Nashville Weekend with Raleigh Friends, Part One.

*I switched my website to something else and all the original photos were deleted from the original blog post. I re-uploaded the original pictures that I was able to recover.

Hi, hope you’re having a happy Tuesday! Disclaimer: my featured picture is actually from the previous weekend, but it was pretty cool to use!

This past weekend was crammed packed with so many places of Nashville that I just have to break up into two parts!

Not pictured: Broadway, Joe’s Crab Shack, Starbucks, or Opry Mills Mall.

This brings us to Saturday morning.

Quick question: have you ever seen a building implode?!

If not, here’s a video of an old dormitory building that was imploded at Vanderbilt.

Witnessing this in person was a surreal experience and so much better than watching it on a video! It was completely worth waking up “early” on a Saturday for. I consider 7:00 AM to be early since I’m not a morning person. We were so nervous that we were going to miss it, but we had only a couple of minutes to spare until it actually imploded!

We felt like the the ground was still shaking afterwards from all of the adrenaline that we were feeling!

Here’s the video footage from an aerial view that shows the building up close and personal! It’s crazy they could get such a clear and awesome shot!

After making a quick Starbucks pit stop to let the air and dust settle down, we then decided to show Stephen’s friends the Parthenon. It was only our second time going within the past few months, but the exhibits are constantly changing so it’s nice to revisit every now and then.

Last time, there was a mosaic exhibit. This time around, there were cool photos of people with instruments! No faces were shown in them, so it was a pretty cool artistic take! There actually was just one face, but it was on a drum set, ironically.

I couldn’t recover the photos of the artwork, but it was a neat exhibit.

After we left the Parthenon, it was around lunch time and we were getting hungry because we hadn’t eaten anything for breakfast. So, we went to try Hattie B’s Hot Chicken.

The saying was super cute.

We waited for about 20 or so minutes standing outside, only partially under the awning for the first half of the wait. The heat was crazy and we were just getting hungry and antsy at this time since it was around noon and we hadn’t eaten any food all day.

Stephen’s friends ordered a single tender with the Shut the Cluck Up!!! level of heat. It was absolutely yummy. I was slightly disappointed that my hot level didn’t have enough heat for me, but it was good overall. Stephen ordered the same, but stuck to the mild heat level.

I didn’t pick up the sandwich and eat it because I would have made a huge mess of myself. Instead, I just cut it up with a knife and ate it with a fork. I know, I know, not the way that a sandwich should be eaten, but that’s also how I tend to stain and ruin some of my clothes! I’m a little less messy now.

I should’ve gotten the tenders, but the sandwich was good overall! I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily inclined to pick hot chicken again to eat on an even hotter day, but I would go back again, for sure.

We passed some cool murals on our way back to the apartment to hang out and recover. I mean, we willingly choose to wake up early on a Saturday! Haha, it was a rad way to kick off the day, and definitely the best way to start off our weekend!

We spent a few hours playing some games and resting at the apartment. Around 4 PM, we decided to go to Topgolf, which is basically a driving range. They really gave us a runaround. First walking in, they have a greeter stationed to let people know the wait time. This guy told us it would be about a 3-hour wait, but we can go to the check-in to put our names down on the list.

Stephen gave them his information and we decided to head to the mall while we waited since we didn’t have to physically be at Topgolf. Well, we were about 10 minutes out from the place when they texted Stephen and told him that our bay is almost ready and asked if we were ready to go. At first, we thought this was a mistake. So, he tried calling the place to find out if this was correct. The annoying part was that we couldn’t speak with someone directly. There were so many automated menus that we didn’t need to go thorugh. He eventually gave up and we decided to go back and talk with them in person.

Funny thing is, we actually got to go and golf without having to wait! They ended up changing the time and told Stephen it was just an hour and a half wait, but ours would be ready within three minutes. I suppose everyone else on the waiting list was out and about in Nashville, so we were bumped up?

Who knows, but lucky for us!

They didn’t have left-handed golf clubs, and I was too socially awkward to ask the server for one. Plus, I wouldn’t have known which club was the better one to use if I did request a club.

Eventually, I found out that the second to last row, the 5 and 7 were the clubs that I needed to use.

Stephen was pretty good at hitting the golf ball at a long distance! I think he was pretty close to winning one of the games. The first game, I was absolutely terrible and scored only 10 points after having 20 tries! We purchased the 2-hour time slot so we could enjoy our time and not rush.

The second game, though, I started off with 35 points within my first three hits! The way the course is set up, it levels the points and fairness pretty well for people to score easier. Clearly, I was the underdog to win this round. I think if you hit multiple times in a row, it doubles and triples the initial target value, which is how I lucked into getting so many points the second time around!

We were getting hungry, so we ordered some appetizers to tide us over. I think these were chili mango flavored wings. they were delicious!

I can definitely see how people can just drop a whole bunch of money at Topgolf without realizing it until the waiter hands you the bill. Crazy prices, but a memorable experiences to enjoy every now and then!

We then decided to rush to the Opry Mills Mall before it closed within an hour because his friends wanted to check out the Fossil store. Now that I’m thinking about it, why did it close at 9 PM on a Saturday? Is that normal or evident that I’m not out that late at a mall?

Evidently the Fossil store in Raleigh closed down — how unfortunate! I didn’t buy anything either, which is a shock. They didn’t have one bag in the store, but hopefully it’ll be there the next time. My other dream bag was still there, so crossing my fingers for a sale on it soon!

How was everyone else’s weekend? I hope your week is going well so far and is just as fun and exciting! Since this is only up until Saturday, I’m going to create another post highlighting what we did on Sunday, which we had such sweet treats to indulge in!

Now, I’ve got to pack for my Kingsport getaway for tomorrow. Stephen’s staying in Nashville this time around, but we may plan a visit in September so he can visit his friends. My family is planning to spend the day in the Pigeon Forge/the Gatlinburg area, so even more touristy things to post about next week!

Here’s part two if you’re interested in a yummy bowl of ramen or a table of our extravagant milkshakes!