Nashville!

Okie dok, so Raja obviously isn't posting anytime soon. All of you readers are just stuck with me. ;)

Things are moving along in St. Louis.. We were just talking the other day about how we've already been here 2 months. That's 1/3 of the time we'll be in STL! Time is moving really quickly now, and we're already starting to talk about where we might be for our next rotation. No real word yet, but a first call b/t Raja and the Program Coordinator takes place in about a week! That may present us w/some options at least, so that's exciting.

We're enjoying the area overall so far, but there are still a LOT of things we want to do that we haven't been able to get out there and try yet. The weather is starting to look and feel a bit more spring-like outside (finally), so that should help us be able to get out there and play outside. We've also been spending a few weekends here and there in places other than STL, but we love that because it's given us a chance to spend time w/our families which is more priceless now than ever.

This past weekend, we went to good ol' Nashville. Mom was going to a scrapbook convention in that area, and since that put her halfway closer to us than she normally is, we packed up our bags and headed off to the south again. We got there about 1am Friday night, and even though we were pretty tired, the hotel definitely warranted a quick tour around. Mom had a room at the Opryland Hotel/Resort, and if you've never been there, believe me when I say that this place is every bit as big as they say it is. Here are some shots of the inside of our hotel. It looks like the outside.. yes, i know... but this is what we walked through every day just to go to a restaurant or a store or to go outside.

I've never been inside a hotel and actually said "Oh wait.. let me climb over all the flowers and take a picture right next to the lake where the boat tours around.. Then take my picture!!" So here is a picture of me trying to do just that:

And here is a picture of me when the flower bushes were too large to crawl over. Instead, I just had to stand next to the tree next to the sidewalk. Still fun, though. :)

And here's Raja, who doesn't usually take time to pose for many photos. I have to just catch him when I can. :)

He, by the way, took to Nashville rather well. He got to play golf and the people in Nashville were really nice. If you know and love Raja, you won't be surprised when I tell you that he randomly broke out into country songs throughout the weekend. I think I heard him singing Garth Brooks and Lee Greenwood the most... We'd be driving or walking along and I'd hear Raja just start singing out of nowhere, in this REALLY exaggerated southern accent. He LOVES to sing "that thing called Rodeo-o-o-o-oo," and everytime we saw an American flag (Nashville has lots of them. BIG ones) I could hear Raja start up with "And I'm proud to be an American...." It was quite entertaining.. He only knew bits and pieces of most of the songs (naturally.. the boy didn't exactly grow up listening to country music) so I heard a LOT of repeated choruses, but at least he was enjoying himself and trying to feel at home. ;)

On Saturday we got to go shopping for a bit. Before we headed out for the shopping trip, we looked up some places on the internet to eat lunch. I found the "Rainforest Cafe" on the web, and with a location right in the mall we were visiting, I thought it looked like lots of fun. Look how neat it looks:

I was getting excited while we were looking at the website online because it has all these pretty pictures and the menu looks like lots of fun. I bounced over to Raja and showed him the great website, and he took one look and realized the menu didn't list prices. So he called it a tourist trap, pronounced it "The Land of No Prices" and said we couldn't go. =( I guess that's okay.. We ended up at Macaroni Grill in the mall, and that's one of my favorites, but still... the Rainforest Cafe looked so festive...

I will say he made up for it that night. He asked what I wanted to do, and I didn't really have a preference. So I just start getting ready and he looks around on the internet for things close to our hotel that I may like. He found an AMAZING place called Ellendale's within 2 miles of our hotel, and it was so pretty and a great experience. They had an amazing cheese plate and yummy appetizers, and we got to have a dessert sampler too that was very good.

The setting was gorgeous, and there was a woman there that was singing jazz music.. She was VERY nice and great at what she did. Overall, definitely one of the best places I've been.. right up my alley, so I will give credit to Raja for that. :) Here are some pictures of the restaurant:

And finally, here's me & Mom on Sunday. Sunday was GORGEOUS in Nashville, so we got to take some pictures outside before we headed back to St. Louis and Mom headed back to Birmingham. We had a great weekend, and were so glad we got to go. :)