The Great NE Trip Part II

We accomplished our goal of waking up and leaving at 6am from Nashville. The only problem was the very slow valet man. We were on the road with hot starbucks in hand by 630am! Pretty impressive, don’t ya think?

The drive was very foggy and bright but luckily Ben slept through all of that. We made a pit stop in Marion, Tennessee at Subway and then one more stop at Dairy Queen to get an Oreo/M&M Blizzard to get our sugar levels up. 

This was our first attempt at the Virginia sign! It kind of snuck up on us...

We did a u-turn on the highway and tried again!! Haha!

The traffic was pretty bad around Arlington but we made it to Washington DC at 6pm! With the time change, that’s another 11 hour drive.

Our hotel is right in the middle of the city so we were able to walk around downtown before dinner. We saw the White House, the Treasury, the Washington Monument, and a glimpse of the Capitol. 

Dinner was at Old Ebbitt Grill, a recommendation from a friend who lived in DC for a time. The restaurant was across the street from the White House and the food was delicious!

The Great Northeastern Trip Part I

Ben has accepted a job with the FASB/GASB in Norwalk, CT and decided he wanted to drive all his things up to his new home. He (kindly) asked me to go with him and I (gladly) accepted! I have named this trip our “Great Northeastern Trip.” Hopefully the trip itself will live up to the name!

Day One of the trip:

We left Dallas bright and early at 8am heading east on 30. We made a pit stop in Texarkana, a Subway lunch break in Little Rock and made it to the famous Graceland by 3. 

Graceland is a place of its own. I don’t know if I can recommend it to anyone since we actually didn’t make it inside. We decided the $70 entry fee wasn’t worth it and we made a trip to the gift shop, then turned around and walked right back out.

11 hours after we pulled out of Dallas we arrived in Nashville. We passed the time by playing crossword puzzles on my new Kindle Fire, scanning the local radio stations and quizzing each other on New Years Resolutions and what we hope to see in the upcoming year. Overall the drive flew by until the last hour. We were pretty ready to get out of the car at that point.

Once in Nashville we got fancy cocktails at “The Patterson House,” a recommendation from Patrick Timson. It mimics a speakeasy from the 1920s, down to the curtains at the front that separate the hostess from the bar itself. The cocktails take about 5-7 miuntes EACH for the bartender to create but they were worth it. Anyone visiting Nashville should make a stop here.

We grabbed dinner at “Uptown Flats,” a recommendation from a friend who lives in Nashville. We missed the Wine Down Wednesday by 5 minutes, but still enjoyed our flatbread pizzas before crawling home to fall asleep. We hope to leave for DC at 6am in the morning….we’ll see how that goes!! 

 We thought this billboard was pretty funny. Tax refunds cashed at a fried chicken establishment! Maybe this is my new calling!!

Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville

Christmastime in New York City

Aunt Carol decided for her 60^th birthday she wanted to go to New York City! The timing was perfect since it was Oliver’s 4^th birthday as well and the rest of the girls decided we could celebrate with them J

It was a short trip up to the Big Apple but we crammed in as much as we could.

The first night we met Kelly, Oliver, Carol and Mike at Kelly’s apartment in Brooklyn for a warm homemade meal and an evening of trimming the Christmas tree.

The next morning Mom and I enjoyed a diner breakfast then met the family at the subway and headed to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes perform. After the show we saw the famous Rockefeller Christmas tree and ice skating rink. Then Mom, Kristen, Lesley and I puttered around the city seeing: Central Park, 5^th Avenue all dressed up for Christmas, Bryant Park, and the windows at Macys. 

Sunday morning the girls ate a Mediterranean brunch at Miriam’s, one of Kelly’s favorites. Then we made our way to see a matinee performance of The Lion King. It was a tad scarier than we all remember but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

It was a late night flight coming home, with a few mishaps on an unnamed airline (Delta) but mom and I finally made it home by 1am! Needless to say 8am Monday morning came too soon!!

It was such an incredible weekend and I am so thankful Aunt Carol and Oliver were born so we could all celebrate with them!