Weekend in Nashville!

We decided to take a little impromptu trip to Nashville this weekend. It was so relaxing and so fun. I've come to realize that the two of us make really good travel partners. We both love food and trying new places to eat--especially local spots. We aren't really people who have to go-see-do every minute, but we do like to get out and do stuff, and we are also really good at just cruising around to find something to do without any sort of plan. And USUALLY (although not this particular trip) we are both more morning people, so we get out and start our day strong, and are ready to call it a day around 9pm. This also comes in handy when the kids are around!

Anyway, we had THE best weekend in Nashville filled with LOTS of live music, dancing, eating, drinking, and laughing. Not necessarily in that order.

We flew to Nashville on Thursday night after Mark got off work, so we didn't get to our hotel until around 10:30pm. As I mentioned, we both tend to be morning people, and going out at 10:30pm is usually not our style, but we thought we'd make the most of the weekend and headed down the street (just a short walk from our hotel) to all the live music venues downtown. Our favorite place is Tootsies, and when we got there, we got a little nervous because it was PACKED. We were thinking maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Tootsies has 3 floors, and each floor has a different band. Luckily though, since Mark is a native Nashvillian (trust me, that's what they're called--I googled it), he knew you could go to the back. Well, sure enough, there were empty seats right behind the band, with a great view of the dance floor, and no line at the back bar! Score! We had a blast listening to the music and laughing at all the drunk people dancing.

Behind us you can see the band and the dance floor. Awesome seats!

From a different view: The stairs behind us lead to the back bar, and the exit in the alley. I'm so glad I know about this "secret" entrance! I'm sure it's not really a secret, but it was news to me!

We stayed out until almost 2am--crazy! So, of course we also had to stop and get hot dogs for the walk back to the hotel.

Side note: I was so hungry as soon as we walked out of the bar, but hadn't even said anything before Mark asked, "do you want to get a hot dog?" "YES!!" was my answer. Maybe this is why I think we make such good travel partners. Haha.

The next day we spent some time with Mark's family who lives outside of Nashville. His mom had just had surgery the week before, so we brought her some flowers and lunch, then headed to his sister's to see everyone. His sister, brother in law, and nephew joined us that evening in Nashville for dinner and drinks and more live music!

John, Lisa, John-John, me, and Mark

We at dinner at this awesome little place called Pinewood Social. It's a really fun kind of hipster place that has a vintage bowling alley along with an outdoor area with pools and yard games. They also have a cute little coffee shop area, and supposedly have really good coffee, but I didn't try any this time.

We decided to go with family style lobster mac and cheese and fried chicken! It was all so yummy. They also had fried broccoli, which you can barely see in the corner and it was SOOO good.

You can see the exposed brick behind us. I wish I would've taken a few more pictures--it was really cool decor. Kinda vintage modern.

John-John headed home after dinner (he's only 19) and the 4 of us ventured out for some live music. The first place we went was called Tin Roof and they had a really cool band with 3 sisters from Australia. They played a mix of pop and country, along with some 90s music. They were super fun!

We headed to a couple more bars, but I'm not sure which ones.

Hats and boots store: more proof we're in Nashville.

On our way home that night we walked by bar owned by Florida Georgia Line. Crazy long line. Look at all the d-bags waiting to get in. Haha. (I'm not the biggest FGL fan and I think those guys are smarmy). But, they're clearly making money.

Our last day in Nashville we hit up some more live music. We can't ever get enough. We are always looking for places in Dallas, but it seems like the live music most places doesn't start until around 9 or 10pm. It's awesome to be in a place where every venue literally has live music ALL day long.

Check out that healthy food!

I also tried a new local beer that I liked.

Our last night we went back to Tootsies, but got a seat in front of the band and surprisingly it wasn't as crowded. We had the dance floor to ourselves for quite awhile. So, another little tidbit. The bands in Nashville only make money off of tips--the bars don't pay them. So, they will all play any request immediately if you tip them $20. Unfortunately, Mark had had a few drinks, and had also just gone to the ATM, so I'm embarrassed to say how many requests the band played for us. Let's just say the band had a good night tip-wise. And we had a BLAST dancing all night long.