Nashville, Tennessee

What do you do when you have 3 weeks of vacation and international travel is a bit tricky due to covid restrictions? you decide to take the opportunity and visit various cities within the US that you have always wanted to visit. Nashville happened to be one of those cities so I decided to make my first stop there. A friend that I had met via a travel blog had moved to the city and the timing was perfect so I figured why not finally make that trip to Nashville. My stay here so far has been pretty good and here is a breakdown of what I have been up to:

Day One (Arrival Day):

I wanted to take it easy as I acquainted myself with the city so we ended up checking out some cool street art. We headed to a neighborhood called 12 South where some of the most popular murals in Nashville can be found. The neighborhood is pretty and has this hip small town feel to it. Besides murals you can also find several restaurants and boutiques.

After getting done with the murals we hit up Nashville's biggest farmer's market for lunch then walked around downtown where the main action is, before calling it a day. It was a pretty chill first day and I wasn't in a hurry to see everything all at once since I knew I had time.

Day Two:

We ventured outside Nashville to go hiking and we ended up at Old Stone Fort which is an archeological state park located in Manchester, Tennessee and is about an hour drive from Nashville. Native Americans had used this area for 500 years but ended up abandoning it and it's not exactly known what they used the area for but it's definitely worth a visit. It's such a pretty park and even though the day started out with rain, it eventually cleared and we were able to check out a couple more parks and do more hiking.

After the hike we got back to Nashville and made our way to Monell's, a restaurant well known for serving typical southern food. An Uber driver had recommended the restaurant so we decided to check it out and it did not disappoint! first of all the concept was pretty new to me. We showed up at the restaurant and were seated at a large dining table that already had some people occupying it and the instructions were, more people would be seated at the table and the cook would bring out the food which would be placed on one end of the table and we would be passing it amongst ourselves and eat as much as we could. Pretty much like a buffet type of dining only that you are seated with a bunch of strangers. It was weird at first but the people who occupied our table were pretty friendly so it wasn't awkward and yes there was reasonable social distancing. It actually really felt like we were having dinner at someone's house.

Day Three:

This was my last full day in Nashville so I dedicated it to seeing the main highlights of the city. My friend lives within walking distance to downtown which is pretty convenient because I was able to check out some of the main attractions along the way. In no particular order here they are:

Bicentennial Park - this is where they have the timeline of Tennessee's history, it's actually interesting walking along while reading historical tidbits from the displays. 

Tennessee State Capitol

Broadway street - where you will find numerous bars playing country music and restaurants.

Parthenon - A replica of the original one in Greece.

Skyline of downtown Nashville

Nissan Stadium - premier sports and entertainment venue.

John Seigenthelar Pedestrian Bridge - One of the longest pedestrian bridges in the world.

Lastly, what is a visit to Nashville without country music? I got to check out these two ladies who were fantastic!

That's it folks! Nashville was pretty cool but now it's time to move on to the next city so Austin, here I come! do follow me on my adventures.

Charleston, South Carolina

Guess who just celebrated their 5th year wedding anniversary? I can't believe it's been 5 years! time sure does fly! our original plan was to go to Punta Cana but life happened and we had to change plans. I had googled the most romantic cities in the US for couples and Charleston kept coming up so that piqued my interest and I figured, why not? it certainly wasn't in my radar but I was willing to give it a try. As for hubby, let's just say he pretty much goes with the flow and since Punta Cana didn't work out he was more than open and willing to check out whichever other location that came up.

I am usually the trip planner but with this trip I really didn't feel like doing much planning given how crazy this year has been. After booking our hotel and flight we decided to go with the flow and let the city surprise us, we were just excited to have the chance to get away for a bit.

The city certainly didn't disappoint, we stayed at the Hampton Inn which is conveniently located in the downtown historic district, making it easier to walk to various attractions. On the first day we got a few pointers from the hotel staff and off we went exploring.

The weather forecast had predicted rain in the afternoon so we decided to make a quick visit to the nearest beach before the downpour. It was around noon and the weather had started getting cloudy but at least we got a chance to explore a little bit of Folly Beach which is located about 20 - 30 minutes from the historic downtown district. Unfortunately it was cloudy and so windy with sand being blown all over but we tried to make the best out of the situation. 

On the second day one of the staff at the hotel recommended a popular walking tour of Charleston in order to learn more about the city's history. We ended up taking a tour with Lowcountry Walking Tours which was pretty interesting, the tour lasted for a couple of hours and to make matters better the two of us were the only attendees so we developed a good rapport with the tour guide which made for a fun tour. 

On the third day which was our last full day, we spent our time lounging about while it rained outside then walked around aimlessly around downtown discovering pretty alleyways & streets, stopping by cute shops and stuffing ourselves silly with all kinds of food while partaking in one too many happy hour drinks. That's it folks! all in all it was a time well spent together and one of the chillest getaways, just as we had wanted. Happy anniversary to us!