Valentine's Day, Lion King, and Itta Bena

I really had a wonderful weekend this weekend. You know the kind of weekend that leaves you on a high going into the work week? That is exactly how this weekend left me feeling. Although it could be that at the end of this work week, I'll be headed to DISNEYWORLD.

Adam and I had a really low key Valentine's Day. Over the last year, Adam and I have been each sharing one of our all time favorite shows together (for him it is The West Wing, for me it is The Gilmore Girls). We have evenings where we do nothing but watch those two shows. So I picked him out this card, You are the Luke to Lorelai, as a cute way to share what he means to me. I also gave him a Gigi's Cupcake as a little treat. If you are wondering why I'm not sharing any pictures of Adam's gift to me, it is because he ended up paying for my whole weekend excursion on Sunday as my gift instead.

I was up obnoxiously early for a Sunday. I went by the local Starbucks for my low-fat, Flat White latte, started blasting the show tunes, and plugged in the address for the Orpheum in Memphis, Yes,  I drove three and a half hours twice in one day because I had tickets to see Lion King with one of my best girls, Anna, and her family.

I had never been inside the Orpheum theater, and it is BEAUTIFUL. Very ornate and very 1920's themed. I was excited about this performance, especially because we had purchased VIP seats. I have never sat so close at a play before. We were in the first couple of rows, and we had a great view! Like so close to the actors, that if they were sweating, you would have seen it.

I can not say enough about how amazing this performance was! It was so inventive in how they represented the animals. Awe-inspiring, really. In the beginning of the play, the animals even paraded through the audience! The play was touching and funny. I may have had a big old crush on adult Simba. Roar. There were times, as my nieces would say, that it got me right in the feels. I was tearing up at parts.

If you have the opportunity to catch it, GO SEE IT.

After the play, we walked a few blocks down to Itta Bena restaurant. Itta Bena is B.B. King's restaurant (named after his home town). Itta Bena is located on the third floor of the B.B. King's club. If you didn't know about it, it wouldn't be a restaurant you would just stumble upon. It's a hidden gem. It is just gorgeous. I loved the blue tinted windows and low lighting.

We all ordered different entrees, drinks, and desserts, sampling each others as we went along. I chose the signature she crab soup and hand-gathered field greens salad. Both were amazing, my favorite part was the lumps of goat cheese in that salad. I did get a dessert. One of my favorite desserts of all time is creme brulee. They had a Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee, so I had to order it.  I think I'm nuts for spending so much money on a dessert that I could only have a bite or two of. But when I tasted that dish it BLEW my mind, and I knew it was so worth it. Everyone agreed it was the best dessert we ordered. 

Of course, after all the fun, I had to drive three and a half hours back home. I got home around 11 p.m., was too hyped to sleep, so I stayed up way too late. Monday was rough, rough, rough. But the whole weekend was so excellent, that I just didn't care.

At the end of the weekend, Anna posted the picture of us from the restaurant on facebook, She captioned the picture, "I love this girl, we had so much fun."

My thoughts exactly.

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