Little adventures are good for the soul. I have decided our family needs to take more of them. We decided to take one this weekend. My soul is happy. It started out a little hairy, but we managed to pull it off...
This picture is how our street looked the morning we were supposed to leave on our little adventure. Now, I love snow, especially if it is FREEZING outside. I always have said that if it isn't going to be 72 and sunny in the winter, there needs to be snow on the ground. I should clarify though-I MUCH prefer snow Monday-Friday. Screwing up my weekends with it just isn't cool. So we woke to this yesterday morning. My parents had Lucy overnight and we were supposed to leave for Nashville mid-morning. Since TDOT (TN Dept. of Transportation-and yes, I know I am a nerd) recommended NOT traveling over the mountain to our west, we postponed our trip for a few hours.
I suppose I should explain a little more about our adventure. Wild woman Lucy is quite obsessed with being a star these days. She's always dressing up, pretending, and lately, entertaining us with her new karaoke machine--thank you Santa. She's been pretty much in love with "The Band Perry" since she heard their hit "YOU LIE" last summer. I have the CD and she wants to hear it pretty much any time we are in the car. She literally knows every single word of every single song. She can sing to you about falling in love, throwing her engagement ring over the mile-long bridge, catching fireflies in a jar, etc. Pretty funny to hear a 3 year-old singing such lyrics. Perhaps a wee bit inappropriate at times, but I'm not actually in the running for mother of the year, so... Here's a snippet of her (as a pirate princess) singing along with The Band Perry.
Anyway, the other night at dinner she posed the question what would happen if Kimberly Perry got to come to our house. (KP is the lead singer of The Band Perry). We talked about all we would do and about how Neil and Reed (the brothers of KP and the two other band members) would hang out too. It's also sort of funny that she's obsessed with them because they are from Greeneville, TN where my grandma lives and my dad was born and raised. Any time we go visit my grandma Lucy thinks we should invite the Perry family over. So I thought to myself, if they are in concert any time soon, we WILL get this child tickets. A few clicks of the mouse later and we'd discovered that they were playing the Grand Ole Opry this coming weekend!!!!! Tickets were bought, hotel rewards points used, and we were set. Except for the friggin' snow!
Our trip over the mountain (in my dad's new van-dubbed "The Grandy Van" by Lucy) was uneventful--thank goodness. We made it to Nashville in about 2.5 hours and checked in at the hotel. We had a few hours to spare before the Opry, so we headed to Opry Mills Mall. That place is HUGE. Fortunately, we were walking to the Opry from there, so I couldn't shop. No place to put my shopping bags!
At the mall, there was a variety of places to break bread. We found the "Aquarium" restaurant, as well as the "Rainforest Cafe." Bryan and I had been to a RC on a previous adventure with some friends and remembered it being pretty cool. Lucy thought it sounded interesting, and it didn't take much convincing of the grandparents before we were on our "Safari Adventure." They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but really, these pictures don't do our trip to the RC justice.
Things started out fine--see picture 1. Lucy and Bryan explored the gift shop, put their hands in the rain, and steered clear of "Tina the Talking Tree". (We learned that real quick). Then once we went INSIDE the restaurant, things got a bit crazy. We were sitting in the "Monkey" section of the restaurant, surrounded by chimps and gorillas (all animatronics of course) when the first "thunderstorm" hit. That didn't go well. After several minutes of lights flashing, thunder, and rain we had convinced Lucy this was ALL RUN BY A COMPUTER. She chilled out-a little-but was on guard (see picture 2 above).
We were feeling pretty good now, then the monkey chorus part of the dinner began. Monkeys above us started swinging in trees and shrieking, the gorillas to our left started calling out and beating their chests, and Lucy pretty much became wide eyed and freaked out yet again. Now, I'm not a huge fan of "characters" (people dressed in suits as something that is not human), and really, if I'm telling the truth, they scare me to death-still. So these animatronic monkeys weren't my favorite thing, but for the sake of my child we all giggled and talked about how INCREDIBLE they were. Once again, explaining that some person behind a curtain was controlling all of them with a computer. This took A LOT of explaining multiple times before Lucy was somewhat convinced. Thank goodness there were other shrieking children around so people weren't staring too much at our child we were having to feed since her hands were permanently glued to her ears.
By the time we'd
survived enjoyed another "thunderstorm" or two, as well as 3 monkey choruses, Lucy was the child you see in picture 3 above. Hands still glued to ears, laughing nervously repeating over and over, "These aren't real. They are just run by the computers. The cookers aren't scared. They like the animals. The animals aren't real..." WHAT THE HELL WERE WE THINKING TAKING HER THERE?!?!?!? Lesson learned.
That leads us to the next part of our adventure. We walked over to the Opry a little early and took some pictures. Lucy was thrilled. She kept asking if Kimberly was going to sing to her. We let her explore and look around, and will probably have her producer put these pictures on the marquee outside the Opry when she grows up and performs there. So proud of a picture with ME in it! The second picture pretty much sums up Lucy's thoughts on the whole experience. She was so excited!!!! Picture her screaming, "OH YEAH!" as we click the third shot. She is a mess.
Once inside, we were all in awe of the Opry. Bryan, Lucy, and I had never been before. Mom and dad had only been once before. It is pretty cool to be standing in that auditorium where so many greats have (and still) perform. Let's just say that if we lived a little closer, I'd be there every weekend. Lucy thought the auditorium looked "so cool" and Bryan thought it looked a lot like a large Southern Baptist church. He's as much of a mess as she is.
Several performers later, The Band Perry took the stage. Lucy was squealing with excitement, clapping, and tapping her foot to the beat. Here eyes never left the stage. SHE WAS MESMERIZED. I'm not sure that there is anything cuter than a 3 year-old singing the words to her favorite band, smiling from ear to ear. Our seats were incredible (3rd row on the mezzanine section right over the stage!) and
I think the band did an incredible job. They sound just as good live as they do in my car every single day. Lucy was pretty bummed that they only sang 4 songs. She cried when we left. PRECIOUS.
It probably goes without saying that Lucy slept in the queen bed with me after the excitement of the "Rainforest Cafe." She really tried to sleep next to Bryan and I in our bed at the hotel, but eventually, the sounds of the gorillas resonating in her head won out. I slept for 4 hours. I have since napped. I feel more human now.
Needless to say, Lucy and concerts DO mix. We'll be having more musical adventures in our future. Perhaps she'll even have her name in lights one day too.
