Nashville, Tennessee | Vacation | December 2016

One of my good friends, Emily, and I spent a few days in Nashville to end 2016 in a fun way.

December 27th- We decided to drive down there so we headed out around 9am. We got to Lousiville around 12pm so we stopped for lunch at Bob Evans. We ended up staying there a little longer then planned but we got back on the road as soon as possible. Nashville is an hour behind our home so it made us seem like we got there faster than we actually did. Our drive time was only about 6 hours. We checked into our hotel and crashed in the room for a little bit.

The first adventure we went on was to the Opryland Hotel. We drove around to the front where we thought the entrance was because that's where all of the Christmas lights were at. But they had certain roads blocked off so we just started driving around to find a parking lot, from what we saw, they were all blocked or stated that they were for guests only. So we drove around the whole building lot and ended right back at the Christmas lights. There was a worker standing there so we stopped and asked her where to go, she pointed us to a little access road and we headed into a parking lot right beside the Christmas lights.

Then we walked inside the hotel and got lost again. As soon as we walked in the door we were amazed at how pretty it was. We had no idea where we were supposed to go so we just chose a hallway (that looked to be the right way) and walked down it. We went by a lot of restaraunts but then ended up in the meeting room end of the hotel. We saw another worker and she gave us a map and pointed us in the right direction. The only good thing about walking the wrong way was that we ended up seeing the University of Nebraska football team that was in town for the Music City Bowl game. When we got the map we realized that we went the complete wrong direction. We had to go back to where we came in at and go down a different hallway. As soon as we got to the right place, we knew it immediately. The hotel opened up into this beautiful atrium. It had all sorts of plants and pathways, a river and waterfall, and even a little "town" with cute shops and restaurants. We walked around and explored this room then headed to the next. The second atrium that we explored had these pretty hanging lights and a few more little restaraunts. The next room was the garden conservatory with a bunch of different plants in there. The last atrium had a musical theme. There were musical note lights and musician characters all around. We headed back outside, got a closer look at the Christmas tree lights, and headed back to the hotel for the night.

December 28th- We started out the day bright and early (not really it was like 9am). After looking at some maps of downtown and the places that we wanted to go, we decided to take the hotel shuttle downtown. We were the only ones on the bus so the driver was nice enough to drop us off at a location of our choice instead of the normal drop location. Our location of choice was the Country Music Hall of Fame. It didn't take us as long as we thought to get through it. It was basically just an outfit and guitar or boots for every person. Although, Elvis's car and the walls of records were really cool. Honestly fewer people than I had expected have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Across the street was the Walk of Fame (like Hollywood but with country artists). We walked along that then walked up to the main road in Nashville, called Lower Broadway.

I was really looking forward to getting a picture of all the bars and big signs lit up, but the road was filled with big white tents and fences. They were getting ready for their New Year's Eve celebration. By this time, it was lunchtime so we went into Honky Tonk Central to grab a bite to eat. The live music didn't stop. As soon as one person finished, they had another artist up there in about 10 minutes. As you would expect, all we heard was country music.

After lunch we hopped in a taxi and headed to the Parthenon. It's a full-scale replica of the one in Greece. The one in Nashville was built for a World's Fair in 1897. The building was meant to be temporary but after all of the other buildings for the Fair had fallen apart, it was decided that the Parthenon should be rebuilt as a more permanent structure. This was probably my favorite thing that we saw in Nashville. It's a museum inside that tells about the World's Fair that it was made for and it also has some photography and history from the real Parthenon in Athens. On the upper floor it has a full-size replica of Athena, a greek goddess. The statue and her stand are covered in gold and marble. This room also houses the largest doors ever made and the statues that were used to make the designs on the outside of the building. It was all amazing to see, but then again I'm kind of a history buff.

Our next adventure was to the Coyote Ugly bar (yes, this was where the movie was filmed). It was only about 5pm when we showed up so there weren't many people there, but the bartender did a really good job at keeping the few people entertained and energetic. She was up on the counter dancing and singing (which she got a lot of tips for). If you don't know, that's what they do in the movie as well. Emily and I each had a drink and talked for a little bit, it was nice.

Shortly after we finished our drinks we walked over to the Ryman Auditorium. We could have easily walked right by it if we weren't paying attention. It basically just looked like another building that was surrounded by other buildings. There wasn't even a big sign to show it off, it was all subtle. We couldn't see a show because none were playing at the time but it's still cool to say that I saw the Ryman. It was dark, we were tired, and it was starting to rain so we went back to the bus stop and waited for our shuttle to take us back to the hotel for the night.

December 29th- As soon as we woke up we drove about 45 minutes to our photoshoot location with Alexus and Noah. We ended up getting a little lost because the park that we went to was under construction so the roads and parking lot didn't look like we were supposed to go on them. The photoshoot lasted about an hour and we actually went back to Alexus's house. She is my boyfriend's cousin so I wanted to see her mom and their Grandma as well. We hung out at the house for awhile and then headed back to Nashville.

We couldn't figure out what we wanted to do next. Emily saw the Opry Mill mall and said let's go! We wandered around for awhile inside, visited a couple Nashville specific stores to get some souvenirs, went to the Lego store, and ended up at Build-a-Bear. She thought this was a cute way to get another souvenir from Nashville, I agreed. I was having a hard time choosing between the Chewbacca bear and the Stormtrooper bear, but I finally decided on the Stormtrooper bear and named him Stormtroobear. Emily got Kylo Ren. If any of you know me, you'd know that I do not like Kylo Ren whatsoever, because of what he did to Han. Needless to say, I teased Emily the whole way back to the hotel, but like she said, the bear was cute. Back at the hotel for the night, we just hung out and enjoyed our last night away.

December 30th- We woke up bright and early again, ate breakfast, and headed back to Ohio. Surprisingly the drive home seemed to go a lot faster than the drive there, which is opposite from how it normally is for me. We grabbed lunch in Louisville again, but this time we just got fast food so that we could keep on driving. Again, it only took us about 6 hours to drive and we parted ways.

Thank you, Emily, for coming with me. I had a blast. The whole trip was a bunch of crazy adventures and I'm glad that I could experience them with one of my good friends! What a great way to end the year!