One of the earliest series I posted on Steemit was about a trip my wife and I took to Nashville, TN. We visited two years ago to celebrate my 40th birthday and had a total blast.
This year my wife is lucky enough to turn the same age and the one thing that she wanted to do was go back to Nashville. As special as the first trip was, this one was even more so...
Several months ago I was diagnosed with cancer (you can read about it here), and we really weren't sure I was going to be able to make this trip. Thankfully, I was, and in addition to that, we were able to bring six of our good friends with us.
Getting there is half the fun...
The drive to Nashville, went a bit better than our flight last time, but there was still a lot of traffic and the rain was horrible. Four of our friends got into town sooner than us and were sending pictures of all the fun they were having while we were stuck in traffic. Being the one driving, I was less than amused... We did finally get there late Thursday and went right to bed because we knew we had a big day ahead of us on Friday.
We stayed at the DoubleTree in Downtown Nashville again. It is a little better priced than some of the other hotels that are closer to Broadway, and the rooms are nice and it is clean. As I mentioned last time the pool is on the second floor of the hotel, so there is a ton of traffic there. We avoided that this time and got a room on the sixth(of 8) floor, what a view!
Sadly, I was busy having too much fun this trip and I really didn't take as many pictures as I had planned.
We woke up Friday morning and five of us went to a place called The Pancake Pantry near the Vanderbilt University campus. We had to wait in line about a half hour to get a table, but it was well worth it. My wife and I shared the Grill Cooks Medley with two pancakes and it was amazing! The pancakes basically melted in your mouth. I highly recommend them. My sister in law got the sweet potato pancakes and those were fantastic too.
One of the things we loved last time we went was a locally brewed beer by a company called Yazoo. You can see a bottle of the pale ale in the picture above. My wife is partial to the Hefeweizen that they make.
After breakfast on Friday, our group minus two(they were visiting one of the museums) met at Honky Tonk USA and decided to have our first drink of the trip. There was a decent band playing on the second floor so we sat there for a while and listened.
We eventually worked our way out of there and started to walk up and down Broadway. Literally, every other business front on Broadway is a honky tonk. There were plenty of them for us to choose from, but for some reason, we ended up going to Layla's.
This honky tonk was by far one of my favorite places we visited while we were in Nashville. I regret that I didn't get the name of the band that was playing, but they were fantastic.
The band was playing lots of old-school country songs. Classic stuff that a lot of the cover bands don't play these days (unless you are in Nashville I guess). The other two members of our group met up with us here and we stayed for a while listening to the band. Here is another picture:
You've gotta love a group with a fiddle in the band! Another thing that we discovered at Layla's was a fantastic drink made with Firefly sweet tea vodka and lemonade. A lot of people in our group spent the rest of the trip trying to find a place that could make something similar to what Layla's had.
Honky Tonk Hopping
We stopped at another kind of sports bar/honky tonk and spent some time there because people were starting to get a little hungry and wanted a snack.
While I was researching our trip this time, I was trying to find some places that played more than just country music. Some of the friends that we were traveling with don't enjoy country music as much as other kinds of music and I wanted everyone to have a good time.
One of the places that I found is called Acme Feed and Seed. It is still on Broadway, but down towards the Cumberland River, about a block away from the bustle of the heart of Broadway.
We found a cool seating area on the second or third floor and just spent some time visiting, listening to 80's/90's pop music and setting our plans for the rest of the day.
Grand Ole Opry
That night we were all going to the Grand Ole Opry. We had dinner together at the DoubleTree and then took a cab to The Opry Land resort where the venue is.
The Opry is a really cool building and the showroom is something to behold. Instead of having chairs, or seats, the Opry is filled with church pews.
Through some fancy computer work while purchasing the tickets, I was able to get all eight of us in the same pew and we were only about 5 rows from the main stage. It was awesome! You can see in the picture above, the band Smithfield performing on The Opry stage.
Vince Gill was also one of the performers while we were at The Opry. His voice is like velvet and it was easy to tell that he was having a good time being there.
My wife and I, having been to The Opry before were eager to see how everyone else reacted to the show. I am happy to say they loved it! They all thought it was really cool to see a live radio show being recorded.
I think if any of them ever make it back to Nashville, they will definitely go back to The Opry. Each performer only does about two songs max, but it is still well worth the money to see so many new and iconic artists in one place.
We were all pretty tired from our first day, so after the show, we went back to our hotel and hung out a little at the hotel bar before going to bet. We still had three full days of fun ahead of us!
Check back within the next week when I cover our second day in Nashville. It is a day full of new things to see, new places to explore, and lots of great food and drinks!
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