Nashville, revisited.

The last time I went to Nashville it was wonderful and delightful and any other word you could think of to describe a positive experience. Today's trip to Nashville had a different agenda but my sentiments about the city and the people I went with this time remain the same. It's just a cool place to be. I think it's neat to go to new towns (especially cool, hip ones like Nashville) and observe the people; you can immediately tell who belongs there. 

This brings me to my question of the day: do people inspire a city or does a city inspire the people? Maybe it's both. People are desperate to belong to something. Something bigger than themselves but not big enough that they can't fit in. We the people like belonging. It's just a fact. Observing the people at Fido in Nashville today lead me to believe they have figured out a pretty sweet balance of this. They seem to be unique individuals with expressive styles and personalities and yet they fit nicely into a mold that the place they reside has set for them.

These are just my thoughts. You may totally disagree & that is ok.

However, there will be no room for arguing with me about the delicious food and beverages at Fido. The black bean burger I had for lunch rocked  but my favorite treat of the day came later in the afternoon in the form of a local honey cinnamon latte & a blueberry goat cheese muffin. oh. my. yummy. I plan to recreate this muffin some day and wanted to see if there was a recipe online somewhere. I did a simple google search and found this girl, who also loved the muffins at Fido made them herself! I'm telling you, blueberries and goat cheese in muffin form...sheer bliss.

Four noteable things about this wonderful day.
1. Food makes people happier.
2. Laughter is absolutely a cure for most things.
3. I wanted to take more pictures of my food but I didn't want to be that girl.
4. Nashville is pretty darn cool.

Take me back to Nashville Tennessee.

Round one: Winnie, Karen and I go to Chattanooga.

Round two: Winnie, Karen and I go to Franklin and Nashville.

We've started calling ourselves KEW (Kids Exploring the World). Ok, we're not really calling ourselves that but it would be kind of fun wouldn't it?

Our afternoon started out with lunch at  the Franklin Mercantile. We sat outside and enjoyed a sourdough sandwich, tomato basil soup and lemon water in a mason jar. The town of Franklin was a small and quaint. Main street was lined with little shops like Lulu and The Iron Gate. The creaky wood floors exposed the history of this little all American town. After a few hours we headed towards Nashville. The eclectic shop Pangea may have been my favorite of the trip.

Somehow our attempted route to our next destination, the Parthenon, led us in multiple circles around Nashville. Thank goodness for the iPhone. Side note: Later in the day we found out that the 'i' in iPhone stands for intelligence or Internet or something other than 'i' as in me, like mypod or myphone. I know, preposterous. But that is a different story for a different day. Regardless, the iPhone and its map capabilities helped us successfully locate the Parthenon in Centenial Park. The sun was just about to set when we arrived at the park. When got closer, we stumbled upon two men with lengthy dreadlocks jamming out on their guitars, some punk wanna be jersey shore kids, and a bridal portrait photography session. It was crazy and yet seemed very normal. The Parthanon building and the Athena statue in Centernial park are both full-scale replicas of the Athenian originals. Learning about the Parthenon made me feel a lot like Leslie Knope. Maybe Nashville is my Pawnee. Maybe.

Our trip ended with a drive-by of 2nd street or was it 3rd? I'm not really sure but it had a lot of blinking neon signs and live music. We didn't get out and walk around because we all forgot our cowboy boots. I know, I know. what were we thinking? Hello, Nashville. Not to worry though, I made a mental note for next time. On the way home we made one last stop to enjoy breakfast for dinner at the best travel restaurant on the interstate - Cracker Barrel.

So there you have it. It was successful day of exploring two new towns. If you are into idioms, you could say our trip "killed two birds with one stone". Towns aren't birds though and even if they were, I still wouldn't want to kill a bird. Personal preference though. The kettle though, I will totally call him black.

Did you have a good weekend friends? Did you see or experience anything new?