My sister Rachel is a clinical psychologist. When her husband Dick said that their family was making a trip from Alaska to Nashville for a psychology conference, and that he and baby Ava would be bored all day while Rachel was attending the conference, we decided to tag along!  We flew standby and arrived in the late afternoon. Rachel's family was staying at the luxurious Gaylord Opryland Resort, and after taking a very excited Beckham to the train store at the mall, we let the kids run around the resort.  We had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, a childhood favorite of mine and Rachel's. 

Because we flew standby, we didn't book any hotels in advance. I hadn't realized that most of the hotels wouldn't carry any sort of infant-safe sleep accommodations, and when we finally found a hotel that carried a pack-n-play, they would only give us one.  So Walker slept in the pack-n-play and Beckham spent his first night ever in a big kid bed, and he sure was confused! He woke up more times than I could count, even falling out of bed once in spite of my pillow bumpers. 

 We decided not to visit Broadway because of the kiddos.  Instead, we spent our second day at the impressive Parthenon replica, the massive Nashville Zoo, and the Aquarium Restaurant. And then the next morning, when the sun was barely up, we were back in the sky!