NASHVILLE TRIP 2023
Happy Monday ya’ll! Today, I am excited because I am finally recapping our Winter trip to Nashville. I had every intention of doing it last week when we got back but the return to normal day to day life kicked my butt harder than I thought it would and it truthfully took me a week to get my bearings. So, here we are!
Each year as the kids big Christmas gift, we take them on a trip. We started this in 2018 and there is no looking back, we all enjoy it so much. We head out after Christmas and spend the second half of schools winter break somewhere new. Which is our only requirement, it has to be a place we haven’t been to before because, there is so much to see and so many places our our bucket list.
Anyways, this year we chose Nashville because it was within driving distance for us from Florida and in driving distance for my Uncle and Grandpa from South Carolina since they were meeting us there. We left early to break up the trip and stayed 2 nights in a hotel in Franklin and then we stayed a week in Nashville in an AirBNB.
Lot’s of pictures today and then tomorrow, I am going to put together a list of my top places that I would recommend in Nashville especially if you are just going for a weekend.
First up, we spent 1.5 days in Franklin/Leiper’s Fork area and it was my fav. So many fun places to go and explore and the entire time we were there I just kept saying, I could totally see myself living there. We loved it!
In Franklin we hit up The Factory which had lots of little shops, Urban Sips (which was a must stop for me) and was just such a cool place to visit. It reminded me of a smaller version of The Chelsea Market in NYC. I love the variety of places all in one spot and the old charm set it over the edge in how much I loved it.
Urban Sips was 10/10…we freaking loved it! I got the Diet Coke with cream and it was so good and just as cute as I pictured it would be.
Another must stop place in The Factory was Five Daughters Bakery. These donuts were out of this world and I 100% cheated on my Gluten Free diet because, I love donuts so much and I couldn’t pass these up. The season suagr cookie one was my favorite but we loved them all. I recommend getting the mini’s which are still a great size so you can try a few. The regular size ones are huge!
Next up, we went to Downtown Franklin. I will spare you the 100 photos I took of this adorable downtown and all the fun stores but just believe me when I say…it is everything you would want in a little downtown and more!
We shopped, browsed around, went to the antique mall, popped into the popular hotel in downtown which is beautiful and just enjoyed soaking in a new place. It was a gloomy day and misty but we still enjoyed strolling around.
We were hungry for lunch so we decided to go back to The Factory and grab tacos at Mojo Tacos since it came highly recommended. The Nashville Hot Chicken Taco and the Spicy Pineapple Margarita were my personal fav.
After lunch we decided to head to the small town of Leiper’s Fork. And when I say small, it mean it is small. It is mostly country land with acres and acres of beautiful homes across the hills and seriously, we could have spent all day exploring. Justin Timberlake and a ton of other artists and famous people you probably know all have homes there and it was so easy to see why. We enjoyed live music, ice cream, drinks and a little shopping in the tiny downtown area.
The next day we headed up to our AirBNB and it wasn’t ready yet so we found a sports bar and watched the Bucs game because, duh! 😂 When we checked in we did all the stuff you do unpacking, grocery shopping, etc.
On Monday it was raining and gross so we wanted to do indoor stuff. We checked out a couple antique malls, went to the Gaylord to look at the Christmas decor and then went to Bass Pro which was huge. Joe had a gift card and wanted to grab a few things while we were close to one since the one here in Florida isn’t really close.
I didn’t realize that the Grand Ole Opry was basically in the parking lot of the mall where Bass Pro is. I don’t know why I thought it was closer to downtown Nashville but it was a fun surprise so Joe and I hopped out of the car to look around. We knew weren’t going to do a tour but I wanted to see it up close so we jumped out and poked around. The kids didn’t want to but it was fun for us!
My Grandpa cooked dinner for us that night (we all had different requests for him throughout the week on food we wanted him to make lol) so we headed home and the next day we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
We loved it…all 7 of us! We did the Hall of Fame and the RCA tour and I highly recommend doing both if you go, it is worth the extra money. We learned so much, had the best time signing country music, sitting at Elvis’ piano and taking in classic Nashville.
After the tours the girls and I talked the boys into driving to 12 South and grabbing donuts again 😂
Also just a random note, the boys in our life don’t like pictures which is why you won’t see a lot of them in them. I decided this trip I wasn’t going to force them into a 100 photos and instead, they agreed to do them without a fight when it was important. Like sitting where Elvis sat and recorded his most iconic songs!
After that the rest of the week kind of blurred all together. We had planned some time in the city and some time to be home at the AirBNB to just relax and rest but, spoiler alert we fell in love with Nashville and couldn’t sit home.
The shopping was amazing.
The honky tonks stole our heart.
The girls learned to line dance.
The kids all walked away with new cowboy boots and hats.
The food and the drinks were top notch.
We just loved everything about Nashville so everyday we found ourselves back on Music Row no matter if we relaxed in the morning or checked out a different part of town.
We made our way around all of the Nashville neighborhoods and there is so much to see and do. We spent 10 days there and we didn’t check everything off our list so it is safe to say that we will be back! Nashville stole our hearts and we can’t wait to return!
