Nashville

Over the Labor Day weekend, I ventured over to Franklin and Nashville, TN for the first time with my sister, Kate, and best friend, Laura. All I can say is, if you have not been there, don’t walk – run. After my experience, can I just move there…Yo, anyone hiring in Franklin?

Kate, Laura, and I currently live the farthest apart that we have ever lived. Kate lives in the Memphis area, Laura’s in Texas, and I’m in Central Mississippi. The three of us have been the best of friends for 20 years, so now, more than ever, it is important to us to get time together. This weekend was our inaugural girls’ trip, and I deem it a success!

For this trip, we stayed in and AirBnB in Franklin, TN. This was definitely the way to go, as we brought my 9 month old niece along, and it gave us the freedom of being in a house. Also, instead of having to drop a few hundred dollars on a hotel room, between the three of us, we only paid about $80 each for 3 days/2 nights. Moral of the story, AirBnB = success.

The theme of this trip was window shopping and food. For the first night, we hit Main Street, in Franklin, and just enjoyed walking around and taking in the local flare. The shops on Main Street are absolutely adorable. (I highly recommend Philanthropy for all your bohemian goddess fashion needs — I want everything in my size). We then went to Puckett’s. Yall. Do you love fried chicken? Do you love waffles? Well then, you MUST go here! Then, as the old lady 25 year olds we are, we spent the rest of the evening piled on the bed slumber party style watching Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, because we are properly obsessed.

For our only full day in Nashville, we hit the Grilled Cheeserie. Once again, an option that can’t go wrong. The restaurant is definitely quite popular because there was a line that stretched all the way into the adjoining restaurant. How can you go wrong with grilled cheese, though? The sandwich that I landed on was a “Build you own”, where I went with sourdough bread, peperjack cheese, and cajun grilled chicken. Oh my word, yum. I would give it 4.5 stars our of 5, and the .5 star off is simply because of the college kids who took the last table.

After the grilled cheese, I had to get my glasses adjusted (nerd alert), so I swung by Warby Parker, who has excellent customer service, by the way. Let me know if you would like a post about my full Warby Parker at home try-on through purchasing glasses experience!

 

After piddling around a little bit, we headed over to meet another one of our childhood friends at Five Daughter’s Bakery. From now on, just consider me a FDB evangelist. Mississippi needs one of these desperately! The little shop is so cute, and the doughnuts are delicious. They are specialty, and once they are gone, they’re gone, it’s time to close up shop. I don’t remember what the name of what I ordered was (smooth move Anna), but it was pretty much a ginormous orange cinnamon roll. The best part of this stop was that we got to see our friend Eleanor! There is something so special about being able to go and see and do, then get to see people that you have known for years and years, but have geographical distance between. Familiar faces are so sweet to see!

Then, as we had not had enough food already, we and Pie 5 Pizza. This is, actually a chain restaurant, but hey — we were tired & it was good!

Conclusion: This weekend’s trip to Nashville was super chill. We did not have any agenda except to a) not be at home and b) relax, so we had a great time! After the weekend that we had, we definitely want to venture back soon and do some hardcore touristy stuff.

What are some things that you recommend doing in Nashville the second go-round? I am definitely planning on making my way up there again in the next few months. I had no clue what to expect going up there for the first town, so I’m ready to paint the town red with the next trip….comment below (or on my instagram @anna0simpson ;P) and let me know!

— Anna