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Faithful Reader, you may already know that Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis but did you know that it is the home of my best friend, Bridgette, and her family? Well, yes it is. I must admit that I do not make nearly as many trips to Tupelo as she makes down here and there really is no excuse. But, I will say that we could be stuck inside an igloo in Siberia and have a fabulous time together.
So, Bub and I started planning this trip to Tupelo right after my birthday and it’s kinda unbelievable that the trip has come and gone and already- that is just proof positive that the end of the year just flies! However, I have to say that we had a wonderful time visiting Bridgette, her love, Matt, her sister, Janet and her parents. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
We listened to several sets of our friends and took notes from their experiences and decided to travel at night so that Baby Bub would sleep most of the way. Bub got off work about 10:30, came home got a shower and we hit the road. Baby Bub had gone to sleep a little later than normal bedtime so by the time we moved him from the bed to the car seat he’d been asleep a little over 2 hours… well, he didn’t go back to sleep! As a matter of fact, he was up for the next 3 1/2 hours. We finally decided to book a hotel room, booked it over the phone and Baby Bub went to sleep while Bub was on the phone!
So, we spent the night in the hotel and got up and drove the rest of the was to Tupelo getting there right after lunch. In hindsight, we should have just waited and gotten up really early Friday morning and drove to Tupelo. But, now we know that Baby Bub cannot be counted on to sleep late at night in the car after taking a 2 hour nap…? Go figure.
It really was good to see Bridgette. We had lunch at the most wonderful restaurant on Friday, The Neon Pig– it’s really not fancy but the food was dynamite! And it has a beer selection, according to Bub, with a little something for everybody- the best in Tupelo. It also has a wine store next door where you can buy wine and take it in to The Neon Pig and drink it. Needless to say, we totally enjoyed our lunch.
After doing some light shopping in Tupelo, that first night we just kicked it around the house. It was so cold that Bridgette and Matt opened up Club Perryman and we just brought the house down! Matt played lots of great music, Bridgette had lots of wonderful food and just like old times, Janet drove us around to look at Christmas lights. It was so much fun. I mean, we all had fun- even Baby Bub and we didn’t go anywhere (outside of the neighborhood)!
After so much fun Friday night, we were kind of slow going Saturday morning. We had made plans to go to Memphis and ride in a horse-drawn carriage through a park canvased in Christmas lights and then go by and see the blue lights of Graceland. We made it as far as Germantown where Bridgette and I could plant the boys to watch the SEC Championship while we did some shopping.
In the mean time, there was this nasty cold front blanketing the South. It was too cold to shop! Bub and I and definitely Baby Bub are not used to such cold weather! (We live about as far south in Alabama as you can go— it only gets down to freezing here about 3 or 4 times a year for about at day or so at a time!) So, we had to reevaluate the carriage ride after dark with a one year old. Instead we opted to just drive through the park in the warmth of our car.
About half way through the tour of Christmas lights, they had a stopping point where you could get out and get your picture taken with Santa. I wouldn’t say any one of us was overly thrilled at the idea of getting out in the cold to go take our picture with Santa- but, I insisted.
What is not straight-away obvious about this picture is that Baby Bub was screaming bloody murder! He was fine standing in line but as soon as we stepped up close to Santa he lost his cool. He was screaming so hard that the photographer made Santa get out of the sled and this is the exact moment when Baby Bub realized that Santa was baaaaaaaaack! There was a series of about 5 photos that were each great but, we got to choose just one.
Our final day in Tupelo, we just took it easy. We went to see Bridgette’s parents, who I love. And then we just kind of took it easy. We played this really fun board game called Bezzerwizzer. It’s fun. If you are in the neighborhood for a new board game, check this one out! It was just a wonderful, low-key kind of day and evening.
The whole weekend, we were planning on taking a family photo that included Janet… it didn’t quite work out for us. However, Janet saved the day by taking a picture of each of us when we weren’t expecting it. (She got a particularly awesome one of me!)
It was a great get-away. We got up Monday morning and headed back to the Alabama Gulf coast. Unfortunately, we did not make it by Graceland (I know, bummer) and although we did plan to go to Graceland Too, we didn’t make it there either (double bummer). Rather, we just had a laid back and relatively low-key weekend and it was a ball!
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