Tennessee 2024

I’ve been very excited to share with you my adventures of my last (and most recent) trip to TN!

I was nervous to fly on my own for a girls/family trip but really wanted to make it happen. So, I got over my fears of not having my husband around and decided to do the darn thing.

Thank goodness I flew out of Long Beach (vs LAX). I’ve never flown out of Long Beach and had no idea it was soooo small. I really liked the easy access and the fact that it felt like there were less people in the airport. & It was lucky that I had lovely women sitting next to me on the way to BNA & the service on the plane was great! Getting out to the right exit of BNA was another story but after roaming around the airport for some time, I got my first taste of southern hospitality. Then, finally, I was reunited to a good friend (someone I consider my best friend /sister) and almost cried. The time for us to spend time had finally come!

During this trip, I had so much great food, saw wonderful landmarks, learned about some of the history in the area and felt so lucky to try/see such different places.

The first thing we did was celebrate our reunion at an AMAZING Mexican place called Bartaco. I know, Mexican food in TN?! But it was so fantastic, I highly recommend going there if you ever find yourself in the area. After, we enjoyed ice cream at Jeni’s Splended Ice Creams.

The next day, after seeing the salon she works at (which, if you need a hairdresser out there, go to her! I’m happy to forward her booking information), we went to a little well-known hole in the wall eatery and shopped around in downtown. The shopping is great! Loved the variety of options out there, I didn’t feel like I was stepping into the same store during my entire trip.

After pampering our selves to the best manicures ever, we got ready to go to dinner and met a lovely waitress (she had such a good head on her shoulders, the sweetest!). After dinner, we to hit Broadway! Man, people were calling it “NashVegas” and they weren’t wrong… Despite the fact that it the weather was dropping from 35 degrees, there were bachelorette parties and people without jackets lining the streets to the various bands each bar/restaurant had playing at their venue that night. I never go out on a Saturday night(not like that anymore) and we found ourselves lost in the music and good company. You can spend an hour watching a good band at a bar and not realize how much time had passed. If you’ve never experienced anything like this before, you have to go the next time you visit Nashville.

The next few days were filled with small town exploration, shopping, fantastic coffee and tons of great company! Everyone I had met in TN were so beyond sweet and genuinely cared about you. It was a little off-putting at first being that our culture is different than the southern hospitality that you immediately feel. But eventually, it felt normal.

There is a wonderful clothing shop we went to called Woven that had gorgeous pieces! To me, their clothing is high quality and give a variety or basics + fresh pieces you can wear everyday. They have an online website, I highly recommend checking them out > https://wearwoven.co/ .

I think my favorite part of this half of the trip was that I got to spend time with my bestie and her loved ones while enjoying the nature TN had to offer. All the shopping and sight seeing was fantastic, however, my favorite parts of the trip were the heartfelt ones.

The second part of my trip was to spend time with my brother. He lives in what I would call country. It was really cool to see that you can be so close and so far to what is available in TN. We went to downtown Nashville to eat a late breakfast at a place called Milk & Honey that had AMAZING waffles, like, some of the best waffles I ever had! We then, walked off our waffles by walking around downtown for a little bit before heading over to our next destination.

After breakfast, we went to a museum near by called the Parthenon, which is a replica of the Parthenon in Greece, that was created in TN to attract tourists to the city back in the early 1900s. It was originally created as a temporary attraction but had became so valuable to the community, the city decided to reconstruct it as a permanent structure (that took 10 years during the great depression). They also had models of how the Parthenon was build, both in Greece and TN, and they had modern art along with art that was donated by an artist in it’s early years that gave the pieces to museum under the condition that the art would have a permanent home there. There was so much more to see but I figured I could see the rest next time I’m there.

It was so nice to spend some 1-on-1 time with my brother. Our adventure came to an end as we realized traffic hour was near so we headed back to his new home town. There, you can find a small downtown with a little bit of everything you may need. It doesn’t have a ton of variety but it has what you need.

After, we got settled at his house and headed out to a nice dinner with my sister in law. We had wonderful pizza along with a chicken sandwich split between my sister law and I. After, we enjoyed custard ice cream, it was first time trying it and man, it was so dreamy! I can’t wait to have that again!

The next day, we went to a place in Nashville called the Buttermilk Ranch. There food was soo good and the service was great!

It was a bittersweet meal with my brother and his family as we knew after our incredible meal was over, we would be heading to the airport, concluding my trip with loved ones.

Don’t worry, I’m not moving to Tennessee. But I will be taking more trips to go there now. I loved it there and feel like it has a special place in my heart now. This trip was what my soul needed right now.