Even though James had been dealing with some GI issues for a couple of weeks, we decided to go down to Nashville for Spring Break. We had been planning the trip for months and thought he was healthy enough to travel.

Stacy set a goal for herself to make enough money as a Thirty-One consultant to pay for our trip, and as indicated by the picture at the top of this post, she did it. Thanks to all of you that made purchases and supported Stacy in her little business.

James tends to handle long trips at night while he is sleeping so the plan was for us to leave at around 10 pm Saturday night and arrive in Nashville at around 6:30 am Sunday morning. Unfortunately, things don’t always go according to plan. More on this in a minute.

Since I was going to be the one driving, I took a 4-hour nap before we left. While I was sleeping, Stacy was busy packing up the van.

 

 

Most of the stuff in the above pictures is James’. I had one bag, Stacy had one bag, we had one Thirty-One tote with snacks, and the rest of it was James’. The kid travels with a lot of stuff!

We were running a little bit ahead of schedule (which is odd for us), got James all settled into his car seat and were on the road by 9:30 pm.

 

In case you are wondering why he is wearing sunglasses when we were driving at night, James doesn’t close his eyes when he sleeps, so we put sunglasses on him so that the lights of passing cars and streetlights don’t wake him up.

And this is where we get to the “things don’t always according to plan” that I mentioned earlier. James slept for about an hour or so and then woke up because he needed some suctioning. He stayed up for the rest of the drive! That meant that Stacy was up for most of the drive, too. James tends to kick up more secretions and needs more suctioning when he is awake then when he is sleeping. Stacy was able to get a few little naps in but was up frequently to suction James.

We made some pretty good time and made it to Nashville around 5:15 am. The nice thing about driving at night is that we didn’t have much traffic leaving Chicago or passing through any of the major cities along the way, which really helped us timewise.

 

 

Since we knew we were going to be getting into Nashville so early, Stacy arranged for an early check in at the hotel. James has his breakfast feed at 6 am so he was able to eat at the hotel. We were all pretty wiped from the long night of driving, so we napped for a few hours before we ventured out to get some lunch.

One of our rules while on vacation is to eat at places that we don’t have back home. We ate at Chuy’s Tex-Mex restaurant and then walked around Opry Mills Mall. After our stroll through the mall, we went back to the hotel, relaxed, and planned out the places we wanted to go while we were there.

 

Monday

On Monday we went to the Nashville Zoo.

I was trying something new and trying to take pictures from James’ point of view, so you’ll see his red hood and red baseball cap in many of the pictures below.

 

It’s hard to see, but there’s a zebra:

 

It was pretty cool how close you can get to the kangaroos:

 

Flamingos:

 

Clouded Leopard:

 

Yellow-Backed Duiker:

 

Saddle-Billed Stork:

 

 

Meerkats:

 

Siamang:

 

Belted Galloway:

 

Miniature Horse:

 

Giraffe:

 

After we spent a couple of hours at the zoo, we went back to the car where James got some belly time, and I took a nap before we headed out for lunch.

 

 

For lunch we went to Martins Bar-B-Que Joint on Belmont, which was about a 10 or 15 minute drive from the zoo. Stacy got the pulled pork with a side of mac & cheese and a cornbread hoecake. For me it was the sliced beef brisket, slaw, and a cornbread hoecake. All I can say is freaking amazing! Highly recommended.

 

 

 

Tuesday

Tuesday morning we headed into downtown Nashville for breakfast at Another Broken Egg Café and then to the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum. Stacy got the strawberry pancakes with a side of sausage. I got an omelet with a side of blackberry grits. No complaints here. Nice hearty breakfast. After we finished breakfast, I had to snap a couple of pics of my favorite building in Nashville, the AT&T building (aka “The Batman Building), which was just at the end of the block from the café.

We only took a couple of pictures at the museum, but there is a lot of stuff in there. If you’re in town and have the time, check it out.

 

 

 

 

 

After the museum we wandered around a bit downtown and got some lunch at Acme Feed & Seed. A cheeseburger for Stacy, chicken sandwich for me, and Peptamen Jr. for James. Unfortunately, the battery died in James’ feeding pump, so we had to manually feed him with a syringe.

 

 

For dinner Tuesday night we met up with a friend that Stacy had “met” through a special needs group on Facebook and her family that live a little bit south of Nashville. She recommended Cock of the Walk. Interesting name, but another good meal.

 

Wednesday

On Wednesday we went to the Adventure Science Center. Just because James was on Spring Break doesn’t mean he should stop learning. I think Stacy and I learned a thing or two as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All that sciencey stuff really worked up our appetites. James had a little bit of belly time in the car and then it was off to lunch at our favorite restaurant. We have to stop here at least once when we’re in town. If you’ve never been to the Loveless Café, you don’t know what you’re missing! They are known for their biscuits, but everything else on the menu is damn good, too. This time around I got the pulled pork sandwich with a side of caramel sweet potatoes. Stacy got the jumbo chicken fingers, mac and cheese, and hashbrown casserole.

 

 

 

 

Thursday

Thursday was a low-key day. It was our last day of vacation and since we were going to do another night drive back to Chicago, I needed to get some sleep. We had breakfast at The Row and picked up some cupcakes at The Painted Cupcake.

 

 

We all had a really good time. We always love going to Nashville, and it’s always hard to leave, especially this time. Temperatures were in the 60s and 70s while we were there, and we knew we were going back to 30-degree weather. There was even a little bit of snow waiting for us when we got home. She hasn’t mentioned it yet, but I’m willing to bet Stacy is already planning next year’s Spring Break trip.