Check out our day to day adventures after the photos below.
Day 1:
We flew in to Atlanta and my roommate Steph's brother came to pick us up at the airport (huge thank you to him!). We made our way to Marietta, GA, our home for the night. We found our way to Johnnie MacCrackens Celtic Pub which had an awesome small town feel and live music. We had some brews and laughs. Especially when after asking where we were from, the waitress blindly stared at us when we asked for ketchup and said "we don't have that here". We appreciated the mockery and joke:)
Day 2:
We spent some of the morning wandering the town of Marietta, GA and taking photos. And eventually made our way on the 3 hour path to Nashville. We stopped in Chattanooga, TN at the Stone Cup Cafe for some lunch, and a pretty walk across the bridge.
Once we arrived in Nashville we made our way to the Parthenon-super bizarre. I'm OK with it since I never made my way to the real one when I was in Europe in college. The full-scale replica was made for the 1897 Centennial Exposition. Next we hit up Yazoo Brewing Company for, yet again, more beer. Burger Up was on the docket for dinner and it was easily one of the best meals of the trip...and let me tell you...we ate our WAY through Nashville. The turkey burger and fried pickles --> perfection. That night, our goal was to keep it low-key and have a cocktail at The Patterson House. The wait was extra long, and we were told to stop by later that night to see if it slowed down. We never made our way back, but we heard excellent things about it, and wish we had another night to go back-so check it out if you're ever in town. We weren't really sure where to go from there, but just crossed the street to the next bar, The Red Door Saloon and found lots of adventure. A friend from college who moved to the city a few years ago stopped by which was fantastic. Eventually we met a group of new friends, who from that point on, made sure our hand was always full. They brought us down the strip, which ended up being a pretty "local" spot. We stopped at Reba's {a new appreciation for this bar, the website slogan happens to be "where the girls find the studs and nail 'em"...thank you Tennessee} for a Nashville original drink called Bushwacker - a frosty like chocolate drink with many kinds of booze. The rumor is from my fellow travel mates - delicious. Next door we went to Loser's {not to be confused with Winner's next door} for some live music.
Let's just get one thing out there right now. The rumors about the amazing live music in Nashville. Its' no exaggeration. It is...amazing.
After that, our new friends convinced us to cab our way to Broadway street. Our friends lead us to the back door of Tootsies. A magical place filled with numerous levels of dancing and singing and talent and beer and beautiful memories. Uff da...so good. Needless to say, we had a really wonderful night in downtown Nashville.
Day 3:
We started our morning at Fido, for quite literally one of the best breakfasts I've ever had. Steak scramble...do it. We met up with an old friend of the other gals and she brought us to the Belmont University for a little tour. Bongo Java was next - super cute coffee shop and I got my first southern popsicle - Paleta. I should have had one with every meal. Twas delicious! One of my favorite parts about Nashville, is how a lot of the trendy shops are built in residential houses, so the businesses blend in with the houses. Bongo Java and the surrounding businesses were just like that. Some of the cool neighborhoods are Belmont, 5 points and East Nashville. We made some random little stops like Wonders on Woodland, the Marathon Building, The Bang Candy Company and Antique Archeology {none of these were crazy awesome, but the building was cool - and we found the awesome Nashville mural from below}. The next stop was Pinewood Social, which we quickly learned is Nashville's hipster central - but beyond that a seriously fantastic little place. PLUS it's a bowling alley. We stopped just for a beer, and to soak in the beautiful design of this cool place. For dinner, I had been really excited to check out Mas Tacos. We were all looking forward to it, and so were sad to learn that they had closed after lunch that day, and wouldn't reopen before we left. But they still let us use their bathroom! Please make a stop there if you're ever in town, it looked amazing. Instead we headed to PM, in the Bongo Java area again, which had really good asian inspired food. That night out we hit up Rippy's, another must-see bar on Broadway. More fantastic live music and a lively crowd. We went to Wild Horse Saloon for line dancing, which was pretty cheesy, but I quickly learned that going up to the front row to learn the dances was the best thing ever. I just really liked that. We capped out the night at Paradise for even more amazing live music {and really sticky floors and drunk college students}.
Day 4:
Our last day we started at Frothy Monkey, which had amazing coffee, a super cute design and even better service. We wandered around Broadway street - way different in the daylight that's for sure - to seek out some magnets and such. We found Hatch Show Print {one of my favorite spots we found}, which was a super great letterpress shop. We checked out the Country Music Hall of Fame...or the lobby. Since we're cheap and it was the end of our trip so we couldn't part with the twenty something cost. One thing we wished we would have done was see the Grand Ole Opry, next time! We stopped at a candy shop and I bought some flavored crickets. As a joke. But now It's decided I have to dry them since I bought them. Crap.
On our way back to Georgia, we stopped at Rock City, which can only be described as an odd little tourist trap. But an entertaining one! There were lots of rocks, and creepy gnomes, and a cool view that provided a view of 7 different states. It was also an irish fest, so score, bagpipes! In our googling adventure to find a traditional southern style meal, we stumble upon the best scenario of that exact thing, ever. Bea's. There's a video on the website if you want a true representation of the awesomeness that this place entailed. Complete with southern accents, family style tables, a spinning display of endless {no exaggeration, endless, as in they bring a new bowl of food before the first bowl is even empty}, sweet tea that is far more sweet then tea, delicious rolls that are more yellow the white {which I will happily assume is due to the vat of butter they are dipped in}, and many more beautiful things.
Once in Atlanta we wandered around downtown and found the Sun Dial Lounge, which provided a rotating view of the city 723 feet up. Really neat.
Day 5: On our last day we went for a hike nearby Kennesaw Mountain Trail. Which was a super nice change of scenery. The rest of the day we hung out downtown Atlanta, mostly soaking in as much sunshine as possible. It wasn't crazy warm, but you can't argue with vitamin D no matter what the temperature.
Such a genuinely fantastic trip. We kept going and going, and barely slept. But what is it the kids say, YOLO? Would definitely go back to the South.
Happy sighs.
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