Nashville, Tennessee
Friday, April 29th - Monday, May 2nd
Hey Cool People!
Again, it has been a while since I have posted. It has also been a while since I have traveled. As a tax accountant, the last few months have been crazy, stress-filled days at the office working. The stress of work was amplified by some personal health issues and the death of my grandfather, so when my really good friend, Nolan, asked about taking a spontaneous trip to Nashville, my response was a quick and resounding YES!
Jessica, who I now talk to almost everyday, as she is one of the very few people who can relate to my never-dwindling wanderlust and evolving views of the world, invited herself on the trip. This is funny in a way because she invited herself to join in on my European backpacking adventure last summer. Her self-invitation was also quite convenient, since she had a friend, Shelbi, who was willing to host the three of us for the few days we were there.
Friday, April 29th could not have come quick enough for me. Nolan picked Jessica and I up and we arrived at General Mitchell International Airport (MKE) with heaps of time before our flight. In general fashion we decided to enjoy some apps and a stiff drink, cheering to the freakin' weekend.
We were scheduled to fly out of Milwaukee, with a connecting flight in Chicago's O'Hare, eventually landing in Nashville around 10:30 pm. Before our flight out of Milwaukee, we noticed that our connecting flight from Chicago to Nashville had been delayed by a half hour. This was not a big deal, since the time between our connection was short. When we landed in Chicago we found out our flight had been delayed further. Jessica and I went to the service desk to find out why and check our options. To make a long story short, storms down in Dallas were causing the delay. Nolan, Jessica and I decided to go to the bar while we continued to wait for our flight. We met a couple of guys who were waiting for the same flight. They were nice enough to buy us all a couple of drinks, so despite having to wait for our flight longer than expected, we were having a pretty good time. Well, around 10:30 pm our flight was finally cancelled; luckily they rescheduled a flight for the next day at 6:30 am, so we still would get into Nashville pretty early the next day.
The news of a cancelled flight meant that Nolan, Jessica and I were spending the night at O'Hare. This proved to be very interesting. Trying to find a comfortable spot to sleep was hard with the lights always on, the constant noise and the cleaning lady deciding to vacuum the floor right by your head as you attempt to sleep (I wasn't bitter at all). When 4 am came around and McDonald's opened ... this is going to be hard to say ... I was excited ... well excited at the prospect of coffee. After a long night on little sleep, we eventually boarded our plane and made our way to Nashville.
When we finally landed around 10:00 am, it was a big relief. Full of exhaustion, we got in our rental car and made it to our wonderful Shelbi's apartment. It was rejuvenating to take a nice shower and was the filth of O'Hare off of ourselves. Shelbi was such a gracious host as she prepared us lunch while we all got ready.
After lunch, we all set out to explore Nashville. Shelbi was relatively new to Nashville herself, so this was also a chance for her to familiarize herself with her new home. We made our way to Centennial Park where we could see The Parthenon, a full-size replica of the Greek landmark.. For Jessica and I, it was a bit of a blast from the past as we reminisced on our time in Athens, Greece when we got to see the real life Parthenon.
From Centennial Park we made our way to Broadway, where we immersed ourselves in the local tourist scene. Nolan was admit about buying bout, and there was no shortage of store options. It didn't take Nolan long to find a pair that fit him. We stopped at a few bars that afternoon, enjoyed a few drinks before, finally heading out to dinner.
We stopped at an English Pub for dinner, played some darts before making out way out to enjoy the nightlife. That night we decided to go out to check out the local gay scene. We made our way to Tribe. We stayed there for a little bit before heading to downtown Nashville to hit up some of the iconic bars. All I am going to say is; y'all will line dance to anything, like Rihanna came on and y'all line danced to that shit. It was a lot of fun though.
We started the next morning with the best meal of the day, BRUNCH! After brunch we took the short drive to Lynchburg to check out the Jack Daniels Distillery. We had kill about an hour before the next tour so we walked around the square in Lynchburg, did some shopping, had some ice cream and even ventured into a little winery for a little tasting. Now the Jack Daniels tour itself was very well done and very informative. We even got to sample 5 of the more popular brands.
That night we went to this cocktail lounge Shelbi had heard about called the Pinewood Social. If you ever make it to Nashville it is definitely worth checking out. It is a very laid back, social atmosphere with bowling, bocce ball, a hot tub, and some very creative drinks. Nolan had a friend who was now living in Nashville who decided to meet us at Pinewood Social. It was an extremely nice, laid back night socializing.
The next morning we were headed back to Milwaukee. Our flight home wasn't scheduled till later that afternoon, so Nolan, Jessica and I took our time getting ready that morning. Shelbi had left us to go to work, so in her absence we left her a night little thank you note for her kind hospitably. As part of ongoing humor, we hid a few penis drawings around her apartment. This was a little something to remind her of us after we are gone.
UPDATE: Shelbi has now found three drawings.
After we left Shelbi's apartment, Nolan, Jessica and I made our way to downtown Nashville for some breaky. We parked and ran through the rain to the little dinner Nolan found. For those of you who know me, I can have a very bubbly personality, so when our server, a cute old bitty, greeted us, I responded very cheery. Well, I think I throw her off because she asked, "Is that your real accent?" I was a little thrown off, but found it a little funny as, it me, she was the one with the accent. Anywho, I got me some chicken and waffle and needless-to-say I was happy.
It was raining, so after breakfast our options we a little limited as to what to do. We decided on a short bus ride around downtown, before making our way to the Bluebird cafe (it was closed) and later the mall to get out of the rain and kill some time before heading to airport.
Nashville was incredibly fun and much needed. I was so excited to be able to spend a weekend with some of my closest friend and fuel my desire to continue to travel.
