That Time We Made A Surprise Visit Home! Part 5

Nashville Baby!

 

 

Friday around noon Cody and I had a bag packed and were cruising out of Bedford. This time only for a couple of nights though. We basically haven't had any alone time since January, so we needed this. It wasn't all for fun and games though!

 

If you are friends with me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, you have probably heard me complain about sweating my butt off at the gym, or wondering if I can shock myself with sweat and ear buds...or if I'm just going to die trying to get in shape! I have been running on the treadmill for about 5-6 months and when we decided to go home I figured it would be as good a time as any to do a 5K. Somehow, I talked my crazy, sexy, wonderful, amazing husband to do it with me! We picked one in Nashville for 2 reasons.

 

1. It was a perfect excuse for a weekend getaway sans kids

2. If we made total and complete fools of ourselves, no one we knew would be there to see it! Haha!

 

 

We picked the EmPower Run 5K Run/Walk. The race was for a good cause and it gave us both a little extra motivation to get to the gym.

 

Once we got on the road, the miles seemed to fly by and it didn't feel like it took long at all for us to get there. We went to Fleet Feet Nashville to pick up our race packets and then found our hotel.

We stayed at the Days Inn @ the Stadium. The service SUCKED! DO NOT stay there, even though it was reasonably priced and a prime location, I wouldn't stay there again.

 

Once we got checked in and settled in (after having to switch rooms) we debated...napping or dinner or check out the town. We ended up just relaxing for awhile and searching online for a good dinner place. Cody had been sick off and on since we got back so I let him decide. He picked The Melting Pot. I had never been there before, so I just let him take the lead. We got ready and headed out.

 

Our reservation wasn't until pretty late. If you're old like us. I think around 8:30 Kentucky time so we walked around and peeked our head into a couple of bars. We stopped in one and had a drink.

 

I could never be a travel blogger, or advise people where to go for the best of anything...I can't even remember the name of the bar we were in here! We just popped in and it was quiet enough to have a conversation so we stopped. After a beer or two for Cody and water for me, we walked back up to the The Melting Pot.

 

We had another drink at the bar there while we waited for our reservation. Delicious Amaretto Sours! Soooo good. They asked us if we were there to celebrate anything...we told them NO KIDS! That's a reason for any parent to celebrate!

 

Like I said, I'd never been before so after a few minutes of discussion, I pretty much let Cody do all the ordering. He knows me well enough to know what I like and I'll eat. I trust his judgement. He did good! I enjoyed everything he ordered, although you need to wear pants with elastic waist bands to eat there because you will over eat!

 

I failed at taking pictures of our food. I hadn't had my man alone in ages, I was focused on him! Sue me. Here are some Google images to satisfy your curiosity.

 

 

I love cheese. Who doesn't? I also LOVE chocolate! And the salmon cooked in the veggie broth...was the best I've ever eaten! It was a little pricey for my blood, but you only live once! Gotta love my man for being more than happy to pay for a good meal!

 

 

I'm loving how the lighting made me look orange! I haven't rolled in Cheetos or been in a tanning bed in months and months and months! Ugh! Anyway, after entirely too much food, we waddled our way to the street to find a taxi and go to our hotel. It was way past our bedtime! We go to bed with the chickens.

 

The next morning was the race. 5k is 3.1 miles. I had trained and ran for months and followed the C25K app and could run the whole thing...on the treadmill. I was nervous about running it outside. I mean, there are hills and curves and HILLS out there. Cody was nervous too. Because of his crazy work schedule here, he hadn't been able to really train for it like he wanted too. He was still willing to try and push himself hard to do it though.

 

He was worried I would leave him behind because of all the running I had been doing. I promised to stay with him and not leave him though. This race was as much about doing something together as it was finishing. I wasn't concerned with the time.

 

Our official race bibs. It was a timed race. I didn't know that for sure before we picked up our race packets, but still...I made a promise to stay with Cody and I was going to.

 

 

 Pre race Selfie! ;o)

Wow...this picture is pretty unforgiving and unflattering. Oh well, we were about to try to RUN for 3 miles. What did we I expect to look like???

 

After the race...I'm so incredibly proud of the man. He hadn't ran more than a mile before we left Malaysia and was pretty nervous going into this. He did fantastic though. He pushed hard and finished strong! He was sprinting when he saw that finish line, trying to shave off every second he could. 40 minutes and change was our finish times. I stayed right with him the whole time. It was a blast! I think we both enjoyed every minute of it. I had already signed up for another one while we are home. I love it. Love running.

 

Ok...now I just sound crazy saying that, but I really do. It's hard and sucks sometimes, but when I finish I feel fantastic!

 

Did I mention how proud I am of this guy? He is awesome! He rocked this 5K and actually agreed to do more with me! Damn I'm lucky!

 

After the race we went back to the hotel to shower and find something to do for the say. Google was our BFF! We decided on Oktober Fest in Germantown. I was up for anything and just looking for some food! We only ate a small bagel before we ran so I was ravenous! Cody was up for BEER! Haha!

 

Check out this parking job...and he hadn't even had a drop of beer yet. Must be all those months driving and parking in Malaysia!

 

This picture doesn't do justice to these apartments. The colors and combination with the steel was beautiful.

 

 First beer of the day in his race shirt!

 

The place was crowded. There was live music all over the place. About every block had it's own stage set up with a band. We stopped a few times to listen, but mostly walked around and checked things out. There were all kinds of booths set up...from crafts to soaps to jewelry to people handing out condoms. There was a lady yelling "Wrap it before you tap it!" and tossing condoms out at people. I died laughing! Better safe than sorry though people! There are some things out there that Clorox wont take off!

 

It was hot and we were tired. After walking around for a couple of hours we took our old, tired butts back to the hotel for a nap! We've been doing a lot of napping on this vacation!

 

When we woke up from the nap we HAD to check out the downtown. You can't go to Nashville without listening to some live country music! Right?!?!?

We had dinner at Demo's downtown. It was pretty cheap and super delicious. I would highly recommend it to anyone going to Nashville. It was also within walking distance to Broadway

 

The view from where we started walking down Broadway.

 

 Boots! Boots! Boots! I wanted some so bad. And they were buy 1 get 2 free...all day, every day. If you go to Nashville and are looking for new boots go here!

 I found the perfect pair for me. Unfortunately Cody couldn't find any for him and I couldn't justify getting myself 3 pairs!

 

Well...maybe I could have, but Cody wasn't having any of that business! ;o)

 Street vendors were everywhere. This lady had 1 dollar hot dogs and 2 dollar water...she was rocking it too!

 

You're going to laugh at this video.  I'm telling you...LAUGH OUT LOUD! I die every time I watch it!

 

 We ended up walking up and down both sides of Broadway. We popped into a few looking for a good band. We found what we were looking for in the very last bar. It was called Bootleggers Saloon. The band in there that night was great and that girl could SING!

Cigarette machine? Really? I thought these were a thing of the past!

 Somewhere around 9 or 9:30 we looked at each other and said...I'm tired, you want to go back to the room??? Party animals right here! We both agreed that we would be just as happy back at the hotel snuggled up in bed watching tv. We found a cab and were snuggled into bed no later than 10:30!

 

 

The next morning we were up and showered and ready to go pretty early. We stopped at the Nashville Biscuits House for breakfast and got on the road. We were on our way back to Bedford and more chaos of visiting our family. We had 7 more days to fit everyone in and were going to try our hardest to make it happen!