I am a huge country music fan!  So, I figured that I need to visit Nashville to experience the music scene there.  Also, I wanted to do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail on that trip too since I love bourbon as well.  Moreover, Kentucky was one of six states that I have not been to yet.  So, Joy and I planned a get away for Labor Day Weekend to Nashville and Kentucky in 2018.  I still had my Southwest Companion Pass also so Joy flew for free with me as we made the long flight across the country to Baltimore/Washington International Airport before connecting to a shorter flight to Nashville (BNA) International Airport.  Oh, Southwest recently matched my American Airlines elite status too so I was now an "A Lister."  LOL.  That meant, that I would be guaranteed a good boarding position and could use the VIP check in counters and security lines.

    After arriving in Nashville, we got our rental car and headed out to the hotel to check in before heading out to downtown Nashville.  Our hotel was not too far from downtown.  I made reservations at a popular steakhouse called Jeff Ruby's.  He has several restaurants in the Cincinatti, Louisville, and Nashville areas.  The steakhouse and sushi restaurant is highly rated, and the reservations were hard to come by!  After valeting our car in downtown with the restaurant, we walked around the Live On The Green music festival before dinner.  It was so chill and cool.  There were bands performing in an outdoor venue, and there were lots of people just enjoying the music and partying.

    We enjoyed our dinner at Jeff Ruby's very much. The service was definitely Southern Hospitality.  The waiters even escort the ladies to the restroom arm in arm like true gentlemen.  Joy got a kick out of that.  I told her that Southerners are very polite people.  I loved the truffle butter that was served with the bread that is brought in from Cincinatti every day.  Jeff Ruby's also had live music in the bar area.  After dinner, the valet parked our rental car across the street so we could go explore Lower Broadway.  We walked through the famous Printer's Alley to where all the action happens in Nashville at night.  Lower Broadway was like the "Las Vegas" of the East.  There were so many young people just partying the night away.  Joy and I went to Blake Shelton's "Ole Red" Bar & Grill.  They had some live music too!  I enjoyed my whiskey and the Nashville tunes very much.

    The next morning, we began the famous Kentucky Bourbon Trail.  On the way, we stopped at the birth place of President Abraham Lincoln.  They had the first Lincoln Memorial over the site where the cabin was where he was born.  Most of Kentucky was pretty rural, and we saw lots of cool farms and silos as we drove through the area.

    We went to Maker's Mark for our first bourbon tasting experience.  I am an Ambassador for Maker's Mark.  What is that?  They have a barrel with my name on it maturing in one of the rickhouses.  When it matures, I can go back and buy bottles from that barrel.  Moreover, they sent me a cool ambassador's package and apparently gifts during Christmas will start coming this year.  I got a special Ambassador's pin too for my tour.  The tour of the distillery was really neat.  I saw how the clear alcohol becomes that yellowish color beverage that so many of us enjoy!  Maker's Mark distills and bottles everything on site.  We even saw an old printing press that makes the labels to this day.  After the tour, we were given a tasting of five different types of bourbon starting from the clear alcohol to their reserves.  At the end of the tour, I was able to purchase a special edition bottle of their bourbon and hand dip the bottle into the famous red wax myself!

    Our next stop was Louisville.  Guy Fieri featured a burger restaurant on his show, "Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives."  The Grind Burger Kitchen was in downtown Louisville.  We stopped there for a tasty dinner before exploring the Waterfront Park.  This old railroad bridge over the Ohio River was converted into a pedestrian bridge that linked Louisville, KY to Jeffersonville, Indiana.  So, Joy and I crossed that bridge to go get some yogurt in Jeffersonville.  Afterwards, we saw a beautiful sunset over the Ohio River before heading over to our hotel.

    The next morning, we went to Churchill Downs to start off our day of siteseeing.  Churchill Downs is home to the Kentucky Derby.  We went to the Kentucky Derby Museum, and the admisson included a walking tour of the grounds.  We got to see the track too!  Afterwards, we found a White Castle so we had to go in and get a snack since Joy never experienced a White Castle before outside of the one in Las Vegas on the Strip.

    I wanted to go see the Louisville Slugger Museum next since I am a huge baseball fan.  The museum was in downtown Louisville.  I wore my camo Texas Rangers hat too.  The tour showed us how baseball bats are made.  I never knew about "cupping" or cutting out the top of the baseball bats.  It is legal in the Majors, and some of the players have their bats made like that.  The museum had a game used bat for each team also that one could hold.  I got to hold Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez's game used bat.  He is a Hall of Fame catcher for my Texas Rangers!  After the tour, we got a nice souvenir baseball bat.

    We walked around the historic Bourbon Distirct in downtown Louisville after the bat museum.  Many of the buildings are over a hundred years old there.  There is a lot of history on the East Coast of the United States.

    We got back on the "Bourbon Trail" later that day and went to Angel's Envy in downtown Louisville.  Angel' Envy is a relatively newer brand of bourbon.  The distillery tour was sold out, but we were able to do a whiskey roundtable where we got to taste some of their bourbon before getting a peak into the distillery.  They paired chocolate with the bourbon too.

    On the way back to Tennessee that evening, we stopped at a Bob Evan's for dinner.  When I lived in Ohio was a youngster, we had a lot of Bob Evan's restaurants.  They are down home, country style cooking.  We loved the food, and the service was great too.  I even got some banana walnut nut bread for my dad because one of my parent's friends used to make it for us for the holidays each year.  My dad loves it!

    The next day, we started out our tour in Nashville at the replica of the Parthenon  in Centennial Park.  Afterwards, we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville.  One could spend a whole day there!  They even had Elvis Presley's Cadillac on display.  The Country Music Hall of Fame is down the street from Lower Broadway.  We went out to check out a few bars on Lower Broadway after the museum, and it was amazing how they had live music even in the afternoon at most of the venues.  The artists all work for tips, and they are actually pretty good for amateur musicians.  We checked out Alan Jackson's Good Times Bar.  Afterwards, we went to the world famous Nudie's Honky Tonk for some more music.  Lower Broadway was still pretty busy during the daytime.

    For dinner, we went to an old Nashville steakhouse called Jimmy Kelly's.  This high upscale old fashioned steakhouse was known for their high quality food.  The staff was very attentive and offered that Southern Hospitality.  From the moment, a manager took our rental car keys since the valet had not checked in it to make sure the car would be parked to when the waiter offered us a nice beverage, we felt at home there.  I enjoyed a mint julep since that is a Southern thang to drink when in Dixie.  After the amazing dinner, we went to the Grand Ole Opry for a Tuesday night performance.  I knew that Rascal Flatts was going to be performing along with the Bellamy Brothers, but I was so excited to see that John Conlee was going to start off the music that night.  He is an older country singer, but I like several of his hits.  The Grand Ole Opry is broadcast live on a local radio station as well as on "Willie's Roadhouse" on Sirius XM usually.  How do I know "Willie's Roadhouse?"  I have Sirius XM in both my vehicles.  I swear by them!  Luckily, our rental car had Sirius XM too for that weekend since it was a free preview weekend for Labor Day.  The rental car company upgraded us to a hybrid Ford Fusion with a moonroof.

    On Wednesday, we went back to Lower Broadway to take in more of the music scene.  We enjoyed lunch at Jason Aldean's Kitchen + Roof Top.  After lunch, we did go up to the roof top to take in amazing views of Lower Broadway as well as the stadium where the Titans play.  I also saw the famous steamboat, the General Jackson, make its way along the river near Lower Broadway.  While on the roof top, we saw that Luke Bryan had a restaurant next door.  We could actually walk to it from Jason Aldean's roof top since the restaurants were owned by the same group.  The roof top restaurant served sushi.  So, Joy and I got some sushi as an after lunch snack over there.  I also tried an amazing pecan whiskey.  Then, we walked down the multi levels of Luke Bryan's establishment to the street level to walk around somemore.  We found a Goo Goo Store too so we stopped in there for dessert.  Afterwards, we went shopping for souvenirs.  We also saw the world famous Ryman Auditorium.  The Ryman Auditorium was the original home of the Grand Ole Opry.

    Afterwards, we went to a Dukes of Hazzard museum near the Opryland area.  They had an outlet mall too so we were able to do some shopping before we had to the airport for our flight back to Sacramento.  The sales tax in Tennessee was lower than California so the clothes were a good deal overall.

    I generally do not repeat going to places I have visited before with the exception of Sun Valley, ID, Las Vegas, and Phoenix for Spring Training, but I would definitely come back to Nashville!  I loved it!