Nashville, Day 1

I had wanted to visit Nashville for quite sometime, but never had the opportunity. My alma mater, Kansas State University scheduled an away football game in Nashville playing Vanderbilt, this fall. I tried to convince my friends and coworkers to go, but that was a bust. They're all married or in relationships, so they weren't up for a girl's trip. So, I thought through who might be a good travel partner and I thought of a former MBA classmate who always seemed fun and liked to travel. Thankfully, she was up for an adventure!

Day 1
I was SO excited for this trip. It was my first real vacation in just over two years! We both arrived at the airport around the same time. From there we took an Uber to our Airbnb apartment. I picked out a place with a terrific location near the area we planned to spend most of our time; Printer's Alley and Broadway. The apartment was perfect and the mini kitchen came in handy. I would definitely stay here again!

Our next stop was to Acme Feed & Seed for a late lunch. In preparation for the trip, Acme's name kept coming up as a good place to eat. I've heard that Nashville is always busy, but with roughly 25,000 fans from K-State in town, Broadway Street was packed to the brim along with all the bars/restaurants around. We waited in line at Acme to place our order and then waited even longer for our food to be delivered. I think it took about 30+ minutes to get our food. I was hungry and ready to try their BBQ sandwich and sweet potato fries. The bread was soggy and the fries were so salty that they were inedible. Finding a table once we got our food was next to impossible. The views from the rooftop of the river were nice, but the roof was packed to say the least. I definitely wouldn't eat there again.

After checking out some nearby shops in hopes of adding to my bracelet collection, I realized everything I liked was far outside of my budget.

From there we headed to the Nashville Farmers' Market that I'd read rave reviews on. It was less than a mile to get there. It was in what looked like a park. There, I bought a basil lemonade with whiskey. So refreshing. We also tried the best mini donuts and bought some for breakfast. After reading terrific reviews on it, we tried Jeni's Ice Cream.

Literally, the best ice cream I've ever had. They had fun, unique flavors. I loved the brown butter almond brittle and peanut butter with chocolate flecks. So good and smooth. It was such a fun, unique experience.

Next door to the Farmer's Market we saw some kind of festival. We walked by to see how much tickets were; maybe we'd go. Um, no! It was actually The Wine + Food Festival. Tickets for the whole weekend were $525; more than the cost of my flight. Apparently, famous chefs were there and up and coming chefs.

From there, we walked back to our neighborhood and ate at the Frothy Monkey. I'd seen that in my pre-trip research. All the restaurants had super heavy menu items; I know it is the south, but... The Frothy Monkey was a quaint, low-key spot. We split a delicious Gail salad and Royale sandwich. Each ingredient served a specific, well-thought out purpose. I already miss this place!

Then, we hit Broadway for music. We spent some time jamming out at Second Fiddle. The quality of music and bands in Nashville is off the charts! Next, we headed just off Broadway to get away from the crowds. We ended up at The George Jones, which is on 2nd Avenue. We loved this place, there was a terrific band and a refreshing breeze coming in from the river. They had a roomy dance floor too!

What a beautiful first day in Nashville!

Spare Parts, the Movie

Earlier this year while looking through movie options on Hulu, I thought this movie looked interesting. It had several familiar faces: George Lopez, Marisa Tomei, Carlos PenaVega, and Alexa PenaVega. It was a heart-warming story of underdogs achieving greatness despite all odds. In a high school on the West Coast, undocumented students come together to form a robotics club with George Lopez's character as their advisor. They work together to compete in a robotics competition against reigning champions, MIT. I loved their determination and resourcefulness, as they obviously had a much smaller budget than teams like MIT.

I found out that Spare Parts is actually a book and I plan to read it this summer. Kansas State University has a book of the year for students to read and this fall's book is Spare Parts.

I really enjoyed the movie and I think you will too.

Something New

Roughly two months ago, I got asked to do something new. It was a really fun, exciting experience. I got to meet new people and add something fresh to my resume. ;) All in all, we ended up filming for parts of 5 days, in 8 locations, and a total of three videos were made; third times the charm! The video hits TV in NE Kansas, including KC starting next week. I was actually sad to see the experience come to a close and I'd love the chance to do something like this again. :) The results are below:


Is anyone reading this blog? Hello? :)