I Believe in Nashville

I follow a lot of blogs and bloggers’ Instagram accounts. I enjoy their carefully curated wardrobe, their gourmet meals, their adorable families, but most of all I enjoy their dream vacations full of beautiful scenery and delicious food. It’s a nice escape from every day life. Apparently there was a time when looking at someone’s vacation photos was dull. I believe it was Betty White on SNL who said people who voluntarily look at someone’s vacation photos are losers. Yet I still thought, “I’m a blogger. I could snap some envy worthy photos for MicroCloset and our Instagram account.” HA! It’s a lot harder than it looks.

This outfit looked a lot cuter in my head, but when I saw it on me I thought, “My ancestors were bumpkins.”

Two weeks ago my office sent me and my friend, Casey, to Nashville for a cross-examination conference. Casey and I are close, have similar travel styles, and had never been to Nashville: it was going to be fantastic! We hit the ground running when we landed on Wednesday night. After a quick outfit change, we went down to Broadway to listen to some live music. Broadway is full of honky-tonks, the music hits you the moment you turn onto the street, and the sidewalks are overrun with tourists. So naturally it’s the perfect spot to get a photo in front of the Johnny Cash Museum. I wasn’t thrilled with the outcome, but hey, we had three more days to get something better.

I’ll remember Biscuit Love’s East Nasty sandwich long after my mediocre outfits.

While I’m not going to go into detail about the conference, Thursday and Friday were devoted to it, but we did get up early to have breakfast at Biscuit Love and explore the area. We were within walking distance of the Gulch as well as Vanderbilt University and Centennial Park.

Here I am with my stunning, svelte coworker in a J. Crew dress that caught the breeze and left me looking six months pregnant.

Lunch on Thursday was a delightful surprise because we had almost a two hour break. We set off on foot to tour Centennial Park and Vanderbilt University. Both locations were perfect photos. Centennial park was in full bloom with water features and a parthenon. Unfortunately, I did not count on the wind picking up. Just as we found a kind stranger to snap a photo, the wind caught the skirt of my dress and left me looking less like an influencer and more like an expectant mother. But at least Casey looked good! You may be wondering why I didn’t post a photo from Vanderbilt, well those never happened, instead I found a buffalo cauliflower bowl from the Jewish Student Center and the rest of the campus was a blur.

What does it say about you when your best side is your backside?

Casey and I walked over ten miles and ate roughly five meals on Thursday. I think I’m most proud of all the food we ate. We only had three days so we couldn’t stick to that three meals a day nonsense or we’d never sample enough of Nashville’s cuisine. It turns out a lot of their cuisine revolves around friend chicken, but I’m not complaining. We made two trips to Hattie B’s for its famous chicken sandwich. I snapped a photo of my sandwich and pint on Thursday afternoon. It was my favorite picture and meal of the entire trip.

Hattie B’s famous chicken sandwich looking more like a snack than I ever did on that trip.

Thursday evening was by far the best night. Ahead of our trip we bought tickets to a show at the Ryman Auditorium aka the Grand Ole Opry. The Gatlin brothers hosted a variety of artists. It was wonderful to sit in those old wooden pews and listen to country classics. That evening I wore my favorite Auguste the Label maxi dress. After the show I jumped on a scooter and asked Casey to get a playful photo of me, another inspired artistic move, because uou know what really brings out an outfit? An awkward pose and a carefully placed plastic bag.

You know what really brings out an outfit? An awkward pose and a carefully placed plastic bag.

Friday we scaled back on walking and eating but still averaged more than three meals. The car service at our hotel dropped us off at the state capitol that evening. Again I thought, “what better place for an Instagram photo?” I’m not sure how some bloggers manage to get a photo of a monument and their outfit with good lighting, but clearly it cannot be done with my old iPhone 7.

It’s hard to get a photo with a historical monument, good lighting, and an attractive pose in one frame. Maybe next time.

Thank goodness for all the food we ate, it provided much better blog content that I could alone and really played it up for my dinky iPhone camera. I mean have you ever seen anything as photogenic as this milkshake? It was almost too beautiful to eat. Almost. But we made the sacrifice and polished the whole thing off.

S’mores milkshake from the Legendairy Milk Bar!

Saturday was our final day in Nashville. We went back to the Gulch to get photos in front of the famous wing murals that are somehow related to Taylor Swift’s new album. We went early because the lines snake around the block by mid-morning. It was another overcast day with decent lighting, but it started raining as we left our hotel. I could feel my hair paste itself to my scalp but was infinitely relieved when I saw that my hair color blended in with the wall. Disaster averted.

Our last day in Nashville before I succumbed to a violent case of the stomach flu. #nashvillegulch

As you come to the end of the post, you may be asking, “Did she even have fun in Nashville? Should I bother going?” Yes and yes. While I did not capture any influencer worthy photos, I had a lot of fun. So much fun in fact that I didn’t bother to slow down and ask Casey to get a bunch of photos from different angles. I wanted to enjoy Nashville and be in the moment, and it’s exhausting to try to get good photos in 80 degree weather with 70 percent humidity. So will I post photos from other vacation? Yes. Will they be any better? Probably not. But I’m okay with that.