M + D Time

This past weekend, David and I met in Knoxville, Tennessee for a night sans the kiddo :) It was a fun 24 hours, and brought back memories of my junior year in college {2003} -- we met there then too :)

We did some Christmas shopping Saturday afternoon in the suburbs, and then headed to the Market Square District downtown for the evening, which was only about an 8 minute walk from our hotel. On the way, we stopped by the Sunsphere. We had no idea what it was at first, but learned that it served as the symbol of the 1982 World's Fair, which was held in Knoxville.

Market Square was really neat! There were all kinds of cute little restaurants, cafes, and boutique type stores not to mention a Christmas market, a nice little park that was all decked out in Christmas lights, a 38 foot decorated Christmas tree, and an open-air ice rink {for the holidays}. I really wanted to go ice skating, but D wasn't keen on the idea so we didn't. He owes me an ice skating date now :)

Georgia was playing in the SEC championship game that afternoon and seemed to be holding there own during the first half against # 1 ranked LSU. After walking around for a little while, we went to Latitude 35 to watch the rest of the game and to have some apps. We were clearly bad luck for the Bulldogs though. Quickly into the second half, the game was no longer fun to watch {if you are a Georgia fan}. D actually refused to watch anymore of it {yes, it was that bad!}, so we finished our nachos and headed a few doors down to the Tomato Head for dinner. There was a 30 minute wait to be seated so after putting our name on the waiting list, we got some hot chocolate at Cafe 4 and strolled around the square some more. After we had exhausted our time, done a wee bit of shopping at the Mast General store {another neat place}, and finished our hot chocolate, we went back to the restaurant, had pizza, and then headed back to our hotel to watch the end of the Clemson vs. Virginia Tech football game.

The next morning, we got up leisurely, had breakfast at the hotel, and walked down to Volunteer Landing on the Tennessee River and then around the University of Tennessee -- we were so close, we had to check it out -- before saying goodbye and heading home.

It was a great overnight trip! We plan to do it again soon :) Although we missed the little guy, it was very nice to have some M + D time without him :) And based on his response when I arrived to pick him up on Sunday, I am not sure he even missed us {or maybe the problem was that I picked him up from a Christmas cookie exchange that he didn't want to leave :)}. Needless to say, he had a blast with Aunt Laura and Daniel {thanks guys}!