By: Samie

Travel Dates: July 10th-15th, 2024

Day 5

(Mini Golf, Central BBQ, Nashville Farmer’s Market, Parthenon)

Our last full day in Nashville was almost completely a free day. We caught a star-studded comedy show at Zanies Comedy Club. We had checked off all the big items and must-dos on our list. We had eaten our way through many different well-known hot chicken establishments. We had bar-hopped on Broadway. We had caught a minor league baseball game. We had enjoyed and toured a local Nashville whiskey distillery. We had more than our fill of the desirable muscadine wine. We caught an entertaining show at the Grand Ole Opry. We had already accomplished a lot in our short time here.

However, we of course weren’t about to waste an entire day when traveling! When researching for what we might possibly do for our final day, one of the things we came across was an indoor mini-golf course called Puttshack, located in downtown Nashville. In the early days of our relationship that started back in 2015, mini golf was one of our first big dates. Ever since, it has been almost a yearly activity we have done together. It has especially been a popular activity for us to include to celebrate our yearly wedding anniversary as opposed to our dating anniversary! Since this trip was basically an anniversary celebration since we would be on our way to Winnipeg on our actual anniversary, we figured some mini golf would be a perfect activity for the conclusion day of our trip!

Puttshack opens daily at 11:00am, so we made sure to be there right at opening. You can reserve spots online, so we had done so the night before just to be on the safe side. It was a Sunday, and mini golf would be a good Sunday family afternoon activity, so we wanted to make sure we wouldn’t have to fight for a spot. Upon arrival, we checked in at a Kiosk and pulled up our reservations where we were able to put in our names that we would be syncing up to the golf ball we were given. The balls have micro chips that automatically track your play and keep score!

The employee working the kiosk sent us over to the course we would be playing. You have to enter through a gate, and they use your name to get the ball, and then you walk through the gate to pick out your golf club. The courses are incredibly cool! First of all, the technology is amazing. You place your ball on a designated starting point. Once it registers your ball, it glows green and pulls up your name on the screen. It then automatically tracks each hit on the screen for you! You do have to play one player at a time for each hole all the way through, so that it can track your score.

Secondly, each hole was incredibly creative and fun! There were holes that looked like a big beer pong, a Tetris game where there was an actual moving obstacle piece, a roulette wheel, a Connect 4 game, a carnival duck game, one that looked like an air hockey table, and even a drum set where your ball bounced across several drum heads and was musical and wonderful. There were even a few trivia holes where you had to hit your ball into a true or false side depending on your answer to the question on screen! That is just to name a few! The amount of fun holes were endless!

In fact, it was so much fun that we ended up going back to kiosk to purchase another round! While playing our second round, we were approached by an employee that asked us if we would like to order a drink while we played that they would bring to us when ready. We were still in Nashville after all, so of course we couldn’t say no! I ordered a Peach Tea on Peach Tree which was Puncher’s Chance Bourbon, Helix7 Vodka, Ole Smoky Tennessee Peach Whiskey, Disaronno Amaretto, peach purée, cold-pressed lemon juice, and Coca-Cola. Luke ordered a Perfect “10” Old Fashioned which was Russell’s Reserve 10-year-old Bourbon, orange & lemon peel, DeGroff’s Pimento Bitters, Demerara syrup, and a signature ice ball. They were both absolutely delicious, and I would especially recommend the Peach Tea on Peach Tree!

After two unbelievably fun and delightful (and slightly expensive) mini golf rounds, we each had a win under our belts and were full of booze and smiles! It was also now around noon, so we although we were sad to leave Puttshack, we were excited to find some lunch!

Since we’d had such good luck with our BBQ food stops, we made the 2 minute walk over to Central BBQ for lunch, a Memphis style BBQ place. We ordered the Pitmaster Combo, which came with 6 oz of pork, brisket, and chicken, as well as rolls and 2 sides. For sides, we got some home-cooked potato chips and BBQ beans.

They had some pretty big shoes to fill after we had already visited Peg Leg Porker and Bringle’s Smoking Oasis, and so, we found this food slightly underwhelming. it definitely wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t our favorite food stop of the trip. Again, I’m a big brisket girl, so that was still my favorite of the meats. The home-cooked chips also really hit the spot and were nice and salty and crunchy, a very solid combo!

If you are coming to Nashville to take a BBQ journey, we would suggest starting with Central BBQ, then working your up to the top by visiting Bringle’s Smoking Oasis, and finishing with Peg Leg Porker! We think we would have enjoyed Central BBQ a little more if we hadn’t already had what we are pretty sure is the best BBQ Nashville has to offer.

After filling our bellies, we were ready to head to the next area we had come across as a good way to fill our last day, the Nashville Farmer’s Market! We decided to go ahead and do the 15-minute walk and save on calling another Uber.

As we first approached the Farmer’s Market location, we crossed paths with the garden center first. Being a huge plant person, I had to walk through, even if I knew I wouldn’t be able to take any of these beautiful plant babies home with me. Luke captured a plethora of moments with me absolutely having the time of my life.

After getting my fill of greenery, we made our way across the outdoor Farmer’s Market to the inside building to cool off after our hot walk for a little bit. We figured a nice cool drink would hit the spot, so after checking out some of the different places available, we decided our first stop would be at Bubble Love for some bubble tea! Luke got a strawberry fruit tea with blueberry popping boba. I got a peach fruit tea with mango popping boba. We then got to enjoy stabbing our special boba straws thorough the seal.

With nice cold drinks in hand, we began to actually explore the Farmer’s Market. We started inside with some of the different stores and shops. There was a very cool and unique merch store that we liked, but we wanted to check everything out before settling on what we might want to purchase from here, so we made a note to come back. They also had a cool I *heart* Nash sign in the main food seating concourse, so we of course had to snap a few shots in front of that before making our way outside to actually check out the outdoor area of the Farmer’s Market instead of just walking through it.

One side of the outdoor market had a plethora of fresh fruit and vegetables, like you would expect to find at a Farmer’s Market. The other side was more of the artisans area where there were booths set up selling all kinds of handmade trinkets, artwork, fashion, jewelry, and home essentials. One stand we walked around made animal prints, and I found the cutest watercolor giraffe print that I couldn’t just walk away from. I made sure to purchase the most reasonably sized one that would easily be able to make its way safely home with me!

Right across the way from the Farmer’s Market is the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, so we decided to take a little stroll. Our stroll started by walking through the Pathway of History, a 1,400 foot-long engraved wall that marks significant events throughout the state’s history, from its founding to the bicentennial! This lead us over to the Court of Three Stars and Carillon. The court is a large red, white, and blue circle with three stars which resembles the center of the Tennessee state flag. The stars stand for all the differences that make up the three unique regions, or “Great Divisions” that make up the state. The zones are the mounts of east Tennessee, the rolling hills of middle Tennessee, and the delta of western Tennessee! The Carillon surrounds the Court of Three Stars. It is comprised of 95 bells that reside within 50 Greek-style columns and represent the state’s 95 counties.

As we continued the loop of the park we came across the park’s amphitheater. There wasn’t anything going on within the theater, but we still walked over to check it out because how often do you casually come across an amphitheater modeled after the Greek amphitheater at Epidaurus? The amphitheater area also offers an incredible view of the Tennessee State Capitol Building! We then completed our loop and started to head back over to the Farmer’s Market after a very lovely walk in the park.

We had successfully heated ourselves up to quite a toasty temperature again, so when we got back to the market, ice cream (along with a bottle of chilled water) seemed like the obvious choice to enjoy next. The heat was getting to me a little bit, so I took a seat at one of the open tables while Luke went over to Jeni’s Ice Cream to order us some scoops. He got a scoop of coffee with cream and a scoop of salted peanut butter with chocolate flakes. Even though I am definitely the bigger coffee drinker of the two of us, coffee ice cream is his thing. The peanut butter with chocolate was definitely picked with me in mind. They were both very tasty, sweet, and cold, pretty much exactly what we needed for a pick me up. The water also probably helped.

After feeling much more energized and refueled, we made our way back over the store we had made a note to return to. It was called Nash TN. Their store had a very modern look, and all of their merchandise was something you would expect David from Schitt’s Creek to be wearing, aka mostly shades of black and white with a few very subtle neutral colors. It was really cool! The guy manning the store was incredibly friendly and seemed to enjoy chatting with us about where we were from. It had come up that we were heading to a comedy festival in the next week, and he was super excited for us! He even said that Luke reminded him of Jack Whitehall. In the end, Luke found a T-shirt he liked, and we each picked out a couple of fun prints. As we were checking out, we saw the stickers up at the register, and there was a deal if you got 5, so we worked together to choose 5 while we continued talking with the employee, and he ended up just giving them to us for free!

After that, it was time for another refill on coffee, and of course we had to try out one of the coffee places here! We made our way over to Farm City Coffee. Their menu offered a variety of unique and interesting-sounding flavors! In the end, Luke went with an Ice Bourbon Vanilla Latte, and I decided I was still hot and wanted a Cookies and Cream Frappe. Instead of wandering around, we decided to continue sitting to enjoy our coffee for a little bit longer and just people watch. This actually ended up being far more interesting than we anticipated.

At one point, a woman, instead of sitting down in a chair, decided to lean up/sit on the edge of one of the tables near us. The tables are moveable, and are not bolted down, so having a full-grown person’s weight on one side and absolutely nothing on the other, caused the table to tip, sending both the table and woman came crashing loudly to the floor. People around her leaned in from their seats to ask if she was okay, a few walked over. This would be an embarrassing moment for anyone, however, this lady took an interesting approach to handling it. She decided to turn and start berating a family (who, as a note, did not appear to belong to a minority group) near her about something completely unrelated, like politics or something. Essentially, all bad things are because of people like them. It was insane. We were all left in a baffled silence as she continue to scream as she walked out of the market.

To end out time at the Farmer’s Market, we had one last hot chicken establishment to try to close out our Nashville hot chicken journey. Inside the market, there is a Lily’s Hot Chicken location. To keep things fair, we went with the mild tenders as we had with the other locations. Then we decided to try a side of their mac-n-cheese. It was definitely another very solid hot chicken establishment that I think we, in the end, crowned as our second favorite place to get hot chicken. Hattie B’s had to take the win for us!

After we concluded our time at the Nashville Farmer’s Market, we called an Uber a little before 5:00. There was a Buffalo Exchange in Nashville, and since we’d had such a good time our first/previous time visiting a Buffalo Exchange in San Francisco, we decided we would pay this one a visit and see how it went. It also just so happened to be close to Centennial Park, so we would be able to walk over to see the Parthenon after shopping! This was something that was on our maybe list, so we wouldn’t have gone out of the way to visit, but it just so happened to work out!

I didn’t have any luck at all at this Buffalo Exchange, unfortunately. It could also be less fun to shop when you don’t have as many people you love (in case you missed it in our San Francisco post, my sister and her husband were with us the last time) and also when you didn’t have a boozy evening in a dive bar just before. Luke was able to find a few things he liked, so we checked out and then started to make the walk over to Centennial Park.

As we made our way into the park, we passed what appeared to be some sort of a large event or gathering with performers and music and all kinds of loud and crazy things going on. When we were first approaching, we assumed it was a child’s birthday party, but as we got closer, we were able to see that it was definitely not specifically for children. There were actually mostly adults in unique and colorful outfits.

We continued walking toward the Parthenon and walked past a gorgeous and one of a kind sculpture! The artist, Anthony Heinz May, takes parts of dead or dying trees, cuts them into fragments at a different location, and then brings them back and reattaches them in a way that makes it appear as though the tree is dissolving! It’s very cool!

Finally, we made our way over to the Nashville Parthenon. It is an art museum that, as the name suggests, resembles The Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Just like the original, the inside also features a 42-foot statue of the Greek goddess, Athena. The museum had closed by the time we had gotten there, but again, this wasn’t at the top of our list, and we don’t know if we would have wanted to go inside anyway, so we were fine. There is an admission fee if you are interested in entering The Parthenon, $10 for adults. We were content just to walk around the outside and take in the huge full-scale model of the form Grecian temple, whose remains we hope to one day actually see in person!

It was then time to call an Uber back to our Airbnb. We wanted to call it a night a little earlier because we had an early flight out the next day. To our absolute delight, the vehicle that came to pick us up was a Tesla! Neither of us had ridden in a Tesla, as they are not very commonly seen back home, so we were absolutely tickled to have the chance to ride inside one and see all the new and innovative technology that you hear so much about!

The rest of our evening was a quiet one. We knew our time in Nashville was coming to an end, but it didn’t feel somber either. We were extremely grateful we’d had the opportunity to visit at all since a national trip wasn’t up next on our rotation (local, national, international) after doing an international trip in 2023, but we had found such amazing prices that we were fortunate enough to be able to afford going. We, of course, still felt the sadness one feels when an adventure comes to a close. We had to pack up all our souvenirs, new clothing, and delicious wine so that we would be ready to hit the road bright and early the next morning. Plus, what’s better than simply spending time on the final evening of an anniversary trip with the person you love most of all?

Day 6

(Flying Home)

The flight out of Nashville the next morning was at 6:50am. Although anticipated to be about a 15 minute drive to the airport, it was a Monday morning, and we didn’t know what time work traffic started in Nashville, so we wanted to make sure to allow plenty of time, which is a reoccurring theme as you may have noticed. We were up before 5:00am to get dressed, pack away our pajamas, and do all our last-minute checks before heading out. We had reserved an Uber the night before, but they had cancelled, so we had to call another one, and were lucky we were still able to get one.

The drive to the airport was a quiet one. First of all, it was early, and I am by no means a morning person. Secondly, it’s never as much fun saying goodbye to a place as it is greeting it. Checking our luggage was again fairly straight-forward and easy. We got through security and were at our gate in a timely manner. Before we knew it, we were flying back home and arrived at the Sioux Falls airport around 9:00am.

We couldn’t have asked for a better time in Music City, and we can’t wait to visit it again sometime!