My Darling Visits Nashville!

Hello, lovelies!

I meant to post this yesterday, but I was typing it all up and playing catch up with things around the apartment, so I’ll post today. I’m going to skip this week’s FWMD post [sorry!] in order to get caught back up with my blog. I’ll probably skip a week every 10 posts or so for that series. This may be a longer post, but enjoy some yummy food and a cool owl picture!

Friday Foods

This past weekend my sister, Haley, and her husband, Reece, visited us! Haley’s fall break was this week, so she and Reece decided to trek on down to Music City for a few days. They were not fans of the drive here due to so much construction within the four hour drive that turned into five, but they made it all in one piece!

They didn’t arrive until around 7:00 PM on Friday, so we just grabbed some dinner at Bar Louie. It was pouring down rain once we actually made it into the restaurant, but One Bellevue Place looks so pretty at night! Not the best picture, but I wanted to snap a quick picture. I promise I’ll post a better quality picture eventually to do it justice.

Stephen ordered a flatbread, Reece had some Drunken Fish & Chips, Haley got what I got last time, the Voodoo Pasta, and I ordered the Seared Salmon.

The Voodoo Pasta is an older picture from when I ate here time, but it looked pretty much the same, minus the piece of bread – did they stop doing that!? Hm, maybe that has changed. This time around, the pasta was way, way more spicy than the previous!

I didn’t know what to expect from my salmon, but it tasted like the same sauce as the Voodoo Pasta, and it was really, really good! I really liked the cauliflower couscous mixture.

The portion sizes were huge! There was so much of our food that Haley and I had to take our remaining meal with us. She said it was way too spicy for her, so I ate them as my leftovers yesterday, haha.

They were pretty tired from the drive, so we called it a night once we were fed some yummy food.

Saturday Shenanigans

We decided to visit downtown for a little bit before we went to Radnor Lake State Park. The Barbara J. Mapp Aviary Education Center didn’t open until 1 PM. So, we grabbed lunch by 11 in the Gulch at Emmy Squared. It was such a cute little place, and I had a hard time choosing what to order. We originally wanted to try Milk & Honey, but evidently it’s a super touristy place because the line was so long! No way were we waiting since we hadn’t had anything to eat yet.

I ended up choosing the Spicy Chicken Sandwich. I was sad that it didn’t come with fries, but I took some of Stephen’s, so it worked out!

It originally came with ranch on it, but I asked not to have any since I don’t like ranch on my food. I was that barbarian that cut up her sandwich and ate it with a fork because it was just so messy, and there was no way I could fit a whole bite in my mouth! I really liked this sandwich, and I ended up leaving about 1/4 of it because it was so much. I thought the sweet pickles were an interesting choice for the sandwich, but they went along great with it.

Haley and Reece shared a pizza together.

Stephen went big and ordered the Le Big Matt burger.

Those fries were really crisp and made perfectly. I could have eaten my weight in them! The burger looks small, but it was pretty dense for him to eat, so the meals really filled us all up!

We decided to show them what it’s like on Broadway [although midday on a Saturday is very different from a Saturday night], and we walked along the Pedestrian Bridge. Already, we did so much walking, and we weren’t even at the park yet!

We ended up taking a slightly longer drive to show off cool houses that we’ve seen on the way to the park.

Radnor Lake State Park

I think I have a backlogged post about this place that I never got around to posting, or maybe I have. I don’t quite remember, but it’s a pretty lake and park that also has an old road that’s closed off to cars but open for people to walk on. It’s a pretty neat place, and Saturday’s weather was absolutely perfect to be outside for the majority of the day!

It feels a bit rebellious to walk along the road, even though it’s closed off, haha.

When we finally walked to the aviary, we first went inside the home where they have the small animal displays.

He was really intrigued by the snake that was there.

If you look closely, you can see it resting its head on that twig! We made eye contact and that would have definitely been scarier if we were outdoors, haha.

The turtles in the water were pretty active, but I focused on this little guy that was all alone. Kinda freaky if you zoom in on the picture with his eyes.

The first animal we saw was the owl.

Fun fact: #1 We thought that the owl liked Stephen because she kept her eyes focused on him and had her mouth open, as seen in this picture. Well, that’s not the case. Evidently, she was hissing at him! Darn it.

Also, did you know that they have more than one eyelid?

What’s cool about this time is we came at a perfect time where a park ranger got out the owl! She said that this owl had a hard time getting used to them at first, and that she did not particularly care for this male park ranger. When he walked by, the owl stared him down and started hissing! What’s her story? Maybe a male owl has done her wrong, and she’s angry at all of the male population. Bitter much? Haha.

I’d be so terrified to train them to sit on my hand. The dead stare of an owl is so intimidating.

Fun fact #2: They actually are able to turn their head 270 degrees. Almost 360, but not quite.

Then, we took some more pictures together.

I love my baby goat! [Weird story, but I call her goat, and this was before the “greatest of all time” saying was a thing, haha, but she pretends it’s that acronym.]

It was a fun day, no doubt, but my feet were super sore on Sunday! We went to Cook Out for some cheap food and just watched a Mission Impossible movie. It didn’t really catch my eye to watch, but it was a good movie.

Lazy Sunday

Haley and I ended up making us all bacon, pancakes, and eggs to kick off their last full day! We decided to go to Opry Mills. The guys needed more clothes, and they managed to find a few things.

I went in the Fossil store, and luckily they didn’t have the bag that I’ve been wanting, or else I don’t think I could stop myself from buying it, haha.

On Thursday, I did buy this sweater on Amazon that arrived on Saturday. I got it for less than $25, so I was already sold on that! I ordered a size small, but it was pretty loose fitting. It’s super cute that I’m just get another one in a different color!

Haley was my wonderful photographer. The sweater was so cozy and super soft! It came in a vacuum sealed bag, which was interesting, but the creases came out after I fluffed it in the dryer for a few minutes.

Here’s an outfit that Stephen bought. He managed to snag two shirts from Express for only $24!

They ended up leaving on Monday morning around 10 AM, sadness, but we’ll be going to Kingsport in a few weeks for my brother’s annual get together that he wants to start having each year now that his house has been built! So, here’s to the first annual Moore-tober Fest! Not sure what that consists of fully, but we’ll find out.

Hope you all have a wonderful day! I feel like this is gonna be a long week, but maybe it’s because I stretched myself so thin with Monday’s project, and I just felt so drained yesterday. Hopefully not. I woke up early today, made my coffee, now to find some work!