Nashville Travel Guide

Nashville is a great place to visit. Even if you're not a country music fan, you can find plenty to do and see during your time in the city. It's a great weekend excursion, though I'm not sure you could make a whole week out of the city, unless you plan on really exploring the area around the city.

I was impressed with the laid-back feel to the city. My first trip to the city found me staying at a retreat center, Scarritt Bennett Center, close to the campus of Vanderbilt University. That area really scratched my itch, as it has sort of an old, historic feel because of the beautiful buildings, mixed with a college vibe, with some organic, locally-grown food thrown in for spice.

Since Nashville is the capital of Tennessee, there is plenty to see and be a part of for the history buff:

There is more than enough to tickle your fancy with music. I was impressed that country music is just part of the Nashville scene. Much has been done there outside of country music. But country music does dominate:

While we did not actually take in the Grand Ole Opry or any other major country music sight, we have been to the Bluebird Cafe a number of times. Since I have already mentioned it in a previous post, I won't go into length here about it. But it is a really cool place:

Regardless of your musical taste, you really need to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Even if you are not a fan of the twang of a country music ballad, the slide guitar of a honky tonk, or the sad feeling of a tear in your beer, this place is very interesting:

I could write multiple reviews about the food. I won't bore you with all the details. So let me just list a few places that I would highly recommend you check out: Pancake Pantry, Fido's, and Donut Den.

Take a drive, walk, or ride up and down 16th & 17th Avenues, otherwise known as Music Rows. Recording houses and the meccas of music line these beautiful streets.

I wouldn't say Nashville should be on your list of places you absolutely must see. But, if you happen to be in that part of the country or can somehow make it there for a few days, by all means, do it.

Too Much of a Good Thing

There really can be too much of a good thing.

When I travel, I find all sorts of things that I enjoy. Something I have learned (about myself, really) through my travels is that I tend to want to gravitate towards what I enjoy, over and over again. For instance . . .

The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennesse is a wonderful place. I came across it during my first visit to the city while at a conference. A number of conference-go'ers and I went to a concert there one night; and I was immediately hooked. The place brings in artists, many of them well-known, and does very small, intimate concerts. I had always longed to go to a place like this. I'm not really all that big a fan of enjoying concert music with thousands of my closest friends. This was the antedote I had been looking for for years.

I was so hooked that when my wife got to town a couple of days later, I drug her (she wanted to go, too, though) back to the Bluebird. Then we went again the next night.

The place frankly lost some its luster by the third visit. That was not the place's fault. That was my fault. I enjoyed it once. Great. I went back again. Okay, that's enough. But a third time? That is simply wasting time while travelling to a place with so many great sites.

My wife and I have been back again; and we enjoyed it very much. But I learned a valuable lesson during my first trip. Finding something you enjoy, particularly while travelling, is great. But beating it into the ground by trying to squeeze all the enjoyment that you can out of it . . . well, it's just a little silly . . . because you really can get too much of a good thing.

Borders

I have always been fascinated by borders between countries, states, etc. It may be due to spending my childhood in the center of a state that is large enough to be considered a country in most areas of the world. Because of this, I rarely crossed into another state. So when I did, it was pretty remarkable.

While living in Georgia, we crossed state lines many times. In fact, we lived so close to the Alabama border that our cell phones were often confused which time zone it was in. On one day trip, I came across a restaurant that actually has a state line running right through the middle of it:

I remember the food being not all that tasty. But I also remember being able to almost straddle the state line while using the restroom.

State lines are interesting.