Somebody asked me the other day why I made Nashville, TN a priority on my road trip...

Ummmmm because it's Nashville?!

Great music. Great food. Fun atmosphere! What's not to like? Haha

Well, in all honesty, ever since I came here for the Beachbody Summit in 2015, I have really wanted to come back! We had such a great time hitting up some of the local bar and restaurants that I really wanted to come back. And honestly? I kind of wish I'd gone elsewhere.

WHEN DID WE GO: August 1-2, 2017

WHY DID WE GO: USA Road Trip, on the way to New Orleans!

HOW LONG WERE WE THERE: 1 night

WHERE DID WE STAY: Music Row Air BnB

The bummers

Now, instead of starting with the Highlights like I did for Maker's, I'm starting with my Bummers list. Why? Because it might explain why we were a little disappointed with our experience in Nashville.

THE AIR BnB. We booked Air BnB's for the first couple nights of our road trip since we would be exploring cities. And we arrived at this one, we were more than a little disappointed. Not only was the unit itself kind of sketchy feeling, with construction going on all around the apartment and sketchy wires hanging down outside, but the description of the unit was misleading. The main picture is a picture of Honky Tonk row, which was the location that we wanted to be nearby. However, the description said it was on Music Row. Now, when we arrived we learned that Music Row is completely different from the main drag of bars and restaurants that we had both associated with Nashville. It's a couple miles away and houses all the recording studios and record labels. Basically, we were both bummed. Instead of being walking distance to the part of Nashville we wanted to see, we would have to Uber in. The Air BnB has since updated it's description to say that it is near the recording studios and not the bars. And this was an oversight on our part.

Nashville's kinda dirty. I don't know if I just didn't notice when I was here in 2015 or if Nashville just made every effort to clean up before Beachbody rolled through, but when we hit Honky Tonk Row in Nashville, it just smelled like pee. I know Nashville is a city, albeit not a very big one and that cities have a tendency to not be the cleanest places in the world, but after walking around Cincinnati, I was disappointed a bit by the cleanliness of the city.  

the highlights

BB. KING'S. This place is amazing! Seriously if you want to experience the good food and the good music that Nashville is known for, but maybe not in the busy craziness of Honky Tonk row, than this is a place that you need to head to ASAP! We arrived here and got ourselves seated and proceeded to have an absolutely phenomenal dinner! I had the Bayou Shrimp & Grits, which were phenomenal! I had never had shrimp and grits before and it was freaking unbelievable! My girl Kristin had the Pulled Pork platter, I believe! But regardless, this food was amazing! But more so than the food, the music at this place was unbelievable! I could sat there all night and rocked out to the absolutely unbelievable live music at this place. I'm pretty sure Grant Garland was our entertainer on the night we were there! He was phenomenal! I highly recommend this place!

THE FGL BAR. The one place that my friend Kristin was curious about checking out while we were here was the bar that Florida Georgia Line recently opened. So we scoped it out and really had a great time! The first floor is a restaurant and the second floor is a typical bar. But we spent the majority of our night at the rooftop bar that they call Cruise after their big hit song! Not only are their great views of Nashville from the rooftop bar, but it's a great atmosphere with reasonably priced drinks! It's definitely worth checking out for the views of Nashville alone. 

The Nashville Wings. Every time people see our pictures from Nashville, they are blown away by the pictures of the Nashville wings! And honestly, this was a quick little 15min stop we made after leaving our Air BnB on the way out of town. I'm not sure on the background of why these pieces were done, but basically they were painted on the side of a building in Nashville by the artist, Kelsey Montague. They're such a fun little stop and greatly little photo-op in downtown Nashville!

The Parthenon. Our last stop before heading out of the city was to see the Parthenon! We had stayed right across the street from the Nashville Parthenon replica when I visited Nashville in 2015, but unfortunately I had toleave town before I could see it. So, we made a point to stop on our way out of town on this trip! We had incredibly lighting this morning and got some awesome photos and I really found this to be a really unique part of Nashville and not something you'll find in the rest of the US. It is definitely worth a quick stop if you're looking for something quick to check out! I highly recommend it. We just went for a quick walk around the outside and frankly I think that's all you really need.