Nashville, what a FUN trip!

This past October, for my Fall Break, my little brother and I went to a place we had always wanted to go to....Nashville, TN!!!!

Obviously being a poor grad student, I had to do this trip on a very tight budget.  Throughout this posting, I'll share with you some of our penny-saving tips!!  We got awesome flight deals, through Southwest where we only paid $60 or so each way (what a DEAL!), and met out in Tennessee with him flying in from Baltimore and me flying in from Raleigh.  This trip was incredible for so many reasons from the friendly people to the generous drink specials to the fun places we saw and the historical facts we picked up along the way; Nashville is most definitely one of our favorite cities and I will happily go back for another visit any time!!

We arrived around lunch time on Tuesday and flew out super early on Saturday which gave us 4.5 days to explore and explore we did!

As we walked the several blocks from the bus station (we had taken a bus from the airport for under $2!!) to our hostel (this was the first time we were staying in one), we saw some pretty cool sights/sites.  This is Printers Alley.  More on that later in this posting.  :)

Just around the corner from our hostel, we stumbled upon an awesome candy shop.  From floor to ceiling there were all sorts of candy, soda, and old time memorabilia you could think of...don't forget to go upstairs for some neat vintage concert posters and lunch boxes.  There were even life-size cutouts of Disney princesses.  Yes, this store was very eclectic from candy bars that tried to kill me to yummy soda pop fizz candy from my childhood that I immediately scooped up and sucked on while in Nashville.  If you go, be sure to check in on Foursquare so you can obtain some free taffy!

Truth.

Grandma used to watch "People's Court"; she would have gotten a laugh out of this!

We weren't brave enough to try this.....peanut butter soda?!!

After a quick pit stop in the candy shop, we continued walking the block and a half to our "home away from home" while in Nashville:  "Nashville Downtown Hostel".  Neither Patrick nor I had stayed in a hostel before and we were curious as to what we were in for but the price was certainly right and we figured we would rather spend less on our sleeping quarters if it meant we would have more to explore the city with so on to the hostel we walked.

When I glimpsed the cool light in the doorway, I knew we were in for a treat in terms of sleeping quarters!

This was the view just outside the hostel but check out what was across the street....

The Titans Stadium was right across the river from us at the hostel...pretty cool view!

Cool decor outside the kitchen and common eating area in the hostel

My skill set instrument-wise encompassed the one on the left.  ;)

Every day the hostel listed specials and recommendations as well as inspirational quotes at the bottom of the message board. 

After dropping our things off in our room and meeting our roommates from Australia, we decided to go explore since it was early and we have a few hours to kill before our dinner reservations at a restaurant called, Aura, that was about 1.5 miles away on foot.  This was a view of the Titans Stadium outside the hostel along the Cumberland River.  Our hostel advertised itself as being in the "Heart of the District" and they weren't kidding!  Everything was within walking distance, which was great since we were without a car for the next several days.

 

We walked to the end of our street then turned right onto Broadway and what a sight that was with the lights and posters.  I also loved the sounds of Broadway for every bar we walked by had a live performer (it was the middle of the afternoon on a work day!) and each one was as good as the next...as Patrick said, "Even the homeless people are ridiculously talented in this city".  :)

Bridgestone Arena, home of the Nashville Predators' hockey team

Not only did we get to stand outside the legendary Ryman Auditorium but look over yonder to your left.  This was our first glimpse of one of our favorite buildings, one we dubbed the "Batman Building". 

I found out later that a friend from NC was in Nashville for work and she had been at the Ryman for a concert shortly after I walked by it this evening!  Small world!!

The architecture we saw was amazing.  This is Nashville's first public school with Patrick's head in the bottom of the picture (haha).  Teacher friends, could you imagine teaching in such a cool looking building?!

Directly across the street from the school was the Customs House ~ more incredible architecture!

We had to laugh as across the street from the elaborate and fancy Customs House was this rather plain structure....

This was the view if you were to leave the school and turn left.  You could hear some of the sounds from Broadway and the tall antenna-like looking building is Bridgestone Arena, the hockey venue.

This sign made me happy when I read it for a York, PA reference (Lafayette) as well as NC reference were mentioned!

I also happened to be wearing an NC shirt when I read the above sign..hehe.

This pup was 4 lbs. and ate two teaspoons of dog food a day...!!!

The Lifeway Christian stores headquarters was in the center of this photo.

It was so surreal being in the city where so many of the country singers I listen to call home.

Here is the BMI building! 

Here is the restaurant we ate at on our first night!  We had a restaurant.com certificate so got a good deal on our drinks and food during our first night in Nashville.  I highly recommend, when traveling, using restaurant.com certificates!  It worked out well in San Francisco for my friends and me and in Nashville for Patrick and me.

 

I had a delicious BBQ chicken flatbread and a pomegranate type of mixed drink.  I think Patrick had a pork chop of some sort.

Nashville at night as we made our way back to the district.

This was the art museum.  If I have the chance to go back to Nashville, I would love to come back here and see the interior.  Check out the roses.  Do you see anything else on the stems?

 

Again, it was so surreal to see names of places so prominent in country music!

Can you tell we were quite fascinated with the architecture?  This is the Customs House.

Nashville's first public school at night.

The lights of Broadway waiting for us as we walked down the hill back to the heart of the district.

This was a beautiful stained glass window on the side of the Methodist Church down the street from the Customs House.

I used to watch this show on CMT back in junior high!

Hands down, this was our favorite place in Nashville!  It's really a shame I can't post videos on here!  If you've been to Howl at the Moon in Baltimore or other cities, then you know what this place is like.  Basically super duper talented musicians play any style and genre of music using mainly just the piano!!  They play by request and can go from performing "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen to Miley Cyrus to the classic "Piano Man" by Billy Joel to 80s songs.  They ROCKED!!!

Look up Justin Nault on Youtube for some of his terrific covers and original singing!

 

After enjoying the music at Big Bang and stopping in a few more places on the way home, we rolled into bed around 2am.  The next morning was a cool and drizzly one but that did not deter us from doing our historical walking scavenger hunt tour.  Using Patrick's phone, we deciphered clues to figure out where we had to go next as we collected tidbits of information and history about some of the city's famous and not so famous places.  We had gotten this fun deal through a Groupon after I learned that there were scavenger hunts in most major cities!

First stop was directly across the street from the hostel at historic Fort Nashborough.  We couldn't have planned THAT better!

The red doors led to the hostel.  We had planned to go to the corner bar with a friend from back home but we never did connect her and never did make it into the bar...how ironic when it was just steps away from our "home away from home".

See where the guy was from before moving to Nashville???

One of our clues said to get a picture taken with the "dog" at the next stop.  Mission accomplished!

Even the trash cans were artistic in this creative city!

Printers Alley

Check out this tidbit about Printers Alley!

Methodist Church...I think this was the oldest one in Nashville but don't quote me on that....

The Library was one of my favorite stops on the historical walking tour. 

This is the view looking away from the Library to the Capitol Building

There were 26 books here.  This stood outside the Library and each book represented a letter of the alphabet.  Granite from 5 different continents went into the making of these books.

I felt like we were in a library shown in a movie.  I could be SO productive in a space like this!  Through the windows, you will see the Capitol Building.

Main entrance to the Library

I joked that this was my dissertation pile.

The artwork and historical maps were beautiful!

This counter is a recreation of the counters in the Woolworths to teach about the sit-ins (did you know the first one occurred in Greensboro, NC?!).

These timelines were fascinating to read.  I was also thankful for the stools to sit on considering I wore my cowboy boots this day and we were walking all around the city of Nashville....ouch!

LOVE this quote.

More art throughout the Library....at this point, my feet felt like they were in steel cowboy boots too.

Across the street from the awesome Library

The red brick building in the center was where Allison Krauss and Brad Paisley filmed some of their "Whiskey Lullaby" music video.  Rick Schroeder, of Silver Spoons fame, was the lead actor in the video.  

Another view of the Whiskey Lullaby music video location!

Billy Graham statue in front of the Lifeway Christian stores headquarters

 

Our historical walking tour concluded at the Ryman Auditorium!  Patrick and I decided to purchase (with military discount) tickets to see the inside of the Ryman Auditorium.  Oh, if you go shopping in the gift shop, be sure to check in on Foursquare so you can get a 10% discount.

The man on the stage in this photo controlled all the lights and the background you see in this picture by using his iPad...incredible!

We watched an information movie before the self guided tour using the map below...if you want your picture taken on stage by the microphone and even holding a guitar if you want, then you'll have to pay.  Patrick and I opted to just take a photo from afar instead.

I was thankful for the pews since I was still in my (wet) cowboy boots.

Check out all this technology!  This was only half of the desk area.

See Elvis singing from the rooftop??

Goofing off in the gift shop

After finishing our Ryman Auditorium Tour and realizing we had a couple of hours until our dinner reservations, Patrick asked if I wanted to go to the American Pickers store.  I had no idea what he was talking about so he filled me in on the show and the fact that they have a store in Nashville.  I figured when else would we be here so why not? 

We looked up the store location and figured it wasn't terribly far away so we set out on foot...just in time for the drizzling rain to pick up again.  By the time we got to the warehouse, we were soaked, tired, hungry, but curious about what was in this store.  We got to the Marathon Car Works Warehouse with an hour to spare before the store closed...I was shocked at the price tags on some of these old items and fun with some of the others.  ;)

This was SUCH a welcome sight as we made our way closer and closer to the American Pickers store after walking through puddles, rain, and MUCH further than we expected when we first set out from the Ryman Auditorium.

Look how far away we were from "home".  The Batman Building can be seen to the right of the center, see the ears?  That was how far we had walked and I admit, I was a bit grumpy at the thought of having to walk back to the middle of it all.  I mean I was in wet pointy hard cowboy boots y'all.

I should have gotten this signed jacket for Mom.  ;)

 

Maybe my game would improve if I got these clubs?

This seemed like a rather unusually long motorcycle!

Since we were so tired, hungry, and wet, Patrick and I opted to call for a taxi after we were done browsing the antiques.  We went in this cute little candy shoppe next door called, The Big Bang Candy shop.  Fortunately, I was able to order a yummy cookie and coffee that took the edge off the hunger as we waited for not one but two taxis.  Then the candy shop had to close and make us leave so we stood out on the porch area for another 45 minutes to an hour.  The problem was, at this point it was after work rush hour time and the taxis supposedly could not get out of the city area to come get us on the outskirts at a reasonable time, or so they said.  I recommend planning a visit to this cool area by taking the hop on hop off bus or renting a car so you don't get yourselves into our situation.

 The girls who worked at The Big Bang Candy shop were SO nice and let us stay in as long as they could before they had to lock the doors.  An hour after they had us leave, and an hour of waiting for the invisible taxis as night fell, Lydia, one of the super friendly workers there, saw us as she walked to her car.  She asked about our ride to which we explained we had called for two different taxis with no luck.  She offered to drive us to our dinner reservations after she got gas.  What a sweet gesture!  Plus, she drove the same exact kind of car I did. 

Our view as we wistfully looked out toward downtown Nashville where we were trying to get back to without much luck since it was getting too dark to walk and we were too tired at that point.

So, thanks to the kindness of Lydia, who after a long day of working and getting some gas, offered to drive us to our next location, we made it to BB King's House of Blues Restaurant in time.  We learned that Lydia had been born and raised in Nashville but she doesn't like country music all that much and she had just returned from living in Mississippi.  She's now a pastry chef at that awesome candy shop (go check out their Facebook page to see some of her creative culinary creations!).

 Once we arrived for our dinner reservations, we walked into a lively robust atmosphere as a BB King lookalike was already performing.  After I presented our restaurant.com certificate, I checked in on Foursquare and discovered we could have a free appetizer of fried pickles.  Neither Patrick nor I had eaten these (other than the time I had them at a Super Bowl party in Jan. 2013) so we shrugged and opted to get the appetizer.  It was free after all!  We both also ordered drinks in which we were able to keep the fun glasses.  It sure felt good to sit down and listen to the blues!

Free glass, free fried pickles, after a "free" ride to the restaurant....yay for friendly free things in Nashville!

Which celebrity does this dude remind you of....anyone?

After dinner and the music, Patrick and I walked back to the hostel since we were only about two blocks from it.  After talking with our roommates, we all fell into bed and were asleep by midnight.  What a day of WALKING but fun it had been!!

Our third day in Nashville was set aside to be our informational historical museum and government buildings day before embarking on a walking Pub Crawl Tour (more on that later).  All of the places we visited were free yet also shared a lot of history of Music City.  Fortunately, it was sunny and breezy so no rain on this day!  We took a shortcut through the Arcade and stopped briefly at the Catholic church where I saw a statue unlike any others I've seen of St. Francis in the basement.  This church also happened to be the oldest church in Nashville!  We then crossed the street to go to the museum to get our "learning" on before heading over to the government buildings just around the block.

Arcade

Where in the world is......

........is Patrick?

The Catholic church that was also the oldest church in Nashville...pretty cool!

Our roommates were from Perth, Australia...funny coincidence.

I've never seen this rather austere depiction of St. Francis!

 

Reading these words on a flyer I found in the basement of the church reminded me of some of the talks at the NCSC 2013!

We made our way across the street  to the TN State Museum after stopping in for the impromptu church visit.

Can you read who's bench this was?!

This is the fort that was right across the street from our hostel!

 Once a teacher, always a teacher!  I was drawn to the schooling exhibits of course.

After learning about the state's history, we continued on around the block to do a self-guided free tour of the state capitol building.  The grounds and the architecture were beautiful.  We did find some of the statue placements to be rather odd...can you guess why?

A soldier pointing a gun at...

...this building!

Funny visitors of the Governor's Office

Back in the day, when legislators didn't agree on a law or something like that, some of them tried to run away from the Capitol Building so they would not have to vote.  However, gunfire erupted to stop these folks from running away and this chunk was taken out of the railing by gunfire (see where program goes into indentation).  Who knew history could be so full of twists and turns (haha)?!  Disclaimer:  See Patrick for a more accurate portrayal of the story.

This is where the gunfire erupted a long time ago.  ;)

Another view of the railing

Patrick called this the DNA staircase...hehe.

I loved these fresh flowers on the second floor of the Capitol Building...so much so that this is my desktop background on my laptop!

Add caption

 Next we headed over to the Military Museum for a sobering look at some of the warfare history and learned about TN's role in the military.

This played snippets from history such as audio samples from Roosevelt's Fireside Chats and so forth.

Nuclear Bomb....yowza!!!

Next up, we walked back to the hostel (and made another stop at the candy shop!) and rested for about an hour before it was time to head back out for the pub crawl!  We also bid adieu to our Australian roommates as they continued their trip to Memphis.  They had already been to a bunch of other cool cities in the US and Patrick and I were thoroughly jealous of their travels!  Fortunately we've become Facebook buds so we can live vicariously through their photos and posts!  ;)

So, back to the Pub Crawl on our 3rd night in Nashville...We had been looking forward to this event as we were going to be entertained by our tour guide while trying out drinks at a couple bars and learning more about the honky tonk business.  We got to the establishment, Dick's Last Resort (a place I swore I would never return to after my first time there in Minneapolis in October 2012), which was the meeting place for the pub crawl in plenty of time.  We were there so early that I charged my phone while waiting for the others to arrive....but they never did.  After 45 minutes of waiting, one time of the manager asking if she could help us, and a voicemail for our no-show guide, we decided to leave and do our own pub crawl.  We knew of some of the stops from browsing the website so we left Dick's Last Resort in rather grumpy moods.  It wasn't until we got to the Brass Stables before I remembered I had accidentally left my phone charger plugged into the wall at Dick's Last Resort.  So we called the bar and asked if they could hold on to my charger at the bar.  They said yes and asked if we had ever connected with our guide to which we said no.  I checked in on Foursquare and found a drink special after hanging up with the other bar.  Pretty soon Patrick and I were feeling pretty happy at this laid back super loud but groovy place where some pretty good tunes were being played.  We explained to our server about the pub crawl falling through to which the manager came over and offered us more specials and even gave us a secret "sign" to get back in later to avoid paying the cover when we thanked her for her service on our way out....the secret sign was the sign for "beautiful" and what a beautiful time we had at Brass Stables indeed.  We would have liked to have gone back later had we had more time!

This was a fun little coffeeshop where we had lunch during one of our days in Nashville (got a restaurant.com certificate).  ;)

Patrick and I claimed the bottom bunks after our Australian roommates departed then we headed on out around 5:30pm knowing we might have new roommies upon our return....ah, hostel living! 

 

 

6 drinks (3 for each of us) for only $17!  Say what?!

A well worn itinerary is a sign of a fun-filled trip IMHO!  =P

Can you tell we were obsessed with the Batman Building?  Hehe.

I had Austin, TX flashbacks in this store but was unable to find a pair of boots as expensive as the $1,000+ ones I found down there!

We went back to Dick's Last Resort where we got not one but TWO drinks for free since they felt bad we never received our Pub Crawl Experience!  (Turns out the tour guide had emailed me saying she had to cancel.....oops).

Horse at Wild Horse Saloon

I ended up country line dancing ~ what fun!!  Too bad I didn't wear my cowboy boots this night!?

Can't take me anywhere I guess.

We ended up back at our favorite place!!!

Goodness gracious, the size of the "shots" are as big as regular drinks!

My Nashville crush ~ Andrew Varner  ; )

There were definitely more people here this night than on our first night.  The energy was amazing and the talent was just as great this night as the other night!!

After a great night of enjoying the nightlife, Patrick and I headed on home to the hostel where our new roommates were already asleep on the top bunks.  I think we fell asleep around 3:30am or so and we all got up around 7/8am.  It turns out our new roommates were from Seattle (the other city on Patrick's my and list!).  The Mom was taking her newly turned 21 year old to Martina McBride's ranch for the weekend and they stayed one night in the hostel.  We learned some fun facts about Seattle as we all checked out together.  Then, this friendly mother son duo offered to give us a ride to the airport where we were headed to get a rental car.  How kind of them!!!  We gladly accepted as we had all our luggage with us.

Once at the airport, we rented a car and were on our way to the Jack Daniels Distillery about an hour or so out of town in Lynchburg, TN.

I think we learned that all of the whiskey goes through this coal or something.  Mmm tasty!

This spring is the reason why the distillery is located here.

This statue was called "Jack on the Rocks".....loved it!

These are all the previous (and current) owners

Not to be confused with Lynchburg, VA...ahem.

After our tour, we headed back to Nashville since we wanted to try to make it to the Bluebird Cafe (made famous on the TV series, "Nashville").  On the way we stopped by a cute boutique to pick out a new charm for my Pandora bracelet.  Can you find it? 

We made it to the Bluebird Cafe in time to wait in line for an hour, make friends with Lucas and Cris while standing in line, AND to be granted access to the singer/songwriter jam session!  Score!!

Warming up!!

The blonde is Heather Morgan.  She had just written a song for Sara Evans that was recently released as well as a duet Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert sing!!

Each artist took turns singing songs and telling stories...it was AWESOME!!!

This was the line for the second show of the evening with different performers.

I was super excited to see this sign at the mall across the street after the show.

With our new friends!  ; )  Cris (green shirt) was visiting Lucas from Florida for the weekend AND we found out they had been at one of the bars we were at the previous night (at the same time)...Small world!!

After the Bluebird Cafe, we headed on over to a hotel near Vanderbilt University to enjoy dinner and more singer/songwriter showcases.  At midnight, we had had enough of the music and did some cooooold exploring of walking around Vanderbilt's campus and checking out the Parthenon replica (from the outside)!

Big steps!

I wouldn't mind coming back here to go inside this magnificent building!

 

 After exploring the Parthenon, from the outside, we ran back to the car to warm up and head to the cell phone parking lot at the airport where we slept for about 4 hours in the car before returning the rental car at 5:30am and hopping on our plane at 6am.  Once we landed in Baltimore, I hugged Patrick goodbye and told him I would see him at Thanksgiving, then a few hours later boarded my plane back to Raleigh.  I was home by 2pm and promptly fell asleep at 10pm that night!  What a FUN trip and yes, Nashville is definitely one of our favorite cities!!!  Can't wait until the next adventure!