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We're back from our weekend away. We had a great time in Nashville!

We drove up Saturday afternoon/evening, arriving about 8:30 Central Time.

The next morning, we headed out for a full day of sightseeing. First, we headed for the Parthenon. It was pretty amazing to see from the outside, but the most impressive thing was the statue of Athena. She is 41 feet, 10 inches tall!

Next up was the Adventure Science Center, a science museum geared towards kids. DD and DS loved it. It was all very hands on and fun for them. We spent about an hour and a half there. On the way out, DD got a small stuffed monkey in the gift shop that she carried with her for the rest of the trip. DS got a tiny T Rex skeleton to put together, which has already lost one of it's arms, LOL.

We spent less time at the science center than we expected, so we were early getting to the Thomas event. It was suggested to arrive 1 hour before your train ride started. We had planned to be 2 hours early, and ended up being 3! We arrived around noon, and our train ride was scheduled for 3. It turned out to be a good thing, though, because there was so much to do there. We played in the imagination tent, got temporary tattoos (DD still has her Thomas one), bounced in the bouncy thing, and had a picture taken with Sir Topham Hatt. Then we had lunch. After that, we took a picture with Thomas, did a storytime, and then another storytime. By then, 2 1/2 hours had gone by, and it was time to line up for our train ride. The ride itself was kind of anticlimatic. Actually, it was pretty boring, no nice scenery or anything, and at one point we saw profane graffiti, which I thought they could have cleaned off if they were going to be bringing trainloads of children through! DD enjoyed knowing she was riding behind Thomas, though. After our ride, we hit the gift shop, but didn't buy anything.

Since we had done all the cool stuff before our train ride, afterwards I still had time to run to an LNS. I was a little disappointed since they were out of several patterns that I wanted. Apparently CATS last week had cleaned them out. I did get a few things though, all older. I bought a carousel lion by Douglas Designs, Swan Repose by the Workbasket, Just Nan Butterfly Welcome, and Imaginating You Are What You Eat. I also picked up two skiens of Porcelain Sampler Threads that were on sale. I'll use that for Lizzie Kate's Girls Night Out.

Right next to the LNS was a gyro place, so we had supper there. I was able to get falafel, so that was okay with me. Then back to the hotel. DH and the kids fell asleep pretty quickly, but I sat up for awhile and stitched on my new start (Bad Cris!), which is a Heaven and Earth Designs Quick stitch called Handful. I've never tried to stitch one of these before, so we'll see how I like it.

Sunday morning we left the hotel early to head home. We decided on the spur of the moment to do Ruby Falls and Rock City on our way. I didn't care much for the walking through the cave part of Ruby Falls, but it was worth it to see the falls. I didn't expect to be impressed, but I was. It was totally amazing.

Rock City was okay, the kids really enjoyed the Fairyland Caverns. DH enjoyed the walk, and seeing the rocks and plants. The kids got rock pencils they can take to school and enjoy.

We finally made it home around 7:30 last night. We all enjoyed the trip, but I think we were all equally glad to be home!