Touring Nashville, TN

As tag-along travelers, the kiddos are I were So So lucky to get to stay at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, TN. There was so much to do, so we divided our time in Nashville between resort activities (Day #2 – Tuesday, #5 Friday, and #6 Saturday) and city activities (Day #1 – Monday, #3 – Wednesday, and #4 – Thursday). This post will cover our city adventures.

Day #1 – Centennial Park & the Parthenon

Day #3 – We had to make a little detour to the nearest mall because one of our suitcases was chewed up somewhere en route from ID to TX to TN and nearly lost a wheel. It was rendered unusable in the accident so purchasing a replacement was necessary. Luckily we filed a claim at the airport and just got the reimbursement check in the mail this week (Jan. 2023)!

Needless to say, we had to stop at the Lego store in the mall and make custom mini figs.

My youngest is an Elvis fan so we took a quick photo with “the king”.

The mall was right next to the Grand Ole Opry so we got a few touristy photos there.

We took the free shuttle bus back to the resort with our new replacement suitcase in tow.

Day #4 – this was downtown Nashville day so we took an Uber (just me and the kiddos – so kind of a big deal for me) to the Country Music Museum and Hall of Fame. We got some photos at the star walk outside and across the street. We learned a little bit about country music before the trip and read biographies about Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash. Our focus artists were narrowed down to 4 big ones: Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Taylor Swift.

Once inside the museum I decided to buy tickets including the Hatch Show Print tour. This turned out to be one of my better decisions on our trip and definitely a highlight for me. Hatch Show Print has been making custom letterpress designs and prints since 1879! We each got to help create our own souvenir print by applying ink to plates and hand running a press.

The Country Music Museum and Hall of Fame fell flat for us. It was crazy crowded and because we weren’t familiar with most of the artists it just wasn’t that interesting for us. We found a favorite Johnny Cash record single and a cool Lego display and corresponding music video but that was more about the Lego and less about the music.

Next up, we tried a restaurant with live music, Johnny Cash’s Bar & BBQ, but it was way way too loud. Ridiculous loud. Painful loud. We would’ve needed noise canceling headphones or some sort of ear protection to stay longer than a few minutes. *To all the bloggers and travel websites who said downtown Nashville live music bars are kid friendly, I completely disagree! This was a big deal because I had planned to eat lunch somewhere downtown and there wasn’t any place we could go inside and be comfortable with the sound system volume. Sightseeing with hungry kiddos anyone? 🤦🏻‍♀️

We got photos with Johnny Cash outside.

Ears still ringing, I made the kiddos walk with me across the pedestrian bridge stretching across the Cumberland River. They nearly “froze to death” [read with intense childhood drama & mama eye roll].

As a reward for all the effort crossing the bridge, we made our last stop downtown at Goo Goo Cluster.

We used a computer kiosk to design a custom Goo Goo Cluster and watched the chocolatier make our order. On that note, we took an Uber to the Cracker Barrel for a very late lunch and saved the custom Goo Goo to share with my husband.

As always, thank you for following us on our adventures or stopping by for a visit!