27 of 52: a few rhodes reunions.

Well, Week One of #veenontheroad is in our rearview mirror. It was a crazy week that saw me traverse the entire states of Tennessee and North Carolina, starting in Memphis and eventually finding myself in Carolina Beach, a distance of over 800 miles. And while there were certainly many highlights, I have to say that my time in Nashville, where I got to catch up with lots of Rhodes friends - some of whom I've not seen in 6+ years - was possibly my favourite.

When I arrived on Monday afternoon, I dropped my stuff off in Natasha's condo in the Gulch and found my way over to Lindsay and Steve's home. We spent some time catching up - which mostly consisted of playing with baby Evelyn - and we were eventually joined by Catherine and Drew. Steve made us a delicious dinner, and we capped it off with cookies and ice cream. Those 4 are some of my favourites from my Rhodes days, and I love that I've gotten to see them so often this year.

On Tuesday I met Lauren [Winkates] Ingwersen for lunch, and we spent the afternoon catching up over the last 9ish years of our lives. In the time since I last saw her she has moved around the US, married Lance, and has just returned from a year of living in Mexico City. I had mentioned visiting the Belmont Mansion, so after our awesome lunch at Hattie B's, we headed over there for a tour [fun fact: Adelicia Acklen, lady of the house, owned 3,500 china pieces comprising 7 full china sets!]. The tour wrapped up just in time for the Germany-Brazil World Cup semifinal game, so we decided to watch it from the 12 South Taproom. Lauren was one of the most genuine people I knew at Rhodes, and it was great to see that she's still the same as she ever was. I'm pretty thankful to the powers of social media for allowing us to get back in touch with each other after all this time.

[finally tried some of that hot chicken from hattie b's. totally worth all the hype]

[with winkates outside the belmont]

And on Tuesday night, I had dinner with Missy Flinn. Missy was my second KD Little Sis, and although we were good at keeping in touch for those first few years out of college, we both fell off the train after I moved to India. She moved to Nashville at the beginning of the year and just recently got engaged, so it was a joy to get to see her and hear all about how her move has been. She's pretty good people, and we spent about 3 hours at Sambuca, reminiscing and catching up.

[super delicious fried cheesecake with ice cream for dessert]

[so much love for this awesome little sis of mine]

And in between all of that, I got to hang out with Natasha once we both returned home for the night. I was glad I stayed with her so that I was able to catch up with her in the evenings, and that view from her 21st floor balcony certainly didn't hurt matters.

[view of nashville from natasha's condo. i could get used to this life]

I went to college with some pretty cool kids, and I loved having the opportunity to spend time with so many different people in just a few short days. I'm looking forward to being back in August and finding even more long-lost pals.

other highlights included: finished reading The Giver; listened to the audio version of The Graveyard Book during my drives; homecooked food in Knoxville and Fallston; attended my first ever bridal gown fitting [not for me, obviously]; BritsBachBeachBash in Carolina Beach.

[just a guy and his grill. love this kid something fierce]

[oh, bojangles'. you get me]

[pretty north carolina fields] 

[porch living is the life for me]

[can't believe this girl is getting married in less than a month!]

[went for a nice little run along the greenway in carolina beach]

[well hello there ocean] 

[this girl]

Week One set the bar pretty high, so I can't wait to see what Week Two brings.
xx