#1 Tourists - Educational

Fortunately my parents' trip to Music City was also combined with some educational things.  Things that got us walking around after eating half of the city.  There are lots of things to do here (Nashville is very "touristy") and I'm happy to try out anything new whenever people are in town.

First up, for me, was a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame.  It's dorky yes, but I really wanted to go!  We went Saturday morning allowing the early afternoon for the museum.  It takes most people "about 2 hours to go through the whole museum."  It takes the Pendleton's 5 hours.  Granted we added to our tour the tour of Legendary RCA studios, but someone (me) forgot that my dad likes everything about museums.  He likes them so much, he insists on reading every...single...thing inside every....single...exhibit.  (I'm having flashbacks of the Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian right about now)  So, my mom and I finished close to an hour earlier than my dad did, and he only finished because he knew we were annoyed & waiting for him.  He could have stayed longer.
The museum is cool.  I've heard different things, but I really did enjoy it, saw the right amount of cool things and will go back with anyone who comes to visit that wants to go.

Country Music Hall of Fame

Johnny Cash on the Hall of Fame wall

George Straight - my favorite.

Patsy Cline's dress - love seeing things like this!

The tour of RCA Studio B is a MUST!  It was so cool being inside the recording studio where Dolly Parton recorded "I will always love you," The Everly Brothers recorded "All I have to do is Dream," and Elvis recorded...well, practically everything.  Studio B is where it's at and even after RCA built a brand new state of the art studio specifically for "The King" he still demanded to always record at studio B.  The tour adds about an hour to your full Hall of Fame time, but definitely worth it!!

Inside the Studio B recording studio

When we finally left, we walked over to Broadway (aka Honky Tonk Row) to visit the Hatch Print Shop, which is the printing press that to this day prints all of the Hatch Print Posters for the Grand Ole Opry.  Pretty cool to see them from Johnny & June and from today.

No trip to Nashville is complete without going to the Honky Tonks.  You just have to do it.  I guess that means I'll end up there a lot, but I'm okay with that.  We landed at The Stage, which is my personal favorite, and listened to one of the many bands trying to make it big, paying their dues.  They were great (most of them always are) and we probably could have stayed all day, but we had another meal to get to!

There is ALWAYS Live music in downtown Nashville!

Sunday morning we headed back downtown to tour The Ryman.  We opted for the backstage tour (also recommend paying the extra moolah for this) where they take you through all of the dressing rooms still being used today and show you the back door Hank Williams and all of the legendary Opry singers used to use to get to Tootsies.  Obviously we had to try it out, and it's shocking how you literally walk out of the back door of the Ryman into the backdoor to Tootsies & The Stage.  A bit of silly history, but still fun to see!  I'm so happy that Nashville had the sense to NOT tear this building down when the Opry moved out to Opryland.  Concerts inside here are so intimate and fun and you know me and old buildings...I can't get enough of them.

Mom, Dad & me on THE Opry Stage

Loved this view @ The Ryman looking out from the stage

The back door all the stars used to use to get to the "Honky Tonks" after their Opry performance

Back entrances to The Stage & Tootsies

There were SO MANY more sightseeing things I wanted to do while the parents were in town, but we just ran out of time.  I'm working on my list for if I have more visitors (hint to anyone out there reading this) and when my parents come back for another visit.

Living in such a tourist town is super fun & even walking down Broadway last Saturday my mom looked at me and said, "I seriously can't believe you LIVE here."

I know, me too - I'm a lucky gal!

#1 Tourist - Indulgences

This past weekend my mom and dad came to town for their first *stress-free weekend in Nashville.  We did so many things, I feel the need to separate out the recap into multiple posts.

Nashville has awesome restaurants.  This is great for me considering I thought Richmond had awesome restaurants.  I had the hardest time narrowing down the different places we should eat, while also trying to remember no one wanted to end this weekend needing clothes the next size up.  The latter part of that was tricky....

My parents got to town on Friday afternoon and that night we went to Burger Up for dinner.  I knew we had to go to this restaurant because the food is out of control.  And yes, it's just burgers.  This is a new Nashville restaurant that I ate at while I was here for my interview.  The location (12 South) and "feel" of the restaurant (fancy-style picnic tables, really small, no reservations) instantly sold me on moving here. (Seriously, I hadn't even had my interview...just dinner...and I was ready to move.)  I had the Bison burger, Dad had the Pimento Cheese burger & mom had the Black & Bleu burger.  It's seriously ridiculous how good these burgers are.  We all left feeling full enough to not need to eat the rest of the weekend. (Yeah right...)

12 South is definitely my favorite area in Nashville!

I love the "feel" inside Burger Up - so friendly!

When I have visitors, Saturday mornings are reserved for one place and one place only. Pancake Pantry. It has been in Nashville for over 50 years and is "famous" for the line of people that line up outside around the building waiting to get in for breakfast.  There are locals that have NEVER been to this place because they are turned off by the line.  Idiots.  I, personally, have never waited longer than 30 minutes in this line, then again we were there at 8:15am.  If I was my friend Allison, we would have been there when they open at 6:30am just to be sure we got our pancakes.  They were as phenomenal as always and you should expect for me to take you here if you ever come to visit. Mmmmm....

Just your typical Saturday morning line @ Pancake Pantry

After our ginormous breakfast, we somehow snuck skipping lunch by my dad.  It was too late in the day for him to realize, but we did have afternoon beers for a snack (more on that later)  Dinner was at a new local BBQ restaurant called Stone House Q.  I read about it in one of the multiple Nashville blogs I follow and thought it would be good to try out.  It was delicious and I will definitely go back.  Very casual atmosphere and a cool patio to eat outside when it's not...Oh you know, below 30 degrees.

I WILL be eating on that patio this summer

Sunday I snuck into my parents' hotel for breakfast and after an afternoon snack at my place of Chips & Helluva good dip, we hit up Mellow Mushroom for dinner.  Mellow Mushroom has some of the greatest pizza and anytime I'm in Charlottesville, I demand to eat here.  Luckily I now live in a "college town" and have one of my own.

As you can see, we ate a lot.  When my mom called me Monday night when they got home she told me she was going to staple her mouth shut.  I might consider doing the same.

I was so glad to share some of my favorite restaurants with my parents this past weekend and try out a new place as well.  Can't wait for more visitors to try more of Nashville's amazing restaurants!

That's all from me y'all!!



*First trip to Nashville - Mom & Natalie apartment hunting. Fair amount of tears.
*Second trip to Nashville - Traumatic moving experience.  LOTS of crying.

Weather Woes

One thing I didn't realize when I moved to Nashville was how difficult it was going to be to bond with my local news anchors.  I still don't have "that feeling" that you get when you know you're watching the local news team that is going to be MY local news team.  Because of this, I'm constantly flipping back and forth between stations in the mornings so last Thursday I must have missed the note that we were expecting more snow.

Couple of things:
1. I love snow.  I love coats, thick socks, hats and the smell of snow, so nothing excites me more when I hear a tempting forecast.
2. This isn't what I consider snow:

When I left work last Thursday, this is what was on my car.  Nashville closed schools at Noon.

I will say it was nice to see the little bit of snow falling out of my window throughout the day, and the way Tennessee drivers are on a normal day scare me enough to know I don't want to see them in bad weather.

The worst thing I ran into was that I was (literally) out of gas, so on my way home, I had to get gas in the snow.  Remember when I said I missed the weather that morning?  Well I didn't have gloves and my hands were frozen stiff.  It was times like that I wish my dad was close-by because he surely would have gone to get gas for me...then again, I wouldn't have wanted to see his face when he saw how low my gas tank was.  I can hear the words "you should know better" reverberating in my head right about now.

Discovered: Loyal Readership

In the past week I've had three people ask me why I haven't been updating my blog.  Three whole people.  I had no idea I had so many dedicated readers!  So, in the spirit of the new year, I promise to do better about updating all my loyal friends on the goings-on in Music City.

Here's the latest news: I'm sick.  Really, really sick.  I honestly can't remember the last time that I've felt like this, so the hot topic right now is me resting.  I've been watching lots of TV and movies and just made a stop at the library to pick up some free DVD's to get me through the weekend.  With hope, by Monday I'll be feeling like myself again.

I was able to venture out to brunch this morning with a friend.  We went to Tavern which is down in the Vanderbilt area.  As an avid eater of breakfast & brunch foods, I  consider myself pretty tough to please, but Tavern didn't disappoint.  Their brunch is DA-LISH.  They have this thing called "White Trash Hash" (I feel like Tennessee is one of few places you could get away with calling something white trash without offending people...) Anyways, it's potatoes, cheese, onions, peppers & deliciousness.  All meals should be served with this as a side dish.

For now I'm back to doing what I do best - resting.  More updates from Music City coming soon!