I love when Rosh Hashanah lands on a Monday or Friday because I get a long weekend. Two years ago my sister and I went to the Dominican Republic, and this year we decided to stay domestic and spend the weekend in Nashville. My cousin was able to fly up from Florida to meet us too! It was a perfect girls weekend.
Upon arrival we were greeted by a surprise visit by my uncle and his girlfriend, on their way back from a cross-country trip. We had a great dinner in a cave-table at our hotel, the
Gaylord Opryland. My parents had taken us here when we were vacationing in the area in 1994, and my sister really wanted to go back. Thanks to some family Marriott connections, we were able to make it happen. What a gorgeous hotel!
Our initial plan was to have a lazy morning on day 1, but we all woke up early. Traveling with my sister means research into restaurants because she is gluten-free, so a little research led up to
Kitchen Notes for breakfast. They have a BISCUIT BAR! It was possible the most southern thing in the south, and a perfect first stop. They had classic, sweet, savory, and gluten free biscuits, as well as an extensive breakfast buffet. I was a little bit in love, I have to tell you. Located in the Omni hotel, it's very convenient and I'd say a must-visit for Nashville.
After breakfast we wandered up to Broadway and then met up with my uncle and his friend to see the
Ryman Auditorium. It was a beautiful building, full of displays about all of the musical history. The video/show introduction surpassed Disney levels of production! We were all very impressed. There might also be a cheezy on-stage photo of the three of us, but that's going to stay hidden.
We big fond fairwell to family from there and stopped to have a snack and hear some music in one of the honkey tonks. It's a big college football weekend so there were several games on TV, live musicians singing, and drinks flowing freely. It was a little crazy for the middle of the afternoon! We meandered down to the
Country Music Hall of Fame and the Hatch Show Print Shop to see their production center and posters. I'm not really a big country music fan, but it can be fun in the right setting. I learned a lot about this history of it from one of my favorite college classes,
History of American Popular Music. It was great to see so many pieces of memoribilia!
By late afternoon we were pretty sick of walking around, especially with the growing crowds of college kids, so we grabbed a quick ice cream at
Mike's, then got a Lyft ride back to the hotel. On the way, the driver convinced us to look for tickets to the Grand Ole Opry, and we discovered that one of the leads from the TV show Nashville (and an old soap opera teen star from when we were in high school) was playing that night, so we bought tickets. After a dinner of tacos and margaritas at the hotel's Mexican restaurant we walked over to the Opry. Other than the crazy lady in front of us who kept turning around and glaring, we had a great time! (Seriously, they were advertising adult diapers at Dollar General. How can you not laugh at that?)
Day two was much more low key. We headed to East Nashville for breakfast, at a fabulous gluten free restaurant called
AMOT. The apple fritters were delicious and while the cornbread waffle wasn't great, the chicken more than made up for it with its crispy, salty coating. We walked around East Nashville a bit, but it was early on a Sunday so many places weren't open yet. We tried some great candies at
Walker Creek Confections company and saw some beautiful art at the gallery next door. That night, we had dinner with swing music at
Acme Feed and Seed, which everyone had recommended. I love the big long tables so you can meet people sitting near you! The music was fantastic.
From here we wandered a bit trying to find good music, and eventually setting at
The Stage on Broadway, with the fantastic Brandon Holder and his band. A good rock country blend that you couldn't help but dance to. I loved the fiddler! As a string player, watching him was just fascinating.
Day three was our chill day. We had a lazy breakfast at the hotel, then walked around a little bit exploring. We hung out at the pool for a while, moving inside and out to avoid children.
Overall Nashville was a fantastic weekend. We were able to see everything we wanted and hear some outstanding music just about everywhere we went. The sites are mostly within a walkable distance from each other and I never felt unsafe, even at night. We had a beautiful hotel resort to retreat to when the crowds got to be too much as well.
Experience Nashville blog and Nashvillethebeautiful on Instagram were helpful resources for planning if you're looking to go. Which you should, whether or not you like country music, because it's a part of America you just can't help but loving.
