Nashville!

This past weekend, we took a little weekend trip to Nashville. We wanted to get away as a family and explore somewhere new, and we've always been curious about the Music City that is only 5-6 hours away from us. 

After a slow start to the weekend (it took us two hours and a car switch to get out of town), we had a wonderful time. We stayed at the Opryland Hotel, which is a beautiful and huge resort with lots of restaurants, shops, pools, and a spa. We visited several delicious restaurants including the famous Jack's BBQ, Sopapilla's, and Noshville. We also spent time at the Country Music Hall of Fame, Downtown Nashville, a nearby town called Franklin, and Music Row. I know there is a ton that we didn't get to see in our short visit so we will definitely be back, and for longer than a weekend next time!

This is inside the hotel.
There are 3 or 4 big sections to the hotel, each with it's own water feature/atrium.
We were inside the Cascades area, which had a beautiful waterfall and pond.


This was the view from our balcony.

This is in the Delta section of the hotel.

This area had a cute little shopping area on an island.

There were riverboat tours that one could take around the island.

 

On Saturday morning, we decided to explore Downtown Nashville.

First, we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Inside, there were tons of things (from cars to clothes to guitars) that belonged to past and present country music musicians.

Kylie was very curious about this juke box.

She had never seen one before and had about a million questions about it!

This was an outfit that belonged to Jason Aldean and a guitar that belonged to Taylor Swift.

There was also an area where you could sing, play, mix your own song.

Here we are recording the Barlow version of "Wagon Wheel."

This is a display of Taylor Swift's stuff.

I can't remember who this car belonged to, but it was an old Firebird which was also Jon's first car.

Brooks loved looking at the cars.

In case you can't tell what the kids are doing, they are clearly flexing their muscles!

Posing by someone's motorcycle!

After the Country Music Hall of Fame, we walked over to Jack's BBQ which is right in the middle of the downtown action.

It was delish!

After lunch, we walked around a bit.

There were tons of boot stores, as well as live music venues.

Even at noon, there were several bars/restaurants playing live music.

This would be a fun place to come back to once the kids are older or for a weekend without the kids.

After a nap at the hotel for the boy, we decided to explore a nearby town called Franklin.

It was a really cute town with lots of little shops.

There also happened to by a "Classic Car Cruise In" at the Factory in Franklin.

This was actually a life saver for us because Brooks had been melting in the car and he completely pulled it together as soon as he saw all of the cars!

This was inside the Factory, which I believe is actually an old factory of some sort, but is now a big building with lots of shops inside.

After that we went to a Mexican restaurant called Sopapilla's that was amazing!

Following dinner, we went back for a quick swim at the hotel.

Then we put the kids to bed and enjoyed a couple of hours on the balcony before putting ourselves to bed!

This is the only picture I took from Sunday.

We explored the hotel a little more in the morning, and then went to Noshville for brunch.

After eating, we drove through Music Row which was actually not that impressive...Just a bunch of buildings with recording studios and radio stations.

Overall, it was a really fun trip and it felt so good to get away from real life for a couple of days! We might have to make it an annual tradition!