We spent a few nights and two days in Nashville during our trip. I think I was surprised by Nashville because I was expecting it to be like New Orleans – music and street musicians everywhere. Well, there was music everywhere but it was mostly in bars in the crazy downtown/Broadway area. We also saw a few street musicians there, but the streets were so busy that it was not relaxing to slow down and enjoy the street musicians.

But outside of the Broadway area with all the tourist attractions where traffic and sidewalks and parking are all crazy, Nashville was a spread out city with a somewhat confusing layout. There were a few really nice parks, a bunch of really good restaurants, and a few cool bars that were out of the way of the hectic Broadway area. But overall it didn’t feel as charming as I expected it to be. Their farmer’s market was kind of depressing, especially since we just went to the farmer’s market in Ithaca not too long ago. which was the most awesome farmer’s market ever because it had so many different vendors with really nice stalls and musicians and prepared food and just had a really good vibe. Nashville’s farmer’s market just had several vendors selling pumpkins out of cardboard boxes, but not much else. And we were there on a Saturday too.

We had hot chicken at The Stillery and at Hattie B’s. We had really good barbecue at Martin’s BBQ joint. We had fancy drinks at the Patterson House speakeasy where the bill came discreetly hidden in a book (since it is pretending to be a speakeasy after all). We listened to the Sunday night bluegrass jam for free at the Station Inn, which was an awesome laid back bar that looked like it hasn’t been redone since the 70’s, with folding tables and chairs where you sit next to strangers and enjoy beer and popcorn. We took a tour of Belle Meade Plantation. We wandered around the centennial park and ended up at a crafts fair where we saw a glass blowing demonstration. We took a tour of Nelson’s Green Brier distillery, which has an interesting history. We had a good time.