Nashville Girls Trip

 This post is better late than never, right?!?!  Back in February our group of girlfriends headed to Nashville and, dare I say, had the BEST girls trip to date ;). These trips started after our friend Manda lost her battle with cancer - we'd talked about going for years but could never make it work so after she was gone we decided there was never going to be a perfect (or easy!) time to leave 500 kids at home and go somewhere together but we had to just do it and YOU GUYS!  These trips are life-giving!

We've been to NYC, Boston, Charleston and Plano (about 15 mins away from where we live) during COVID.  I've realize that for me it's really not about where we go or what we do... that's all just kind of a bonus... it's more about just enjoying each other and having kid and work-free time.

Shay shared some details HERE and Sheaffer some HERE and Erika some HERE ;)  I'm going to share some highlights and my thoughts but they have all the deets if you want them.  

So here's my take... NASHVILLE WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!  

We kicked things off RIGHT at the Fridays at the DFW Airport where Sheaffer and I shared THE BEST burger of all time.  For real.  Listen - you could have left us at that TGI Fridays and we would have been just fine ;)

The flight was super quick and easy and then we headed over to our hotel which, y'all.... was STUNNING!!! Like UNREAL!  I adored everything about it and it wouldn't be somewhere I'd stay with my family which made it such a special treat, you know?

I. Mean.

We checked in and hung out in the lobby before heading out to dinner and then to check out Broadway.

I took one whole picture ;) Broadway was WAY different than what I expected (I don't really know what I expected but it far exceeded my expectations) and we had so much fun popping in and out of places.  I think the thing I loved the most about Nashville was the insane talent everywhere you turned.  So many incredibly talented people.

The next morning we did a food tour which we started doing in NYC and have done pretty much every trip since.  It's such a fun way to see the city and try some amazing food.  This was the first food tour we've done that was via bus and we got to see so many different parts of Nashville which was neat.  Our guide was so knowledgeable and we ate A TON of food ;)

We had donuts...

... hot chicken in the COOLEST old bar...

... some amazing bbq...

.. and dessert (and we had a stop at a distillery, too - but I didn't take any pics since that's not my thing - hahaha)

After the food tour we decided to shop a bit...

After a stop back at the hotel we changed and headed to dinner...

at the coolest restaurant.  Again, unreal talent everywhere!

After dinner a few girls went back to the hotel and a few of us headed out to look at boots and listen to some more music ;)

We stayed out WAY TOO LATE but had so much fun.  We grabbed a hot dog while waiting for our uber...

... and then scarfed it in an all green mens bathroom in our hotel ;)  It's a whole story. hahaha

The next morning we had a later start...

... another amazing lunch...

... and then we headed to Franklin to check it out.

I took approximately zero pics in Franklin but it was even cuter than I could have imagined and I desperately want to come back in the Fall.  Our group loves a group photo (hahaha) and we were all prepped and ready with Franklin Theater in the background and the sweet man we asked to take our photo happened to be Kirk Cameron ;) hahaha  Of course we had to ask him to hop in our pic but it was so funny!

Our last night we had another fantastic dinner...

And then stayed out WAY TOO LATE again listening to more music.  I got us an uber and we landed with the most fun driver of all time and that Uber ride was the icing on the cake ;)

The next morning we were up and at 'em to head home but not before I snuck in another vacation meal with a shake shack breakfast sandwich which I totally didn't know was a thing ;) hahaha

Okay - questions that I got about this trip....

- We draw roommates out of a hat and put the name back if we've roomed with that person before ;)  

- We keep track of expenses on an app called Settle Up (maybe we used something different this time, I can't remember) and the app keeps track of who's paid for what and splits things up accordingly in the end and then you just "settle up" with whoever the app tells you to. 

- Alcohol.  I feel like this is always the elephant in the room since I don't drink and I always get tons of questions about it and, honestly, it's just not a big deal.  I'm not uncomfortable if my friends drink, they're not uncomfortable that I don't - the end.  If they made me feel uncomfortable for not drinking they wouldn't be my friends ;)  

- Who decides what y'all do?  Shay and Erika graciously plan the trip for us but we definitely talk through ideas and discuss what we want to do while they're planning it.  Honestly - I really don't care what we do  because I just want to hang out with my friends!

Other questions?  Let me know!  I started this post literally back in February so I'm sure I missed some things ;)  Leave your questions in the comments and I'll get back to you!