This whole weekend was my 25th birthday present to myself, I figured that since it was 4 days after my birthday what better way to celebrate, I would be in Nashville, with AMAZING friends (you know who you are) and of course, the one and only Carrie!! So I said what the hey, I’ll GO!!
Ok I’m going to start from the beginning, this is going to be a detailed review but a very good one at that…
Friday:
I left on Friday around 2:30, originally wanting to leave at 1 so I could get to Nashville by 7 (6PM Nashville time, they are an hour behind us)…well I didn’t get in til 8 (IT WAS A VERY LOOOONG DRIVE TO NASHVILLE, LOL) but that was ok because I checked into the hotel and called Matt (Underwoodlover78) to let him know I arrived. I decided to take a nap before I picked up Matt and headed to the airport to pick up Renee, Jen and Ed. Their plane was a bit late and Jen’s and Ed’s luggage got lost but thank goodness they got their stuff before the Opry induction!!
We started our night out on the town, driving to downtown Nashville blasting “Get Out of This Town” all the way, it fit perfectly because we got out of our towns (Philly and C-bus) to enjoy a great weekend in Music City!! We walked around trying to find a bar that had good music, no live bands as they charged a cover charge (up to $50, like the price of a concert ticket)…we found a bar called “Cadillac Ranch Rock n’ County Bar n Grill”, it was awesome, there was a fight behind us, a guy had a bloody nose, never seen a live fight before, but hey first time for everything, HAHA!! Anyways, we left the club around 1:30ish I think and went to McD’s because we were hungry and then we headed back to our hotel and crashed.
Saturday:
We woke up and were out of the hotel by 9:30, picked up Matt and headed downtown Nashville for some sightseeing, we went souvenir shopping, stopped by the Wildhorse Saloon, which I know is expensive but we wanted to take a picture of the outside for fun, lol. At 2PM we took a backstage tour of the Opry, which if you ever go to the Opry or to Nashville period, I would highly suggest you take this tour, its only $12 and you see EVERYTHING, its sooo awesome!! We sang onstage, making our official “Opry Debut”. After the tour, we met with some wonderful FC members and talked about the FC photo that we all found out about on Friday and Saturday (I got a call on Friday while driving TO Nashville), I was so excited about that. We got to our hotel, got ready for the Opry, decked out in our FC shirts and left for the Opry Mills Mall, which Oh my goodness is freakin HUGE!! I think I should go back to Nashville JUST to go to that mall, wow!! Met up with all the FC members, met some wonderful people (Harvey, Paula, Glenn, Dave, Cynthia, Robin, Denise, Lana, Wayde and lil Carrie, to name a few, sorry I’m bad at remembering names, but I knew your guy’s names already, lol), it was so nice to meet every single one of you, I love matching screen names to faces, I feel like my Carrie friends have doubled just because I met you guys, and I hope that we can meet up again someday!!
We all left the mall at 5:30 and waited outside where we were told to meet Matt and Keith, Matt came out around 5:45, and after checking the list to make sure we were on it (thank goodness we were all on it, despite semi short notice) and took us to the gate where Carrie would be coming out for the photo, after waiting a good 20 minutes she finally came out, she was incredibly gorgeous in her golden dress. She was so appreciative that we all came near and far, she told us “It’s all good” no matter where we came from, lol, I could tell she felt loved, as she mentioned in her blog, oh how I love her!! I still can’t get over that we got the opportunity to see her before her big night, it was so surreal and such an honor, certainly a day I will never forget!!
So after the photo we all freak out a bit that we saw Carrie and then head inside to our seats. I won’t get into details as you have already read reviews and of course seen the Induction live on T.V. or in person, but I will say that I feel so grateful and blessed to have been there to see her inducted live, this was my 25th birthday present to myself, never have I traveled somewhere for my birthday, I have always celebrated with the family at home. This was definitely the best Birthday week ever and I got to end it just like Carrie, at the Opry!! I am so proud to be a fan, I still can’t believe that I was there, it feels like a dream!!
I can’t say enough about how amazing the whole experience was, seeing Carrie up there, holding tightly onto that trophy, knowing that this night meant the world to her, I’m still in awe and speechless besides what I just said.
I know I am forgetting a couple minor details, I got pictures but only during JTTW and after, I actually got Last Name, AAG, Induction, DFTRM and the dancing with Vince on video…I am a lil hesitant to post these vids and I also don’t know where I should…whether I should post DL links or on youtube and as much as I hate youtube, I know people will enjoy the vids…..SOOOO if you REALLY Want see my videos you HAVE to comment on my reivew and tell me that you want to see them and I will make my decision based on the love that I get back from you all!! So post away!!
EDIT: Thanks for all the comments guys, I am in the process of uploading my videos and will post the download links in a new thread when they are done!!
Rest of pictures go to the link below:
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