Hi Ya’all

Nashville- a town known primarily for Country Music and cowboy boots. But let me tell you the Nashville we met was so very much more!

It was another girls weekend and yet another celebration of turning 50. (I think there is going to be quite a few trips celebrating our 50th year of life. Bring it on!)

Being the mom’s that we are, we were up earlier and at the airport before our kids could get out the first” Moooooomm” out of their not-even-out-of-bed -mouths.

We arrived in Nashville at 930am. We had the entire day ahead of us. But we didn’t get our AirB&B until 4pm that afternoon. What to do with our luggage! We discovered this unique little place on wheels you can stow away your luggage for a fee. A regular bag was $18 for the day. @stowstation.com.

Once our bags were taken care of, we needed food, and a chance to sit and get the rest of the day planned. Pucketts for breakfast was recommended and it was great! I ordered a breakfast burrito with home hash browns and it was delicious ($20US).

We decided our first night we would celebrate Nashville traditionally by going to the Grand Old Opry. However, we ran into a bit of a snag here. We purchased our tickets on line while we were having breakfast. But to enter the Opry they require paper printouts only! (Not very progressive I must say!) It was a bit of a treasure hunt to find a place we could print from our phones - but we did! It just happened to be was directly across from Kids Rock’s Bar (side note... best and loudest bar in town!)

Once tickets were printed, we hopped on a city tour bus just to get familiar with the Nashville highlights. We stopped at a Jack Daniels store which had us tasting every flavour of whiskey available. Who knew there were so many!!! Let me tell you there was some great tasting ones. I would recommend the peach flavoured whisky. My friends really liked the cinnamon. 5 free small tasters made available to you and you choose (I.D. required... and maybe a ride home!)

That evening we got dressed up and headed to the Grand Old Opry. Aside from the great music we heard that evening. We discovered that Oprey house began as and continues to be a live radio show a few times a week. With the announcer making commercial breaks himself! The seats were wooden pew style benches. The entire atmosphere was an experience everyone should try if you are heading to Nashville - it’s a necessary visit that puts you into the proper Nashville spirit! Country bands, solo artists, comedians - most fresh talent and some surprise talents often show up - like Carrie Underwood or Taylor swift! But remember to please print you tickets before you go!

Afterward we headed to Broadview - the street that never sleeps. At first it was a bit overwhelming. But we had a plan… c’mon now...we’re moms do there’s always a plan. We would tackle each and every bar. All bars had a live band playing, and every single one were all great. We ordered a drink, listened, finish the drink, pee’d and headed to the next bar. The kid call this sort of thing ‘ bar-hoppin’!

The great thing about Nashville and bar hopping is there are no cover charges, but you do have to show I.D at each bar before entering. At first it was ‘wow - this is great... but by the fifth bar, it’s like come on dude you could be my kid’. Our night always ended with a visit to Kid Rock’s Bar. It was the loudest and for some reason it was the coolest - and when I say cool I am implying physically the air conditioning in there must be on max!

The following day we went to breakfast at a place called “Monell’s”. They seat you ‘as community’. I had no idea what that was either. Our table was set for 14 people and essentially we were all strangers having breakfast together. “Enter as Strangers Leave as Friends” was the motto. What a fantastic idea! Everyone from our table was from different parts of the southern States.

With a full belly we were ready to take on Nashville sites. We walked the entire day visiting sites but the majority of the day was spent at the “Music Hall of Fame”.

We had a quick rest back at our Air bnb and we were off again to a burlesque show at great restaurant called “Skulls”. The venue is very small and we were not able to get reservation so we ended up waiting for a spot at the bar to eat dinner and watch the show.
Afterwards we head back to Broadview to pick up where we left off the night before - drinking and dancing.

Our next day was all about celebrating our 50th year. We started as all women should by relaxing by the pool. The afternoon consisted of shopping and more shopping and eating well.

One of our stops was Reese Witherspoon’s store “Draper James”. I loved this store. They had the cutest outfits. A must stop to shop! They offer you sweet tea when you arrive and have cozy beautifully decorated seating areas to just hang out! The three of us all bought the same dress! It was truly a shopping experience.

Just up the road is a great Pizza spot “Maffiozo Pizzaria” - if you like stone oven baked pizza, this is your place! With a quick stop at our AirB&B to drop off the shopping bags, we head to Broadview for our final night in Nashville.

You may ‘all think Nashville is only a party place, and in fact, it is!!! But there are a lot of great things to see and do other than drink shots of whiskey and listen to country music. It’s a beautiful, clean, friendly city with so much history and culture and character - we had four days in Nashville and we could not fit it all in. So I guess we will have to go back y’all!