We broke camp EARLY to get into Nashville for our 10:30 Walkin' Nashville tour with Bill DeMain. It was an early morning, but as I mentioned in the last blog, completely worth it. Bill gave us a phenomenal tour with a ton of very cool stories. He was our very first impression of the city (we drove in, parked the car, took a pit stop in a nearby Double Tree and booked it to the tour starting point with seconds to spare!) and he couldn't have done a better job.
Bill is a journalist who has lived in Nashville for over 20 years, so he had an endless amount of stories to tell us about the legends of Music City. We learned the history of country music and it's founding stars and visited several Nashville country music landmarks, including the Ryman Auditorium, the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, Hatch Print Shop and more!
Bill was an excellent story teller and a self-proclaimed music nerd, so Billy and I were hanging on his every word trying to soak in everything we could. We were the nerdy people up front walking right next to the tour guide and asking a million questions. Don't judge.
Quick aside--Bill had asked us where we were from when we first walked up the tour and I answered for both of us. Later on, when we were chatting with him between stops, he asked Billy what it was like growing up in India. Apparently, I tend to slur the last syllables of Indiana, and Bill thought that Billy was legitimately from India. Oops!
Anyways, the tour was awesome and if you ever go to Nashville, you should absolutely go on Walkin Nashville! Tickets are super cheap, we would have paid double for the quality we got!
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| Billy and I with Bill outside of Tootsie's Orchid Lounge! |
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| Printer's Alley |
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| Bill doing what he does best! |
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| Stage in the back of the Ernest Tubb record shop |
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| Hatch Show Print |
Check Facebook for more thorough tour pictures and descriptions of our stops :)
Bill set us loose on Nashville right around lunchtime, so Billy and I made a beeline for the burger place recommended to us by the couple we met in St. Louis. They definitely knew what they were talking about--Gabby's was delicious! It's a small blue shack looking building in the middle of an industrial park-type area, but we knew we'd come to the right place when we saw the line out the door.
The burgers were amazing (and were made with grass-fed beef!) as were the fries (don't worry, we tried both sweet potato and regular!) and the chocolate milkshake.
Once we checked in to the apartment we rented from airbnb.com (Thanks Bethany!), we slipped into a pretty heavy food coma/travel hangover. We'd gotten up at 5:30 and had been going non-stop since, so we were exhausted by the time we had unpacked the car and finally showered.
Refreshed from our afternoon of napping (vacationing is really hard, guys), we set out for a night on the town. My favorite part of Nashville is that every bar has live music--every single bar you go to has a band playing. And it's country music, what could be better?!
Billy and I barhopped our way around Nashville, enjoying plenty of bands along the way! We could certainly see where the city gets its nickname of "Nashvegas" from. Lots of neon lights, bachelorette parties (seriously, we saw at least ten different ones each night) and plenty of rowdy people :) Broadway is the main street of touristy attractions, 80% of which are bars.
The last bar we went to, Honky Tonk Central, had two open upper floors with balconies overlooking Broadway, which was very cool! It was still plenty hot out that late, so we enjoyed some beers, country music, and great people watching before calling it a night.
Nashville Day 2 stories (and Hansel!) are after the break!
The nicest thing about our apartment was that we could walk into downtown Nashville. We stayed right across from Vanderbilt, which is considered midtown. It has its own bar/restaurant area that we didn't even discover until our drive out Sunday morning, so we'll have to go back sometime to explore further :)
Downtown was only about a twenty minute walk away, and a $6 cab ride on the way back. Billy and I both were happy to get some exercise and also save money on expensive downtown parking!
Our host, Bethany, told us the quickest way downtown was to go to the end of the street and turn right when we got to the statue of naked people. We weren't sure what to expect, but were greeted with exactly what she described when we hit Division Street:
This was the first of many odd, random statues in Nashville. The apartment was also right by Music Row, where all the recording studios are. It was very cool to see all the big names, plus some we didn't know.
Our first stop Saturday morning was the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was chock full of country history plus a ton of memorabilia of recent country stars, including Carrie Underwood's Blown Away tour from 2012.
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| Carrie is really tiny!! |
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| Billy and me out front of the Hall of Fame |
Our second night out, we decided to stray away from the madness of Broadway. We also wanted to try to learn how to line dance, so we landed on the Wildhorse Saloon. If you're in Nashville and want to have a GREAT time without overly intoxicated rowdy people, plus learn how to line dance and have great drinks, GO HERE.
We seriously had one of the best nights out we've ever had. In between sets, Wildhorse brought out line dance instructors. Everyone there was equally uncoordinated and clueless about line dancing, so we had fun with it and didn't mind making a fool of ourselves since everyone else was too!
Larry Frick was on stage for the night and he was FANTASTIC. At first glance, you would not think this guy was a country singer. His look is a little more emo/rock looking, but as soon as he started singing, our first impression was out the window and we were blown away. He could sang everything from Johnny Cash to Luke Bryan and put on a great show!
We even made a cameo on Larry's instagram-he took a video of the crowd and you can see Billy and me at the bar (we're in blue and orange, respectively)!
I also have to give a shout out to our bartenders Bernie and Destiny, who made the night equally unforgettable! It was a great night from start to finish!
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| Yes, yes we did. |
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| Hansel makes his Nashville appearance! |
From the Parthenon, it was on our way to Lexington by way of Mammoth Cave. Stay tuned for details :)
Links to our favorite parts of Nashville:
Walkin Nashville Tours
Wildhorse Saloon
Larry Frick's web site
Bethany's Apartment-affordable and cozy!
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