Smashville...

 

Amy and I had spring break together and the kids were still in school, it was time to get out of town.  WE found cheap flights to Nashville and headed back to Tennessee.  We grabbed a stay at a new hotel, Cambria and were in town by 7 pm after a full day of work.  We walked from the hotel to Pucketts and had our first Nashville meal.  The place was packed and we slid across the grease floor to the bar seating for drinks and collard greens.  The Band was setting up and the sounds, smells, and BBQ flavor was what we had imagined Nashville would be.  We had almost no itinerary for this trip and only a handful of restaurants and honky tonk bars to hit, but in no particular order and at no particular time.  We ate the hot chicken at Hattie B’s, standing in line for 90 minutes was worth i. SO too was Ubering back to the hotel when the down pour of rain came.  There was a group of bachelor parties in line all dressed up as Mexican wrestlers…so there was always a group acting up in party ways. We walked a lot and spent an afternoon getting hot stone massage. A couples massage was wonderful relaxing, although Amy’s lady dropped all the stones and messed with our relaxing vibe.  We walked the area of music row and all the little studios that were inconspicuously marked.  I didn’t know the history well enough to know what we were passing or who had walked there before or even now.  Music was everywhere and bachelor and bachelorette parties too.  The town was a party town.  Sunglasses were the shopping them of this trip and Amy tried on 200 pairs from the airport to the mall.  We essentially took an uber, with a driver not hired by the Chamber of Commerce, to the Grand Ole Opry.  It was closed, so we walked to the mall and shopped for outdoor gear, sunglasses, and such.  We did spend a big chunk of the day at the Atrium.  It was immense and at first we didn’t see the appeal because we did not realize that it just kept going.  The lushness of the flowers and greenery of the trees gave the complete illusion of being outside.  We watched a band in a crowded space and wandered the trails before catching a ride back towards our hotel.

That day had started at the ACME Feed & Seed for breakfast, it was on our list of places to eat and was a great way to start the day.  From there we went searching for a coffee shop that we could not find but we did find a great dinner spot, The Stillery, and watched a couple leave in the middle of their meal the alcohol likely part of the problem.  Sundown meant music and bars, grab a seat close to the bartender and enjoy the tunes.  Sunday morning we found Frothy Monkey, a cute coffee shop with Amazing breakfast and soon after we made it to Cerveza Jacks where the tequila shots were based on how that tequila was selling, like the stock market.  The singer was good but we pushed on.  We were in the Gulch that evening and wandered through Two Hippies store but spent most of our time at Station Inn.  It was packed, you could get frozen pizza and cans of beer at the back counter to watch the open jam session.  The music was amazing.  The players were mostly local but everyone was welcome as they crooned through many an old bluegrass or gospel favorite.

The final day and the final breakfast again found us in line, Biscuit Love.  It was a massive carb load of goodness and prepped our day to put on the miles and find a Crabshack to return to for dinner adjacent to the actual Goo Goo Cluster factory. Then we started bar hopping. Starting first at the BeerCade to play bubble hockey, pinball, and many old classics and ending our night with tequila shots at the Valentine.  An early morning plane ride and some food at Burger King was considered breakfast and then we were home.