Nashville with some Locals

I'm lucky in that I have friends who live all over the world, and of course plenty of them live in amazing places here in the States--Orlando, Chicago, Boston and of course Nashville...to name just a few.

So back in 2009 when I found myself with a couple extra vacation days that wouldn't carry over, I asked around and my good friend Katherine and her boyfriend Ron said they would be happy to have me visit. At this point I hadn't been to Nashville in nearly 10 years, so I jumped at the chance for a second experience with Music City!

Now, I was only in Nashville for two nights...and it was December. It pretty much poured the entire time I was there, but we made the best of it! Upon my arrival Katherine and Ron surprised me--as a birthday present, they were taking me to Zanie's to see Rob Schneider! We arrived a little late and didn't have the greatest seats, but Zanie's is a pretty intimate little club so that wasn't a big deal. Rob Schneider was a lot more amusing in person than I would have assumed and after the show we even got to meet and take pictures with him, which was really neat.

Waterfront decorated for Christmas

After the show we went down to the Broadway area for drinks. Hard Rock Cafe had just re-opened after a major overhaul, so we checked that out and stopped at Hooters as well before calling it a [somewhat] early night.

As I already mentioned, unfortunately the weather was terrible and because of that the next day was a fairly lazy one. We eventually dragged ourselves downtown, though, to check out the Country Music Hall of Fame and do some souvenir shopping on Broadway.

Country Music Hall of Fame

The Country Music Hall of Fame was actually a lot more interesting than I had expected, and in fact because we didn't arrive until about two hours before it closed we ended up having to rush through or outright skip a few of the exhibits. I will say that if you're one of those people who is anti-country-music, this probably isn't your kind of place...but I'm glad that I checked it out and I definitely suggest it to those who want to really see Nashville's country music side ;o)

After the Country Music Hall of Fame we tried to hit up Broadway for some shopping, food and drinks, but again the rain was just not helping things. Needless to say, I may not return to Nashville in December of all months, but what can you do? After braving the torrential downpours for a little while we made our way to the Opry Mills Mall. Unfortunately the mall was hit pretty hard by Nashville's floods last year and has yet to re-open...sad, because I really wanted to check it out again/spend some more time there on our upcoming Nashville trip! I guess I'll just have to stick to the dozens of other Nashville sites that I've yet to see...because even after two trips there I still don't feel as if I've really gotten a taste for this town :o)