When staying at a hotel, I always like to get there as early in the day as possible to make the most of our time. I always think it sounds like a good idea until the day comes and we only have a couple hours of sleep before we have to head to the airport. Nonetheless, we opted for a 6 AM flight and were there before 8 AM. Although cabs charge a flat $25 fee for the short ride from the airport to downtown, we decided to take one to our hotel. Lyft is the more popular, wallet friendly option in the city but I hadn't quite hopped on the bandwagon yet.
Drew still had a free night to use at an SPG property and I still had my annual free night at a Hyatt Category 1-4 Property through my Hyatt Credit Card so we decided to stay at The Westin Nashville for our first night and Hyatt Place Downtown for our second. The hotels were only a 10 minute walk away from each other so it worked out perfectly.
As expected, a room wasn't ready for us at 8 AM so we left our suitcases with the concierge, bundled up, and walked over to grab breakfast at Biscuit Love. It was in the low thirties...almost 20 degrees colder than in Boston! Anyways, I heard that the earlier you get to the restaurant, the better as lines can get super long. We only ended up waiting for about a half hour before reaching the counter to order. We both opted for the Blackstrap Hash and we also decided to split an order of Bonuts (fried biscuit dough in the shape of a donut hole with lemon mascarpone and blueberry compote).
It was probably one of the best, yet most filling, breakfasts I've ever had; setting the precedent for the rest of our trip. After breakfast, we walked towards Broadway to do a little site seeing and browse the various souvenir shops. I was shocked to see bars open with live music so early.
We had booked a Discover Nashville tour and needed to be back at the hotel by 1 PM so the tour bus could pick us up. I was hoping that the tour would help give us a good idea of things to see and do for the rest of the trip, but to no avail. The bus stayed mainly in the downtown area and didn't spend much time showing us around.
The majority of the time was taken up by a visit to The Ryman Auditorium and The Country Music Hall of Fame. We drove by a few other sites, such as the Parthenon, but weren't given time to get off the bus and walk around. We are definitely not museum people, so this was a bit of a let-down. We did know in advance that the tour included tickets to the Ryman and the Country Music Hall of Fame but we still figured we'd enjoy the rest of the tour. However, the tour was more like transportation service to the two sites instead of a tour. Definitely not worth the $65 tickets in my opinion...especially considering we could have walked to those two places, IF we wanted to. Granted, I know we're in the minority in terms of not liking museums so for those who want to see those two attractions it's still a great tour. I will say that the Ryman wasn't that bad...we watched a short, 3D animation history of the auditorium and were let out with just enough time to take a picture or two of the auditorium; short and sweet. Although, fair warning...Drew claims he fell asleep during the presentation. When it came to the Country Music Hall of Fame, we were both bored out our got-damn minds but tried to kill time by taking pictures.
By the time the tour guide dropped us back off at our hotel, our room was finally ready. They upgraded us to a deluxe corner room which was quite large and expertly appointed. SPG properties have the most comfortable beds and pillows ever!!
Before heading out to dinner we stopped by the executive lounge to relax and grab some hors dourves...they served sodas, coffee, nuts, dried fruit, a deli spread, flatbread and some bbq brisket.
We had a long day and didn't want to take a nap in our dirty clothes so we decided to grab an early dinner at Martin's BBQ which was about a 10 minute walk down the street. I ordered the pulled pork shoulder sandwich with a side of cornbread and mac n cheese. The sandwich was AMAZING...the sweet pork was perfectly balanced by the tangy slaw. The mac n cheese was also to die for whereas the cornbread, which came in the form of a pancake, was not as sweet as I would typically like. However, it paired nicely with the other items on my plate.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and up to the rooftop bar for a drink. It was beyond freezing at that point but I had to go outside to take a few pictures. Once we were sufficiently frozen, we decided call it an early night and headed back to the room to watch some Netflix.
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