A couple weeks ago we sat around and decided the find a cheap flight for a Labor Day trip likely was not the best tactic since we're watching our pennies a bit through transitioning into having a full-time student (Mike) and our move to St. Louis. We just want things to balance out a bit before we start spending.
So we had been taking an informal poll from people we talked to: Nashville or Memphis. (Both a reasonable drive from St. Louis.) It was actually really close! We decided on Nashville for this trip, but I'm sure we'll make our way to Memphis at some point.
I clicked around on hotels.com and hotwire because this is a budget trip after all! We ended up getting a great deal on a 4-star hotel downtown that we were really excited about: 21c Museum Hotel. Two floors of the hotel are a museum!
When I had a spare moment I started looking for places for us to visit in our 2 night, 3 day stay. I knew right away I wanted to go to Hatch Show Print. I had it on my list when I was there for a work trip a couple years ago and didn't make it. We splurged on a tour there.
Then I started checking out AirBnb recommendations. I hadn't thought of this before, but one of my friends was planning his and his husband's (hey Justin & Jason!) trip through Spain and kept clicking through AirBnb lists. This did not disappoint. I ended up mostly referencing a hostel's list (#1 budget trip #2 who better to know the real local spots) but I did look through recommendations as a whole. I found quite a few on an AirBnb host's in East Nashville.
I had something of a list and I knew (as is typical for trips Mike & I) we kind-of figure it out when we get there.
We ended up doing a lot of walking around downtown (we found street parking to save on the garage price and therefore didn't want to move our car). Ha! And if you've been to Nashville before, you know Broadway can be quite the scene, while still being laid back. Rooftops, rooftops everywhere!
Once we got our car and made our way out of downtown, we spent several hours at the Lane Car Museum, which was interesting and Mike really enjoyed it. We checked out an antique mall and stopped by Tennessee Brew Works on our way out of town.
We tried their Bushwacker drink, which is essentially rum, rum, liqueur, chocolate milk, and condensed milk. Yes, the rum is supposed to be listed twice. As we were leaving this bar one of the other patrons approached us to ask where we're from. I stumbled through the question a bit during the trip until I heard Mike answer, "We recently moved to St. Louis from Chicago." I guess their group was trying to guess where we were from. I've heard of guessing what date the couple near you may be on, but I haven't heard of this game before. He said they guessed Brooklyn. Then he said, "How recently did you move to St. Louis?" (Very serious it seems.) "This week." He said, "Okay, so essentially Chicago." We left, Mike accidentally left the prints we made in our Hatch Show tour behind and once we were a half mile away, I noticed and we essentially sprinted back...
We were able to check out a couple amazing coffee shops: Crema and Barista Parlor. I think we'd both agree we liked Barista Parlor a bit better (I guess it's on a list as one of the best coffee shops in the world). It was fun to try the Cuban at Crema though.
We thought we might treat ourselves to a nice dinner one night as a celebration and although that didn't end up happening, I did have my favorite meal (very vegetarian friendly) at Acme Feed and Seed. Yum! I also had some solid tacos at mas tacos por favor. Their tortillas were amazing.
There was a big, free music festival downtown. Sunday night we decided to grab food from the food trucks they had set-up. As we were walking back through the festival to make our way to a bar Mike asked, "Is this a cover band?" Nope. It was Sheryl Crow. At a free festival. Because it's Nashville.
Oh and we stopped for this on the way home.
So we had been taking an informal poll from people we talked to: Nashville or Memphis. (Both a reasonable drive from St. Louis.) It was actually really close! We decided on Nashville for this trip, but I'm sure we'll make our way to Memphis at some point.
I clicked around on hotels.com and hotwire because this is a budget trip after all! We ended up getting a great deal on a 4-star hotel downtown that we were really excited about: 21c Museum Hotel. Two floors of the hotel are a museum!
When I had a spare moment I started looking for places for us to visit in our 2 night, 3 day stay. I knew right away I wanted to go to Hatch Show Print. I had it on my list when I was there for a work trip a couple years ago and didn't make it. We splurged on a tour there.
Then I started checking out AirBnb recommendations. I hadn't thought of this before, but one of my friends was planning his and his husband's (hey Justin & Jason!) trip through Spain and kept clicking through AirBnb lists. This did not disappoint. I ended up mostly referencing a hostel's list (#1 budget trip #2 who better to know the real local spots) but I did look through recommendations as a whole. I found quite a few on an AirBnb host's in East Nashville.
I had something of a list and I knew (as is typical for trips Mike & I) we kind-of figure it out when we get there.
We ended up doing a lot of walking around downtown (we found street parking to save on the garage price and therefore didn't want to move our car). Ha! And if you've been to Nashville before, you know Broadway can be quite the scene, while still being laid back. Rooftops, rooftops everywhere!
Once we got our car and made our way out of downtown, we spent several hours at the Lane Car Museum, which was interesting and Mike really enjoyed it. We checked out an antique mall and stopped by Tennessee Brew Works on our way out of town.
We tried their Bushwacker drink, which is essentially rum, rum, liqueur, chocolate milk, and condensed milk. Yes, the rum is supposed to be listed twice. As we were leaving this bar one of the other patrons approached us to ask where we're from. I stumbled through the question a bit during the trip until I heard Mike answer, "We recently moved to St. Louis from Chicago." I guess their group was trying to guess where we were from. I've heard of guessing what date the couple near you may be on, but I haven't heard of this game before. He said they guessed Brooklyn. Then he said, "How recently did you move to St. Louis?" (Very serious it seems.) "This week." He said, "Okay, so essentially Chicago." We left, Mike accidentally left the prints we made in our Hatch Show tour behind and once we were a half mile away, I noticed and we essentially sprinted back...
There was a big, free music festival downtown. Sunday night we decided to grab food from the food trucks they had set-up. As we were walking back through the festival to make our way to a bar Mike asked, "Is this a cover band?" Nope. It was Sheryl Crow. At a free festival. Because it's Nashville.
Oh and we stopped for this on the way home.
Looks like a fun trip!!
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