Weekend in Memphis

What a wonderful weekend at home! After traveling every weekend for the past two months, it felt good to be home for a few days and enjoy life in our own city! I feel so blessed to get to travel as much as I do, and I thank my lucky stars each day for it. But no matter if it’s work travel or fun travel, when there’s back-to-back travel going on in one’s life, a break cannot come soon enough! This weekend, that break finally came for me and Tres, and we took complete advantage!

Thursday
I let the weekend begin early by meeting up with some blog friends at Old Venice Pizza Company in East Memphis after work on Thursday night. My blog friend, Christin, from A Classy Southern Wife invited me to the dinner. It was so exciting to finally meet her, as we had been trying to get together since long before our weddings (which were in October and a week apart). Both being from Memphis and planning weddings at the same time, we had been stalking each other’s blogs long enough (haha), so it was fun to finally get together with her.

There were about 8 other bloggers there from all around Memphis. Two of the girls are good friends of mine from work, The Diary of K-Fun and Hope in what Remains. I didn’t know the other bloggers when I got there, but I felt like I did when we left. We had a blast going around the table introducing ourselves and our blogs! Now I have a whole new group of friends and some more fun blogs to follow!

Friday
Fridays are always my favorite days of the week when I’m working a full week at the office and not traveling. It’s because I know I have a full, relaxing weekend in Memphis ahead of me! This Friday was no exception. That night, Tres and I went with friends, Joey and Cristen, to a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club. Held at the Cadre Building Downtown, it was a Mardi GRAS themed party, complete with poker tables, beads, and a fun band. It was completely decked out casino-style, which kept Tres and Joey at the card tables all night. Cristen and I had a blast trying all the different drinks at the many different bars they had set up and dancing the night away in our cocktail attire!

The best part of the night was when my work girlfriends texted me, letting us know they were downtown at Raifords. Two awesome things about this 1) They live in a different part of Memphis, so when they come downtown, I am always so pumped to party it up with them. And 2) they were at RAIFORDS!!! Seriously, if you don’t live in Memphis and ever come, if you do ANYTHING, it must be Raifords. Words can’t describe the randomness of this place. All I can say is if you don’t mind staying out late, you love to have a good time, and you don’t mind extremely loud funk and soul music, this is your place!!!! The first time you walk in Raifords, you will think someone either slipped a drug into your drink or you are dreaming. The place is a cloud of fog with disco balls and different colored lights flashing everywhere. They only serve 40 oz. beers to drink, so if you prefer anything else, this may not be for you. And the best part? THE MUSIC! Every Michael Jackson, Prince, Stevie Wonder, and Lionel Richie hit is on the playlist, and don’t think you’ll get out of there without hearing “Brick House” and “Boogie Shoes.” Raiford himself is there, spinning the record tracks, and his style and personality are something to see all on their own!
Needless to say, when it’s a Raiford’s night, it’s a long night. Our night ended about 4am on Saturday morning. When I say we were excited to be in Memphis, I was not lying!

Saturday
Lazy, lazy day!!! Duh… we stayed out all night. I wrote a bit for my Travel Blog while the hubby snoozed. We met my parents for dinner at The Bar-B-Que Shop. If you come to Memphis, I highly suggest getting your BBQ here. I thought I’d had it all, but this little place is tucked away, and somehow after all these years, I almost missed it. The pulled pork is almost like butter… extremely tender with a melt-in-your-mouth taste to it. UNBELIEVEABLE! This places proves Memphis BBQ right. Oh, and by the way… if you anyone and I mean ANYONE tells you Texas or Carolina has better BBQ than Memphis, send them my way. I will personally laugh in their face and shove a big Memphis Rib in their face!

Saturday night we went to a friends’ Duke game get together. It was a big group of work friends, and my new friend, A Classy Southern Wife (thanks to blogging!), came! It was exciting to finally have our husbands meet! We all hung out, watched the game, and drank wine! Super fun night to end the weekend!

Sunday
Believe it or not, we still had wedding gifts to take back, so we headed BACK to Macy’s. It’s become a running joke with Tres and I that the furniture people see us and wonder “who the couple is who comes in here every other week and never buys any furniture.” HAHA! Seriously, we have been looking for the perfect couch for way too long, and Macy’s has been the top victim. Hopefully, we will find one (along with a ton of other furniture and décor) soon! We just have too much going on right now to think about it!

After shopping it up, we headed to my parents house to plan a schedule for our trip to Germany this summer. In June, we will be visiting Frankfurt, Garmisch, and Munich, Germany, along with stops in Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Venice, Italy. We are extra excited to have my Pop guide us around, as he lived in Germany for seven years! After talking about our trip and deciding on exact dates of travel, we went to dinner at a great Italian restaurant in good, ole Hernando, MS. It was a great end to a fantastic weekend AT HOME!!!

Sadly, we leave again tomorrow for Orlando, so no more weekends at home for awhile. We sure didn’t take this past one for granted though. We lived it up in good ole Memphis, TN!