We stopped in
Nashville for a couple of nights in between longer trips and we had the most
fun! We squeezed in so much into our
short time there, but I’m going to try to recap the whole trip in one very long
post!
Friday, June 19
We were up at 7:30 AM Friday to hit the road! We got ready, had breakfast at home, stopped
at Panera for lunch along the way, grabbed some gas, and then we checked into
our hotel at 2:30 PM CDT. Since this was
a quick trip, we opted to stay at a hotel rather than an Airbnb. The main reason we booked the trip was to
attend the Ed Sheeran concert at Nissan Stadium, so Brian booked our room at
the Holiday Inn Stadium as it was within walking distance to the venue. It was also a new-ish hotel, so it was nice!
When we arrived, we unpacked the car, we set up our room, and we
freshened up, and then we headed to the 12 South area to meet up with my
friend, Emily, and her family!!!! Emily
and I met through blogging in 2015. We
both started our blogs around the same time, and we ended up in the same blog
circles. She and I ended up getting each
other’s phone numbers at some point, and we’ve talked almost every single day
since then. She is one of my best
friends (might sound weird to some of you since we’d never met in person until
2024, but it’s not weird to us at all!) and I’m so grateful to have her
friendship even though we live nearly 600 miles apart!
Nashville is a good central location between our two locations, so when I
told Emily we were going to see Ed Sheeran there, she and her family decided to
join us, and I couldn’t have been happier.
This was also an extra special visit because we got to meet Emily’s
daughter for the first time on this trip.
The last time we got together in person was in Chicago in 2024 and Emily
was pregnant with her! Emily also
brought her husband and her parents along for this trip and we all got along
like we’ve known each other forever. It
was such a special weekend!
When we arrived at 12 South, it was PACKED. It’s incredible just how much that area has
grown in the last 10 years. Brian and I
went there back in 2017 and there was so little in that area. It was such a cute, quaint, quiet little area
with lots of open green spaces (one of which was a massive pumpkin patch the
year we went), but that area has since exploded and there are tons of
restaurants, high-end boutiques and shops, loads of murals, and SO. MANY.
PEOPLE. It is always bustling with
activity.
Thankfully, The Gilmore (the new hotel that just opened in 12 South last
year) added a giant underground parking garage, so we were able to find a place
to park easily. Parking in 12 South has
always been bad, but I can’t imagine just how bad it would be now without that
parking garage.
Emily and her family were waiting just outside for us (they had lucked
out and found a spot right on the road!) and I gave her a huge hug the second
we found each other! It’s always surreal
to see her in person after all our texting, but at the same time it feels
completely normal. She introduced us to
her parents (who we’d never met) and we said hello to her husband and her sweet
girl.
We were all hungry at that point, so we walked to The Bottle Cap for
dinner. We’d done some research on the
way to find a casual, family-friendly place, and that seemed like the place to
be. Unfortunately, when we arrived, they
were showing one of The World Cup games, so the place was absolutely packed and
so loud, and we thought we were going to have to pivot. Fortunately, just as we were discussing what
to do, the game ended and the place pretty much cleared out. Talk about good luck! Haha.
We all grabbed a round of drinks – Teenessee Ice Teas for Brian and me
(Happenstance Bourbon, Peach Schnapps, simple syrup, and fresh squeezed lime) –
and then we ordered food. Most of us got
pimento cheeseburgers and they were delicious.
Their sweet potato fries were also top-notch.
After dinner, we walked around a few of the shops. We wanted to hit up Draper James and Stoney
Clover, and the kids wanted to go in Serendipity – a souvenir shop that had a
bunch of random things in it that they remembered from our last trip. I’d hoped to get a picture of Emily and me
together in front of the famous Nashville mural right next door to Draper
James, but we were all shocked to see that they’d painted over it and the wall
was just a plain beige color. Why they
would do that, I don’t know, but it made me so sad!
All the shops closed around 6 or 7 PM, and then Emily and her family
headed back to their Airbnb to get the baby to sleep. While we waited for them, our fam stayed in
12 South for another hour or so. We got
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream for dessert and then we walked around and looked at
all the murals.
After Olivia and I took
a picture in front of the “Make Music, Not War” mural, we realized that the vines
growing over the mural looked like they could be poison ivy and my heart
sank.
Brian pulled up his plant identifier app, and it turned out that it was
Virgina Creeper. The thing about
Virginia Creeper is that most people aren’t allergic to it. However, some people are insanely allergic to
it, and they break out in blistering rashes all over just like you would if you
touched poison ivy. My mother-in-law is one
of those who is terribly allergic to it, so I was worried Olivia could be, too,
since they have some of the same genes.
We weren’t 100% sure that she had even touched it, but I wanted to be on
the safe side, so I pulled out some of my alcohol based hand wipes and made her
scrub her hands and face with it. Then,
when we got back to The Gilmore to get in the car, we asked if they had a
public restroom, and thankfully, they did, so I helped her scrub her hands and
face with soap and water. The soap was almost
out, though, so it wasn’t as thorough as I’d hoped.
When we got in the car, I was able to watch the video that Brian had
taken of us in front of the mural and in the video we could see that the leaves
did move as her hands went up in the air to pose, so we were able to confirm
that she did, indeed, touch it, and then she proceeded to touch her face with
the same hand to brush her hair out of her face. Noooo.
After watching that, I made her scrub her hand and face again with
another wipe, and then when we got to Emily’s Airbnb, we did a more thorough
washing of her face and hands in their bathroom. Can you tell I was paranoid? Haha.
Thankfully, nothing ever came of it, so we either washed it off well, or
she’s not allergic to it. Better to be
safe than sorry, though, right? The last
thing we needed was for her to have a blistering rash all over her hand and
face at the Ed Sheeran concert the next night.
By the time we got to Emily’s, they had the baby down for the night, so
her parents stayed with her while Emily and Jess piled in our SUV to go to East
Nashville Beerworks, a cute little brewery that wasn’t too far from their
Airbnb. We spent the rest of the evening
under the twinkle lights chatting and catching up, and it was a wonderful
night! The weather was absolutely
perfect, too. (And somebody stole my phone. Hahahaha!)
We returned Emily and Jess to their Airbnb and then we got back to our
hotel around 9:30 PM CDT. The kids
showered and then we went to bed around 10:30 PM CDT. We were exhausted.
Saturday, June 20
Tuesday, we were up at 7:15 AM CDT and then we headed downtown in search
of donuts for breakfast after we’d all gotten ready. We landed on Shipley Do-Nuts on Church Street
since it seemed like they had a good variety, and I was excited about their
kolaches as I was wanting some eggs or some other protein before eating my
donut. I’d never had a kolache, and I
can confirm that it was delicious! The
donuts were, too.
After we were done there, we were supposed to meet Emily and her family
at the Nashville Farmer’s Market. After
a look at the GPS, it didn’t seem like the walk would be too bad, so we headed
that way. After making a turn down what
appeared to be a very busy road, we started to feel uneasy about the walk, and
then, when the sidewalk ran out and cars were whizzing right by us, we decided
to turn around.
By then, the sun was out in full force, and it was HOT and I was also
feeling a little woozy with dizziness.
It ended up taking us foreverrrr to get there on foot, but we made it,
and we vowed immediately that we’d be taking an Uber back downtown when the
time came. Haha.
By the time we arrived, we were nearly an hour late meeting Emily and her
family, so we browsed a few stalls in the farmer’s market (it was HUGE and so
neat!) while we were looking for Emily, and then we all walked across the
street to the Tennessee State Museum since it had just opened.
We spent the next couple of hours browsing all the exhibits with them and
it was a really neat place. We’d never
been there, so it was nice to try something new. And it was free!
At lunchtime, Emily and her family left to go back to the Airbnb to feed
the baby and put her down for her nap, and Brian, the kids, and I checked out
the gift shop at the museum and then did a little shopping at the indoor part
of the farmer’s market. One vendor was
selling authentic Pokemon card packs, which Jacob was very excited about, so he
purchased a pack and I bought a postcard to hang on my bulletin board back at
home.
We were all hungry by then, so we Ubered back downtown (we could have taken a Waymo, but HARD PASS haha), and we had our
driver drop us off at Luke’s 32 Bridge.
We’d eaten lunch there before on a previous trip, and Olivia wanted it
again, so we thought it would be a good, quick place to stop with live music so
we could get the whole live music Nashville experience.
Brian and I started with a round of cocktails, and we both opted for the
“Strip It Down” which was Jim Beam Vanilla and cherry and it was smoked
tableside with oak chips. The
presentation was 10/10, but unfortunately, the drink was a 0/10. It was soooo bad. It tasted just like NyQuil and it was hard to
choke down. It also didn’t seem like
there was a single drop of alcohol in there, so we were highly disappointed…
especially with how pricey they were.
Sheesh.
Other than that, everything else was great! Brian had the BBQ bison meatloaf skewers, the
kids had chicken fingers and mac n cheese, and I had grilled chicken, mashed
potatoes, and green beans from the kid’s menu.
Haha. They didn’t have a grilled
chicken option for the adults, so I was happy our server made an exception for
me.
They band played lots of old 90s country songs (which are my favorite),
and I got to hear them sing Neon Moon by Brooks and Dunn on the way out…
one of my favorites!
After we left the restaurant, we stopped by a couple of shops (a candy
shop and a souvenir shop) while we waited for Emily and Jess to arrive, and
then we met the two of them outside The Ryman Auditorium.
We all moseyed around downtown for a bit after that. Olivia wanted to go in their Sephora store (it’s
huge) and then we went in the Nash store and the Carhartt store.
We stopped to grab macarons at Le Macaron French Pastries and then we
went to check out Printer’s Alley. I’d
never heard of it, but one of Jess’s friends had told him about it. It was a cute little area, but it wasn’t very
vibrant during the day because it was mostly bars and many of them looked
closed. I bet it’s fun at night, though!
We decided to stop by the library to check it out, and it was the cutest
place! We’d hoped to get water from
their snack bar, but we were informed that the snack bar had closed. So, we walked down the block to grab waters
from a street vendor and then we went back to the library to cool off for a
bit.
They had a giant kids’ area, and they had a temporary exhibit of old
political cartoons about the 19th amendment, so we ended up staying there and
looking around until it was time to head back to the hotel. Emily and Jess weren’t going to the concert
with us, so that also meant that it was time to part ways for the trip. It’s always so sad to say goodbye.
When we got back to our hotel, we all lay in bed in the blasting air
conditioning and relaxed for 30 minutes, and then it was time to freshen up and
walk to Nissan Stadium where the concert was held.
We in the 16th row in front of the stage, so we had to go through a
special entrance, and I’d hoped that it would be cooler in the tunnels under
the stadium, but it was still SO HOT. We
grabbed hot dogs and waters for dinner and then made our way to our seats, and
we were so grateful to see that our seats were already in the shade. It was such a relief. We would have roasted if they hadn’t been. It was so hot I didn’t even want to drink
beer. I just wanted water to stay
hydrated.
Ed had three openers and we’d completely missed the first one on purpose
since we knew it was going to be hot, but we got to see Amble and then Myles
Smith. I have loved Myles Smith for a
couple of years now, so I was thrilled to see that he was opening, and I didn’t
want to miss him! He was so great, and
we all enjoyed singing along to the two massive hits that he’s had and hearing
all the new songs from the new album he’d just dropped the day before that.
As he was finishing up, we booked it back up to the stadium for bathroom
breaks and the kids wanted Dippin’ Dots.
We got back to our seats just in time for Ed to come out at 8 PM, and
the next three hours were spent listening to him, singing at the top of our
lungs, and dancing.
He played most of his set from the main stage in front of us, but he had
a second stage in the middle of the field where he played his acoustic, slower
songs and he went back-and-forth from stage to stage on this massive
telescoping bridge that came out and connected the stages together. It was wild.
Midway through the show, he brought out a surprise guest – Dan + Shay –
who the kids and I love so much. We were
soooo excited and Olivia and I sang Tequila at the top of our lungs.
There were fireworks, there was fire, there was lots of storytelling, there
were magical moments of perfectly timed camera flashes at Ed’s instructions, and
there was lots of jumping up and down at Ed’s prompts… it was JUST SO MUCH FUN. Oh, and I finally got to hear him sing Supermarket
Flowers live for the first time.
It’s one of his oldest and greatest songs, but he never sings it live. Brian and I have seen him live four times
now, and I think this was my favorite one yet!
The show was over around 11 PM CDT, which was midnight back home, so we
were all positively exhausted. We walked
back to the hotel room, both kids showered, and then we were all out like
lights an hour later.
And can I just give a shoutout to our amazing kids who are the best
little travelers? They were going
nonstop all day long in the heat and then were still able to completely hang
for the whole five hours of the concert.
When the concert was over, Jacob wasn’t even ready for it to be over, and
he said he wanted to go see it again.
Haha. They are seriously down for
pretty much anything, and they rarely complain, and I’m so grateful that they
love an adventure just as much as their Mommy and Daddy do!
Sunday, June 21
Sunday, we were up at 8 AM CDT which is 9 AM our time. We decided to sleep in late since we were all
so tired. As long as we were back by
dinnertime, that was all that mattered.
We showered and got ready and then we stopped by East Park Donuts &
Coffee for a quick breakfast. We’d eaten
there the last time we were in Nashville, and we all love their donuts, so we
had to go back for more. The place is
tiny and it was packed, but we were able to get one of the few tables by the
time we were done ordering. I decided to
try something new, so I got the lemon poppyseed lavender donut and an old-fashioned
maple bourbon donut, and both were so delicious. Brian got a blueberry and a salted brown
butter glazed. Jacob got a blueberry and
the EP strawberry (basically a strawberry frosted), and Olivia got a blueberry
and a Dutch chocolate. Everybody was
pleased with their choices!
We hit the road at 9:30 AM CDT, we made one bathroom stop and one stop
for lunch at Panera (again), and we were home in time to unload the car, unpack
a few things, and head to my parents’ house to celebrate Father’s Day with my
Daddy!
It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but it was truly wonderful!
Happy Monday, y’all!
