Ripley Visit

Kyle’s family is great about visiting us regardless of where we are living.   

When we were in Colorado they visited us 3 or 4 times.  It was awesome!  We haven’t been in Tennessee long and they already made a trip out here.  They stayed with us for a week and there was a lot of good eating, sightseeing and hanging out! 

When people come to visit us Kyle is the best about “showing people around”.  He will show you every place we have eaten, nice overlooks and possible celebrity homes!  Exciting, right? =)

We made a few trips to Nashville since we are only about 10 minutes away to go to The Pancake House, Broadway Street, Cumberland River, The Parthenon, Gaylord Hotel and the Grand Ol’ Opry.   We also took a day trip to Alabama which was a great time!

We had heard some amazing things about The Pancake House so that was one of the first places that we headed too.  The line wasn’t as bad as it normally was…it took us about 25ish minutes…and like I said, that isn’t bad.  The food was amazing and I am sure Kyle and I will be returning the next time we want a sugar high. =)

Broadway Street in Nashville is always an experience.  Kyle and I had been several times before and there is always something going on.  Tons of live music (in every bar and street corner), Elvis wanna-be’s and tons of people just roaming the streets.  It’s great for people watching!  You might even get to see these famous dogs like we did...

Can you spot the dog? =)

The Cumberland River is really close to Broadway so once we were done wondering around Broadway we headed over to look at the river.  This ‘river’ is rather large and there are always boats/little ships taking people of dinner cruises for the night.  

The Parthenon was awesome!  It is a replica of the Parthenon in Athens.  I didn’t know anything about it but I am glad that Joan did some research.  We got to take a tour and take a good amount of pictures.

It was everyone’s first time going to the Gaylord Hotel as well as the Grand Ol’ Opry.  We had such a great night.  I had tickets to see several musicians at the Grand Ol’ Opry but decided to stop by the Gaylord Hotel for dinner and to do some wondering around.  Kyle and I had heard that there was a ton of stuff to do inside the hotel so we were pretty excited.  This hotel wasn’t like any hotel that I have ever seen.  There were shops, restaurants, waterfalls and performers all over.  It felt like a different world! After dinner we walked over to the Grand Ol’ Opry where we got to hear several country musicians perform.  We all had a great time!

We also went for a walk/hike around Radnor Lake here in Brentwood.   Kyle and I had heard about how pretty it was but we had never been before.  We got the opportunity to take a lot of great pictures and see some wildlife!  

 To end the trip, we took a day road trip to Alabama.  Jay had served part of his mission in Alabama so we went to church there on Sunday morning.  The ward was very small but the people were so kind.  Jay even got to talk to some of the members!  Some of them he knew there extended families or someone knew someone he once knew.  Get it!? =) 

Overall, it was a great trip!  We had a lot of fun having them in town and being able to show them all around a new home.