It always takes us a little while to find our rhythm in a new place.
At first, everything feels new and a little unfamiliar. We’re pulling up maps constantly, trying to remember where we parked, and accidentally acting like tourists even when we swear we’re not. But then there comes a turning point, and I think we’ve officially hit it here in Nashville.
We’ve settled in. We know our way around a little better. We’ve stopped doing only the obvious things and started finding the spots and experiences that make a place feel more real. In other words, we’ve moved beyond the highlight reel and into the good stuff, the nooks, the crannies, and the places that probably don’t make it onto postcards.
One of the highlights lately was having Kira and Coby come visit for an extended weekend. Naturally, we took this as our chance to pretend we are seasoned Nashville folk, despite the fact that our expertise mostly comes from enthusiastic trial and error.
We started with a visit to Cheekwood, a massive historic estate with gardens that were absolutely showing off. Everything was in full spring bloom, and the tulips in particular understood the assignment. It was one of those places where every turn makes you stop and say, “Okay wow,” like you’ve never seen a flower before.
Then came a proper night out in Nashville.
We kicked things off at Pins Mechanical, which turned out to be one of those places that somehow has everything. We played our first-ever round of duckpin bowling, messed around with the free arcade games, and took in the full experience: skeeball, foosball, pinball, a giant slide, and some extremely bold fluorescent bathroom décor choices. Not sure who signed off on that look, but they were committed.
After that, we grabbed dinner at Assembly Food Hall, which may be the largest food hall we’ve ever stepped into. From there, we headed down to Category 10, Luke Combs’ honky-tonk bar, where we got a firsthand look at the line dancing, loud music, and all the Broadway chaos Nashville is known for. We wrapped up the night at the dueling piano bar, because if you’re going to give someone the full Nashville experience, you might as well go all in. By the end of the night, we were doing our best to keep up with a couple of 20-somethings.
Somewhere in the middle of all that, we also made a quick trip up to Kentucky to visit Mammoth Cave National Park. Just an hour and a half north of Nashville, it’s home to the largest known cave system in the world, which is a pretty good selling point. We took a tour and got to head deep underground, which was both fascinating and a nice reminder that no matter how much you think you’ve seen, the world is still full of places that can surprise you. We thoroughly enjoyed it and would absolutely recommend making the trip.
That was our last big adventure with Kira and Coby before they headed home, and we loved getting to share a little piece of this adventure with them.
Once it was back to just the two of us, we kept right on exploring. One of our favorite outings was a trip to Fall Creek Falls State Park, which turned out to be just as beautiful as everyone says. We saw five different waterfalls and did a little scrambling to get down to the bottom of a few of them. It added just enough excitement to make us feel adventurous, without fully crossing over into poor decision-making.
The past couple of weeks have also been filled with plenty of March Madness basketball at sports bars around town, an orchid class at the botanical gardens, a mountain bike demo at Cedar Hill MTB Park, and another trip to the Bluebird Cafe for a songwriter’s night. Not a bad mix, honestly.
And maybe that’s the biggest thing we’re learning in this chapter of life: the trick is usually just saying yes.
Yes to the random outing. Yes to the local recommendation. Yes to the thing that wasn’t on the schedule that morning. Yes to trying something that might end up being great, or at the very least, give you a funny story later.
That mindset is what keeps this whole adventure lifestyle working. The more we lean into it, the more natural it starts to feel. And the best parts usually aren’t just the big-name attractions, they’re the little discoveries, the unexpected stops, and the moments that make a place feel like more than just somewhere you passed through.
Nashville is starting to feel a lot like that for us.
