of our Nashville trip!

I'm hoping to get back to the regular TR sometime tomorrow. Sorry it's been so long since the last update but I've been really busy at work.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Sounds like you had an overall good trip to Nashville!! I love all of the pictures you took. I admit I would have enjoyed the car museum, but the Country Music Hall of Fame would have been wonderful, as I'm a big fan of country music.

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Wow! You guys ended up seeing LOTS of stuff in Nashville! I am so guilty of having lived here for over 14 years and I have not seen most of what you got pictures of! Guess next time I have friends come to Nashville for sightseeing I should try to join in the fun!

Puckett's Grocery is pretty famous around here. It is a favorite, and always wins local awards. Great lunch choice! And Rainforest Cafe...LOVE that place!!! It always gives me the feeling that I am at Disney.

So glad Jim decided that Gabe and I are not serial killers! We will definitely have to send the boys to the Lego store to play while we visit longer next time!

Looks like y'all had a great weekend in Nash-Vegas!

 

[cheekypoppins]

omg I wanna go to see all those "hotwheels" cars!!!!that looks so fun n oopsi is a doll eh? that just got me really excited for my trip to Nashville,I can't wait to go there in 2014. Oh and i totally wanna be adopted as a kid in your family LOL(I'm 5 on the inside that counts right???)

 

[cheekypoppins]

 

[katt789]

Seems like a nice little trip away from home! Nice little trips can really be awesome, just give ya a little break, seems like it was fun!! I have to say, when you abbreviated something to TSM, I was all "you're two blocks away from Toy Story Mania?!?!" And don't worry about getting a little nervous for Dismeets, I'll admit I do too, I mean, you're meeting someone that you feel like you know because you've talked to them for so long, but you've never actually seen them in person, it's odd! (I don't know how people internet date!)

It's getting so close to trip time!! Yay!!

 

[Pluto0809]

Sounds like you had an overall good trip to Nashville!! I love all of the pictures you took. I admit I would have enjoyed the car museum, but the Country Music Hall of Fame would have been wonderful, as I'm a big fan of country music.

Yeah the cars were a little boring. Considering Jim planned the entire trip, I guess he was allowed something for himself! I loved the CMHF! It was probably the highlight of the trip for me (beside the DIS meet of course )

Wow! You guys ended up seeing LOTS of stuff in Nashville! I am so guilty of having lived here for over 14 years and I have not seen most of what you got pictures of! Guess next time I have friends come to Nashville for sightseeing I should try to join in the fun!

Puckett's Grocery is pretty famous around here. It is a favorite, and always wins local awards. Great lunch choice! And Rainforest Cafe...LOVE that place!!! It always gives me the feeling that I am at Disney.

So glad Jim decided that Gabe and I are not serial killers! We will definitely have to send the boys to the Lego store to play while we visit longer next time!

Looks like y'all had a great weekend in Nash-Vegas!

We did have a great time! Nashville was a fun city and very easy to find our way around. I get why you call it Nash-Vegas after spending time on Broadway.

I'm glad we found Pucketts and the food was good. We really wanted to eat at the Wild Horse Saloon but the mile walk in the rain was not an option.

Definitely going to have to try the Lego idea next time to keep the guys occupied!

omg I wanna go to see all those "hotwheels" cars!!!!that looks so fun n oopsi is a doll eh? that just got me really excited for my trip to Nashville,I can't wait to go there in 2014. Oh and i totally wanna be adopted as a kid in your family LOL(I'm 5 on the inside that counts right???)

I wasn't so thrilled with the cars but if you like them, that Museum had a lot!

Yes, oopsi was great! I really enjoyed our meet.

You will have a blast in Nashville. There was a lot more that we wanted to do but didn't get too. Next time.

Hmmmm, I may be able to find you a place in my family!

Love it! Happy Valentine's Day to you too.

Seems like a nice little trip away from home! Nice little trips can really be awesome, just give ya a little break, seems like it was fun!! I have to say, when you abbreviated something to TSM, I was all "you're two blocks away from Toy Story Mania?!?!" And don't worry about getting a little nervous for Dismeets, I'll admit I do too, I mean, you're meeting someone that you feel like you know because you've talked to them for so long, but you've never actually seen them in person, it's odd! (I don't know how people internet date!)

It's getting so close to trip time!! Yay!!

It was a really nice trip. I wondered if anyone would pick up on the TSM abbreviation! I wasn't about to type out Tennessee State Museum a bunch of times though!

I don't know why I get so nervous! I really shouldn't, DIS people are all so nice.

2 weeks from today I will be at WDW!!