As we headed north through Tennessee, we definitely wanted to stop and see Nashville. Anytime we make a first visit to a large town, we try to take a city tour as our first point of business. The Old Town Trolley Tour gave us a 90-minute overview of Nashville’s most popular sights like Music City Walk of Fame, the state capital, and many music-related museums. The guides are informative and give you many interesting tidbits about the city, its history, and its people. Afterwards you can pick and choose which places you want to visit or have time to go to.
After our tour, we took advantage of a sunny day to walk around downtown. It was fun to stroll on Broadway Street where honky tonks offer free live music 365 days a year–many with doors and windows open for everyone’s enjoyment. Nashville is a city where music is written, recorded, and performed every single day. With more than 180 music venues around town, it’s easy to see why this town earned the name Music City.
In addition to music, there are many shops and restaurants to enjoy in Nashville. We had to taste hot chicken at Hattie B’s, a famous local establishment where the fried chicken comes in flavors ranging from mild to damn hot to shut the cluck up! We also just happened to discover The Legendary Milkshake Bar, which was basically heaven in a glass. The whole place is dedicated to milkshakes of legendary proportion and, yes, they were as good as they look.
I don’t think you can really say you’ve experienced Nashville if you don’t visit one of the many music-oriented attractions. There are numerous options to choose from: museums, studios, auditoriums, and arenas. Due to our time constraints, we picked the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry.
The Hall of Fame is a huge collection of all things country music with over 2.5 million artifacts, including more than 800 stage costumes and 600 instruments. Two stories of exhibits serve to document and preserve the history and traditions of country music from the early days to current times.
The Hall of Fame rotunda honors the legends who helped shape America’s music. So far, 142 musicians have been given country music’s highest honor. We enjoyed reading the plaques of some of our favorite country artists.
Next up was the Grand Ole Opry where one of my favorite things was the Backstage Tour. Our guide was full of interesting facts and stories as she led us past the stars’ dressing rooms, explaining the different themes and decorations. Our group walked hallways filled with pictures of famous performers and saw the mailboxes where they get fan mail. We also saw the backstage area and the stage where the show Hee Haw was filmed.
The tour concludes with a walk to the revered wooden circle on the stage itself — where only invited performers get to stand. This circle is an actual piece of the stage from the Ryman Auditorium, which was the original home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974.
Later that day we attended a performance at the Opry—actually their first full house performance with the lifting of Covid-19 mask restrictions. It was fun to be in the audience on what was a very special time for the performers. Each one was so appreciative to be back on stage with live fans to cheer them on after 14 months of restrictions. We saw veteran country music stars and some up-and-coming talent as well. Our night’s star attraction was the Oak Ridge Boys who did not disappoint.
We also spent a day getting out of the city and into nature. We drove about an hour east of Nashville to Silver Point so that we could spend a few hours kayaking. The Canoe the Caney staff was very accommodating and offered a variety of trip options to choose from. We spent a relaxing few hours on the Caney River where we spotted many herons and a few deer along our 9-mile paddle trip. It was a fun and peaceful way to end our time in Tennessee.
Another great travel log. We are planning to travel later to Kalispell Mt this summer (near Glacier National Park). We will look forward to your blog about it. One of our grandsons works for the Forestry Service there.
Hi David & Carol,
We are at Glacier now! Everything is so beautiful here and I bet Kalispell is equally so. I hope you enjoy your travels this summer and getting to visit with your grandson.😀
Loved your write up on Nashville and the pictures! I’m sure you know more about Nashville now than I do! The real question is…did you finish the milkshakes??? Looks like a great visit, ending with your kayak adventure! Love you both!
Hi Susan,
We enjoyed our few days in Nashville–wish we had had time to come to Knoxville again. Tennessee is such a beautiful place. That’s funny that you should ask about the milkshakes. It was the first one in my life that I couldn’t totally finish! We had them for our lunch that day and I wasn’t even hungry for dinner. lol Much love to you and hope you are well.
Love your blogs. We are in Nashville now!!! Planning on finding the Trolley Tour. 😀. We brought the Bs with us!
Hi Jacki,
How cool that you are there in Nashville now! We love the trolley tours and I bet they are doing the Hop-on Hop-off feature again now. They had stopped the off and on part because of Covid-19 restrictions, so ours was just a stay-on tour but still informative. Definitely try the hot chicken and those milkshakes if you get a chance. I wish we had had more time there–I would have loved to go in the capital building and maybe do the record studio tour as well. So many fun things to do there–enjoy!
Love, love, love Nashville, but somehow missed the milkshake place. Those look incredible and might require a quick return visit. LOL. We were so impressed by the County Hall of Fame, and I can only imagine how cool it was to be in the first full audience at the Opry. What a great night that must have been. Glad you enjoyed your visit.
Hi Laura,
I enjoyed reading about your visits to Nashville as well and appreciate the tips you provide. We didn’t see any woo-woo girls during our visit, but knew we needed to try the hot chicken! We just happened upon the milkshake place when I opened Google Maps and it caught my eye–must have been destiny, for sure! The Grand Ole Opry was definitely a special treat😀
Wow big fun in Nashville. I would have to visit Hattie B’s for sure and those milkshakes look beyond delicious! Love seeing the exterior of the Country Music Hall of Fame, so very cool. I spent a great deal of time in Nashville while traveling for work but never went to see the Grand Ole Opry but now I have thanks to this post. The Gaylord Opryland Resort was close to my hotel and it is spectacular at Christmas time. Once again thanks for sharing these great RV adventures. 🙂
Hi Sandi,
I didn’t realize you had done so much traveling with your work. You will definitely have to go back to Nashville for that chicken and the milkshakes! We have a Gaylord hotel in the Dallas area that does an amazing display at Christmas too.
Nashville looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing your impressions.
We just had a quick visit, but did enjoy our time in Nashville. You could fill many days just with all of the music options and history!