Nashville

Many moons ago, I attended photography conferences in Las Vegas. The trips were so inspiring - from the conference presenters to the friends I enjoyed the experiences with. We decided 2015 was a year for a reunion and choose a weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. We traveled lightly - despite having about 8 professional cameras among us, we only used our phones to document our trip.

I woke at 3 am and drove through the snow in Denver to the airport. I felt like I was landing in Ireland. We were not in a high desert anymore.

First stop - airport coffee.  Second stop - Biscuit Love. Yum. 

After breakfast, we decided to walk around 12South.

We loved seeing how many old gas stations had been converted into shops/restaurants. 

Lots of window shopping and pre-recall Jeni's Ice Cream (delicious)!

One of my friend's is a big fan of the show Nashville. We tried to get tickets to the Bluebird Cafe (which is featured on the show), but they sold out in three minutes. So, we quickly checked into our hotel and headed over to wait in line. We got in line about 4 pm & there were 20 people ahead of us. 

This experience was exactly what I expected from Nashville. A small casual bar with excellent musicians and songwriters. 

We only had one night to go downtown so, despite being tired, we decided to extend our night. We were not prepared for the energy & amount of people walking about. All the bars were standing room only with live music (mostly cover bands). The streets were also full of people of all ages.

Day 2 started with a trip to Franklin. Cute shopping and fabulous food.

After lunch, we returned to Nashville for a tour of the famous Ryman Theater. 

Next visit, a concert at the Ryman will be a priority. 

When the weather is nice, downtown Nashville is buzzing.

We spent some time shopping for boots and then we were off to the Grand Ole Opry.

At this point, our weather luck ran out. We got drenched walking into the Opry. But, we loved the experience. 2 songs per artist. The evening ended with Crystal Gayle - sounding and looking as lovely as ever.

We capped our Nashville experience with a back stage tour of the Opry. What a great taste of the city - I can't wait to return!