Haley's Adventures in Nashville
I spent the past weekend exploring the city of Nashville and getting swallowed up by all the music, coffee shops, and sights that it has to offer with my friend Victoria Sheffield. We got to watch Thomas Rhett preform on his “Home Team” tour right in the heart of country music city, taste THE BEST coffee that The Frothy Monkey has to offer, and stroll the streets of 12th Avenue South with the cutest boutiques.
The start of the trip was the concert at Ascend Amphitheatre where Thomas Rhett, Kelsea Ballerini, Russell Dickerson, and Ryan Hurd took the stage playing all their hits. We were dressed to impress in our sundresses and cowboy boots ready for a night of good drinks, good music, and good weather. Everything was great except that the amphitheater was outdoors and it did rain throughout the concert.
It didn’t slow us down a bit…even though we were soaking wet and freezing in our insubstantial ponchos. It didn’t stop of from swaying to the music and screaming out songs lyrics to the top of our lungs. At the end of the night we looked a lot like wet rats in cowboy boots but had the biggest smiles on our faces as we hummed the songs on the way to the back to the hotel around 1:00am.
The next morning the rain continued to fall so we stuck our umbrellas in our bags and took to the town to grab some brunch and see what there was to be seen. We ended up on 12th Avenue South where we stumbled into the Frothy Monkey coffee shop. It was a small and quaint building with a rustic feel. The line was out the door so we hesitated going in but the smell of coffee and breakfast sandwiches made it impossible to leave. We waited in line and ordered a “Monkey Mocha” and a “Turtle Latte” and two omelets with toast. The smoky taste of the coffee with the cute little leaf designs in the foam, the chunky strawberry jam on the toast, and the perfectly cooked omelets made for THE BEST brunch experience of our lives. It sounds a little dramatic I know…but you have to go and try it to understand our obsession.
With full bellies we took to the town and ran into boutiques dodging the pouring raining that never seemed to slow down. Draper James was on our list to visit with the most beautiful and southern designer clothes by Reese Witherspoon. They served little cups of sweet tea while you shopped…still crying at the loveliness of this shop.
We stopped while the rain held off for a moment and took the iconic picture in front of the “I Believe In Nashville” mural where people were waiting in line just to get a snapshot.
We continued dashing into shops and bakeries like Fork Drums Closet, Five Daughters Bakery, and even stumbling onto a cute farmers market in the middle of town.
Afterwards, we went looking for the replica of the Parthenon that they have in downtown. We finally found it; I’m honestly not entirely sure how we missed it considering it is HUGE. WE discovered that it was built in 1897, and is a full-scale replica of the Athenian Parthenon in Greece. It houses American art galleries inside. We dashed out of the car really quick and snapped a picture in front of it to top off the trip.
We had a wonderful time in this buzzing city. We blasted country music the whole way home in the rain because we too now “Believe in Nashville.”
