Nashville!

I always tell Brad that if we suddenly decide to up and leave our small town that I want to move South, and I want to move to Nashville. I think it's the perfect mix of country and city, with all the country music and Southern charm, and yet still has the big city feel to it.

Anyway, we're spending a few days after Thanksgiving with my family in eastern Tennessee, in the mountains, but Brad and I are taking a mini-mini vacation to Nashville beforehand. I've got my planning hat on!

First thing - whenever I travel, doesn't matter where I'm going, I always check Trip Advisor. Pretty much any town in America is going to some kind of reviews, broken down by hotels, restaurants, and things to do. I always check to see what the Top 10 is for whatever destination I'm going to in each category. When I pulled up Nashville, the number 1 rated hotel is the Hermitage. Beautiful, amazing, historic hotel right in downtown Nashville, but also almost $200 to stay there for one night. In this instance, the hotel I ended up booking for us was a little lower (not rated as high), but I've stayed there before and loved it then. The hotel I booked was the Gaylord Opryland hotel, which is a massive hotel in Nashville - two main reasons I booked it:

- It will be decorated to the HILT for Christmas and we'll be there the day after. Talk about getting in the spirit!

- There's a million things to do inside the hotel

The other thing I want to do when I'm there is visit Belle Mead Plantation. Again, it will be decorated for Christmas and I think the tour discusses the family's Christmas traditions? fyi, I LOVE touring old homes. Here's a picture of the plantation:

Another thing Brad and I will want to do is visit downtown Nashville, especially at night to experience the "honkytonk" bars and live music. We've always talked about how fun it would be to go to Nashville with all our friends...maybe someday?? Anyway, I want to visit this bar, called Layla's Bluegrass Inn. Doesn't it look so fun??

And finally, just spend some time wandering the streets of the city. We're only going to be there for a day and a half so we won't have much time...but I'm planning on making the most of it!