Of the states I had remaining, Tennessee was one of the ones that surprised people the most. It’s understandable, since Nashville has developed quite the reputation as a party city. It seems as though every other bachelorette party is taking place in Nashville at any given time. I was still taken aback when I left my hotel mid morning on a Friday and found people wandering through the streets, already drunk. I asked my waitress about it at lunch and she told me this was normal.


It’s funny, though, because it really doesn’t take much to get away from the party scene. The first “touristy” thing I did was head to the Capitol, since that was only open on weekdays. It only took two or three blocks away from Broadway for the bass of the music to fade away.
I don’t necessarily seek out US state capitals, because often our state capitals are out of the way, but I do think it’s fun to go to those when I can. In a delightfully moment of Southern hospitality, the man who was doing security at the Capitol asked me where I was visiting from and then proceeded to tell me all about the time that he took his son up to Washington DC so they could go to the Smithsonian together.


The Tennessee Capitol building was really pretty. It was also interesting that they didn’t go the route that a lot of them seem to, where they have the dome and look similar to the US Capitol building. The Utah one looks so similar to the US Capitol that they actually used it as a stand-in in Legally Blonde 2 when Elle goes to Congress. Tennessee has gone with a different structure, which looks more like a courthouse from the outside.



I also headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame! Nashville has a huge amount of country music history, and this museum was a great crash course. There are a lot of options of places to go within Nashville for more music history, if you’re a huge fan of country, but I am not so I figured this was my best place to start.




It was a cool museum. Because so many famous artists came through Nashville, or recorded there, there was enough that even I could appreciate, and if you are a fan of country music, you would probably have a much bigger appreciation than I did!
One of the number one recommendations for a visit to Nashville is to go to a show at the Opry. It came up on basically every recommendation that I saw. The fun thing about the weekend I went is that there was actually a Christmas special being filmed, so I bought a ticket to go see Little Big Town’s Christmas special. I figured even if I had no idea who Little Big Town was, I would at least know some of the songs!



It turned out to be such a good idea. It was so fun to go to a live taping – I’d never been to one before, and it was interesting to see how it all gets made. Once or twice, they had to fully repeat a song. Sometimes they would flub a word on the intro and re-start it, or pause for a few minutes to fully reset the stage. I love seeing what goes into all of it, and then knowing at the end that it will all be re-edited into a seamless presentation. The artists I didn’t know ahead of time all did a great job, and they also had some guests that I did actually recognize, like Sheryl Crow and Josh Groban!



Nashville was a great weekend trip. The party scene was a bit much for me, especially on a solo trip, but even when I didn’t spend tons of time at the bars on Broadway, there was still plenty to do and a lot of nice areas to wander around. The accommodation options were pretty expensive but clearly it’s because of the high demand!


Anyway, that’s a wrap on Nashville. I’m down to my last four states! Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana are the ones I have left, and I’m excited to get to explore those too.