Southern Exposure

Roby and I have taken several trips with Shannon and Steve over the years...from Lake Tahoe/Reno, to Lake Havasu (Lake Heather Sue I dubbed it...although I wasn't happy that they have rocks for lawns), to Oklahoma City, to Houston, to Mexico. This time we drove several hours North to Nashville to see if it really was all honky tonk and smoke-filled bars. Surprisingly, we all enjoyed our stay even though not one of us likes country music :) (Although I must say Willie Nelson seems like one cool cat.)

We got a sweet deal on a hotel in the middle of it all, met up with Shan's aspiring country singer friend Natalie at P.F. Chang's, visited the life-size replica of the Parthenon, took in an art exhibit and 35mm showing of Close Encounters of the Third Kind at the Frist Museum, stuffed ourselves at the Hard Rock Cafe, got lost looking for Music Row and spent the afternoon driving past rich people's homes, searched out the famed White Castle restaurant (please don't let Steve convince you this was the highlight of our trip) and, last but not least, laughed when a bumblebee attacked me in a gas station bathroom...well, they laughed.

Back in Chattanooga we just chilled, reminiscing about our years spent together in Orange County and catching up on this past year. When they moved to Dallas, it was one of the hardest things Roby and I had to face...they had so quickly and permanently become such dear friends and both of their families are now our pseudo-families! Little did we know we were soon to follow their lead and move far from CA. Thanks guys for taking 2 weeks out of your summer to spend with us...we can't wait for our next trip! (you can check out their blog at: http://steveandshan.blogspot.com/)