the nashville way.
each time my parents come, it seems like they have a specific objective in mind. the first time they came, it was my first time too and it was a trip to explore the place i kept claiming i would someday move to. we did that by looking at apartments i could potentially live in and then doing ALL the touristy things, like a bus tour and visiting places t-swift once mentioned in an article i'd read. it was all so exciting that i never even blogged about it. (??)
the second time, my parents were supposed to be visiting and i was supposed to be staying. except i changed my mind a few weeks before we left (we still made the trip for a wedding), so instead of getting me settled, we mostly hung out eating biscuits at loveless and walking to lower broadway from our hotel.
the third time, i actually (finally) lived here and it was just my mom and she stayed for a whole week because she could. she hung out with my roommates when i was working and we went on little adventures when i wasn't.
the fourth time, both my parents came and it was the first time that the three of us were in nashville since i moved here, so that trip was a mixture of things that were old favorites (loveless cafe) and new favorites (edley's bbq) and me being a tour guide of sorts: these are the people i live with! this is where i work! this is the interstate on which i drive every day!
this time, my mom kept saying she just wanted to know my places. she wanted to know the way around nashville as i know it. my dad, on the other hand, was still interested in going to lower broadway to eat at margritaville and shop for cowboy boots. as you can maybe tell, i had my work cut out for me: a fine split between doing regular nashville things and the touristy nashville things, all while my day-to-day life largely includes neither of these things.
however, right on par with my typical day-to-day, i don't have many photos to show for this visit. for some reason, unless there is a tiny baby or toddler around, i don't feel the need to pull out my camera as frequently.
i tried my best, and after writing it out, i think we hit some good spots in many areas of town. for anyone keeping track (me) or planning a visit, i highlighted the places we went.
i just want to be honest and say that i snapped this photo of the three of us because i saw the brick wall and thought it would make for a nice backdrop. which is such a lifestyle blogger/social media influencer thing to say (even though i am neither), but it's the only good photo i took of us so i can't even be sorry about it.
friday
franklin, tn. mom's pick. and also something i convince every visitor to do because i love franklin but sometimes need more than "just because" as a reason to make the trip. (it's like 30 minutes from my house, which has become, since moving to nashville, what i consider to be too far.)
we ate lunch at mccreary's pub before popping in and out of shops. philanthropy and imago dei are at the top of my list when on main street.
lower broadway. dad's pick. we also brought my friend tab along for the adventure that is downtown nashville, on a friday night of memorial day weekend, when eric church is playing at bridgestone arena (also where the preds play #smashville). this turned out to be a good idea because she knew where to park on this side of the bridge without paying a thousand dollars. also because she is awesome and fun.
we shopped for boots at boot barn, i think it was. we had the volcano nachoes at jimmy buffet's margaritaville. and then we went home.
saturday
12 south. my pick. because it is my favorite street in the whole city and if i could live anywhere in nashville, it would be somewhere within walking distance to 12 south.
also because five daughters bakery. my dad had already eaten his whole donut and mom and i had already cut into two others before i thought about snapping a photo. i had my mom hold this one up and requested she "look like she was taking a bite." and then she just actually took a real bite, because ain't nobody got time for that.
we walked around some and then grabbed sandwiches from sloco (you might remember me mentioning it because i'm obsessed).
centennial park. for musician's corner. also my pick, but for my mom who wanted my nashville things. although, in the interest of full disclosure, i will say i only venture out to the park on a saturday (ever) if i have a legitimate reason to, like if i know and love an artist who's playing. on this particular saturday, i didn't know who was playing, so it wasn't that upsetting when it started raining after twenty minutes and we left.
berry hill. my pick because, dinner at baja burrito. and to point and say "that coffee shop across the parking lot is the one tab used to work at."
home. we also stopped at target on the way, which is worth mentioning because it's important. do you know how frequently i go to target? (i'm just going to let you guess.) my mom did say she wanted to go to my places and if anywhere is "my place," it's target.
we watched hidden figures this night. i'll be honest and say i was familiar with the storyline because i watch the tv show timeless (which, side note, got cancelled and then un-cancelled and praise the lord for bringing what's dead back to life). both the movie and tv show are worth watching.
sunday
home. my mom made breakfast. that's what we stopped at target for. eggs and bacon. originally, she wanted to go out. to brunch. on a sunday. with literally every other person in the city of nashville. i can't even tell you where i'd go, if i were to go, to brunch on a sunday in nashville. (because i wouldn't.) but then she said she could just make something at home and that's when i started breathing again. also because there's nothing like having your mom make you breakfast, even at 27.
west nashville. my mom wanted to bring back shirts for my nephews, so i (of course) brought her to project 615 (where the photo at the top of this post was taken). in case you were wondering, i am so infrequently making it out to west nashville that i actually used my maps app for this one.
but! we saw this guy. (the mural, not the actual man.)
downtown. mom's pick. because crema! my dad had a migraine, so he hung back for this part. also, i'm not sure what she's doing with her mouth in that photo. frowning? but i had to include it because crema was the thing. when she told me she wanted to go to my places, my first thought was, "so you want to go to crema?"
we also went to my church, the belonging co.
brentwood. i don't know, does it count that we only stopped in to pick up zoe's kitchen on the way home? i'm just trying to give all the details, especially the food ones. zoe's kitchen isn't local, but i didn't want you thinking we skipped dinner. because we sure did not, and we didn't skip dessert either because have you had one of their cookies? they're like the size of your face and super deliciously half-baked.
we watched passengers this night. i basically talked my parents into it because i still cannot stop thinking about it. for the record, neither can my mom. my dad didn't say much except for calling chris pratt's character a "creep" multiple times.
monday
home. we stayed in again. not necessarily eating breakfast, but sipping our coffee and tea and chatting with my roommate and not making it out to the coffeeshop we planned to go to.
that photo is the worst (hence the b&w filter, a poor attempt to make it less terrible), but it makes me laugh out loud and so, so happy. my mom was sitting in a chair across the room and i made her come over and sit on the couch with my dad and i. i didn't tell them i was taking this photo. but this is us.
east nashville. my pick. for lunch, we went to the pharmacy, where we waited like an hour to be seated and almost another hour for our food (and then were discounted our (delicious) milkshakes for the wait time). but i got to show them where i work, because it's within walking distance.
after that, i dropped them off at the airport.