We made a quick three day stop into Nashville as we headed up to Mammoth Cave, KY. Liz had been there with Shane & Elise and their cousin Kelly way back when in College. Our experience and interests was far different than who and where we are in life now. While we enjoyed our visit last time, it wasn’t super high up their on our “must visit” list. We still decided to stop in because it was a convenient half way point from Chattanooga and Kentucky, and Dennis had never been.

We arrived just in time to ride our bikes to the beach before it closed. It was $2 per bike or $5 per car load, we were a little peeved that riding the bikes (4 of us) ended up costing more than if we had just driven over. Right on the lake, lots of trees, and cool refreshing water. It was a nice way to relax after packing up, moving, and unpacking.

The next day was all about food – we first went to the Nashville Farmers Market open seven days a week, to stock up on groceries. We went on a Saturday which meant more vendors than normal, but also more people. The place was packed! We were surprised at the size of the market, and were pleased with the quality of the selection (we even found raw milk – score)! They had a garden center attached so you could purchase your own herbs, vegetable plants, flowers, or meet any of your other landscape needs. It was a nice way to kill a few hours and get high quality produce. Did we mention they have a food court with decent food selections (and beer)!

For lunch that day we stopped at Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, a new school chicken joint serving up Nashville’s famous Hot Chicken. The line was around the building and it was HOT but the wait was worth it. We ended up waiting for about 45 minutes and to our understanding that’s the norm at Hattie B’s and general in Nashville (if you want good food on the weekend – you’ll likely wait in a line). Once we finally got inside, we ordered at the counter and got some finger lickin’ good food shortly there after. We had to get all the sides, I mean when’s the next time we’ll be back. Elise & Shane opted for the “medium” which wasn’t too spicy, Dennis decided to go with “Hot” which if you can’t tell by his tears, was HOT! Liz enjoyed her side of pimento mac n’ cheese and black eyed peas. The collard greens and mashed potatoes were great as well! If we hadn’t gone to Hattie B’s, Prince’s would have been our other Hot Chicken destination. Prince’s, has been serving up delicious food for nearly 100 years.

The next day we headed back into Nashville for some good ole’ country breakfast. And by that I mean pancakes, just a bunch of delicious pancakes. We went to the Pancake Pantry in our first visit to Nashville (way back when) and knew this was a must visit again. We waited in line then, and guess what – we waited in line again. 45 minutes to be exact – I’m telling you Nashville really loves their lines. Each of us ordered a different pancake specialty (apple cinnamon, buttermilk, sweet potato, and cheddar bacon jalapeño hoe cakes), all of which were AMAZING!

It was starting to rain so we had to find something to do indoors. We didn’t want to go to any of the big museums or tourist attractions (we’re not huge on country), so we found a hip new bar, hang out, restaurant, bowling alley, called the Pinewood Social. It definitely was the trendy place to be on a Sunday and offered pretty much everything you could want to make a Funday-Sunday. There was a coffee spot, work lounge/meeting area, bar, restaurant with formal seating, vintage 60’s bowling alley, outdoor pool with airstream bar, and outdoor seating with lawn games. It was such a unique idea that made us feel more like we were in New York than Nashville.

We put our name on the list for bowling (highly recommend making a reservation) and sat at the bar while we waited. We were just about to give up on the waiting game (3 drinks in) when we got called for bowling! We played two games and had a ton of fun…It’s amazing how you can forget how fun some things are until you do it again. When we got our bill for bowling it was over $67 for the bowling alone!!! Yes you read that right….We had NO idea it was $40 per hour to bowl (they pro-rate it), so it cost us an arm and a leg for the four of us to bowl two games. Had we known that we happily skipped the bowling session and found a more cost effective (equally fun) way to spend that hour and half.

Can I just mention the Brumer-Smith family clearly rocks at bowling!? We didn’t rub it in Shane or Elise’s faces or anything…

We walked across the street (very sketchy street mind you), to Husk for dinner. Dennis and Liz had been excited about going to this restaurant after learning about Sean Brock on Mind of a Chef, and had high hopes for the overall experience. We did not have reservations (highly recommend again) and had to wait about an hour before we were seated on the patio. While the food was good, it wasn’t spectacular, and we felt our service wasn’t up to par. It took us three hours to dine there (about 40 minutes between each course). We honestly were disappointed for the price and prestige that comes with the name Husk, we weren’t wowed.