day trippin'

A few of my close friends from Maryland headed South this past weekend to vacation and enjoy the great state of Tennessee. My friend P has family in Knoxville, so they dropped off her mother to visit her Aunt and she and her hubby M headed to Nashville. I would be a total crap friend if I missed a chance to hang with them, when Nashville is only like 2 hours from my home. We made plans to meet up on Sunday for lunch and to go tooling around town.

Mike and I hit the road at about 10:00 am and headed toward Tennessee.  It's so funny to me that I can stay awake for most of a ride to Maryland, but the 2 hours it takes to Tennessee I always feel like I'm going to fall asleep (and/or do fall asleep). Mike is a trooper!

The weather this weekend was pretty great. Mid 70's, overcast with a bit of wind (it picked up a bit too much while we were downtown but still the weather right now was more mild/chilly than it was when we went in December to see The Who).

MIDTOWN / NASHVILLE
For years Mike has raved about Mojo's in Midtown. I've been there with him twice and can honestly say it's never disappointed. It's a great little local place, with a great patio, tons of brews on tap and the best mix of Cajun and Mexican inspired food. As someone who truly loves both of these type of cuisines, I highly recommend stopping by Brewhouse / Mojo's in Midtown if you are out that way. Not only were Mike and I excited to get our favorite food but the bartender let us know it was 2 for 1 on all draft beers - SCORE! He settled on an IPA, my friend P and split some Abita Purple Hazes and her hubby M got something the bartender recommended to him. No visit to Mojo's is complete without ordering the Cajun Burrito, that will be Mike's message to you.

via Mike's Instagram

Tell me that doesn't look amazing. It's literally a burrito filled with Cajun amazingness. Cajun sausage, chicken, beans, rice and even Crawfish Étouffée. (It's also topped with the étouffée). It's filling and amazing all in one. Don't let the paper plates fool you, it might seem "low rent" but it's anything but. Very casual atmosphere. While we dined and caught up with our old friends the bar filled with Sunday afternoon patrons. Some were chatting and eating others were throwing darts and drinking the 2 for 1 special on beers. The weather was perfect. And trust me, if Cajun/Mexican isn't your taste, there are about 6 different patio bars right there together in Midtown to choose from. I truly can't wait to go back and try them - I'm hoping sometime soon Mike and I can take an overnight trip and just hop from patio to patio!

While in Midtown, and the West End we hit up Grimey's Record Store in search of vinyl. Mike wasn't going to make a trip to Nashville without hitting up at least once store. We've been on a mission lately to expand our record collection. M and P were perfectly happy to tag along and see more of the city than just a tourist would see. Mike hit his own personal mother load at Grimey's. Finding two Mudhoney records and finally getting a hold of Pearl Jam's Backspacer on Vinyl.  I was in search of some Red Hot Chili Peppers, but their selection was small for RHCP, instead Mike pointed out a Pixies section and I was sold. I snagged "Surfer Rosa". Which actually just celebrated it's 25th year since being released. Wow, typing that just made me feel really old. I would love to post a picture for you of the cover but it's a bit PG-13 (bewbies n' junk on the cover). M got himself 2 albums as well and decided he should take up vinyl collecting as a hobby. He settled on Nirvana's Unplugged (really wish I would have seen that first and snagged it) and a record that was recorded LIVE at the record store, by Metallica. Talk about a sweet souvenir! (See Mike's loot below)

Pearl Jam // Backspacer // via Mike's Instagram

Mudhoney // via Mike's Instagram

Mudhoney // via Mike's Instagram

I probably could have stayed in Grimey's all day. If we didn't have two friends in town that had never truly been there - I would have. I'm pretty sure Mike would have too. It was well organized, it smelled nice (you know how some old record stores smell stuffy? Sometimes that's a plus, others not so much). This place was really well organized and there was SO much to look at. We instead decided to haul our cookies downtown to walk them around.

Once we parked downtown the wind picked up, but I was semi thankful, nothing spoils sight seeing more than sweat, and let's just say, I'm not quite a lady when it comes to getting overheated. I sweat like a man. So the breeze, was a blessing.

We walked up and down Broadway and down to the river. Mike and I have never walked that far so it was nice to see the city from that angle.

Downtown Nashville // Batman Building, no that's not it's real name // via My Instagram

We dipped in and out of a few local stores. I was really disappointed to find out that The Hatch Print Shop is closed on Sundays - I was really hoping to go in there and rummage through old and new screen printed posters. I've become a bit obsessed with screen printing lately (I purchased a Grimey's tshirt, just because it looked cool, and it was screen printed).

We headed down the street on the off chance a bar Mike's been dying to show me, might be open. The last time we were in Nashville it was also a Sunday and said bar was closed. Thankfully we must have shown up at the right time and the Beer Sellar was open. It's tucked away on a side street, a bit hard to find, especially because it's underground. We walked down the cool, brick stairs into the dark, semi seedy looking bar and sat down to order a round. Again I went with Abita, this time Strawberry was the flavor of choice. SO good when it hits your lips. Although I was disappointed to see that they had Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy on tap. That stuff is amazing!!! (beer and lemonade mixed).

The Beer Sellar // via My Instagram

We hung out a bit longer and soon returned P and M to their hotel. Time passes so quickly but we knew we had a 2 hour ride to get home ahead of us. Once home, we hit up a favorite local place for some reubens and then went home to crash on the couch. It was a day well spent and a fun trip, one I hope to make again sometime soon so we can explore more of Midtown.