Chalk Travels: Nashville, TN and CMA Fest

Happy Friday, friends! You may remember Thomas surprised me during our anniversary trip with a gift certificate (1st anniversary is paper) to CMA Music Festival with our dear friends! I was full of excitement after opening the envelope and remember thinking that it was going to feel like forever until we would be in Nashville walking down Broadway listening to the live music being sung at every Honky Tonk, restaurant and outdoor stage. Now, here I am, ten months later recapping what was one of the most memorable and special trips to date.  

88,500 country music fans from all over flooded Nashville and we had one goal in mind: to "enjoy Country's Night to Rock!" We certainly did exactly that. For 5 days, we ate good food, drank our cocktail of choice and listened to hundreds of very talented country artists. Every artist that you can imagine was there to perform live at multiple venues, host meet and greets, attend autograph sessions and take {endless} selfies with their fans. We caught Blake Shelton leaving The Stage after a surprise performance, I have to admit it was pure luck and one of many highlights of our trip.

Bright and early every morning, we would get our morning jolt of caffeine then jump on the shuttle from our hotel to head downtown for the day. With seven different stages setup for daytime music, you were certain to see artists from legends to the latest up-and-comers. The Chevrolet Riverfront Stage is the epicenter of daytime music with the must-see lineups that aren't performing at night in Nissan Stadium. Between the incredible view and lineups at the Riverfront, this is where you could find us most days!

Then each night, the fans packed into Nissan Stadium to sing and dance for hours to all our favorite artists. To kick-off CMA Fest, Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts and Jason Aldean brought down the house. The following two nights included Chris Stapleton, Sam Hunt, Eric Church, Hank Williams, Jr., Carrie Underwood, Chris Young, Cole Swindell, Florida Georgia Line, Steven Tyler and Blake Shelton {along with a few special guests but I'll keep that a surprise until it airs on TV}.

The final night was electric and full of energy thanks to Little Big Town, Thomas Rhett, Brett Eldredge, Keith Urban and Luke Bryan!

 

As if CMA Fest could get any better, the money generated through CMA Music Festival ticket sales for the nightly concerts and Fan Fair X will benefit music education, reaching 1 million children across the United States. Since 2006, CMA and the CMA Foundation have donated more than $13.6 million to support sustainable music education initiatives across the country.

Now for a few recommendations on places to eat and things to do if you plan on visiting Nashville...

Places to Eat:

- Jack's BBQ

- Biscuit Love

- The Farm House

- Moto

- Etch 

- Virago

- The Stillery

- Merchants Restaurant

- The Southern

- Puckett's Grocery 

- Tavern 

- Barista Parlor

- Pinewood Social

Things to Do:

- Dance the morning, afternoon or evening away at the Honky Tonks

- Enjoy a glass of champagne while getting pampered at the Blowout Company

- Shopping in the Gulch 

- If you're a fan of Reese Witherspoon, you must pop into Draper James

- Try on a pair of cowboy boots in the Lucchese Store

 - Walk the streets of Music Row

 - End of the night with cocktails at The Patterson House

- Sit on the rooftop at ACME Feed & Seed or The Stage 

- Tour the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

- Take a #SinemaSelfie at the Sinema Restaurant & Bar

- Enjoy whiskey? Visit Whiskey Kitchen

{Many of these great recommendations came from my brother-in-law, a Nashville Native.}  

If you love country music as much as we do, you can relive our trip with us when Brett Eldredge and Thomas Rhett host "CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock" on August 3rd at 8pm EST. The three hour special will feature all the country-music stars as they hit the stage during the four-day celebration that we were lucky enough to be a part of. Now, it's time to begin planning our next trip! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Chalk Travels: Recapping our 1st Anniversary Trip

Happy Friday Eve! I have sat down to write this post at least 3 times yet something distracts me and I have yet to hit publish. Today is the day though, I am excited to share the most relaxing and beautiful Anniversary weekend that was spent in Asheville, North Carolina. For those of you that are from North Carolina, you realize how breathtaking the views can be in September and this weekend was no exception. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the mornings and evenings were a crisp 50 or so degrees and the leaves were beginning to change to their fall colors. Oh my, it was gorgeous!

We treated ourselves and stayed at the Grand Bohemian Hotel, which is designed to look and feel like a European hunting lodge with the Blue Ridge Mountains as your backdrop. The entire staff was incredible from the moment that we pulled up to when we were walking out the door on Sunday, they truly made the experience complete. Let's just say, this happy Bride didn't have a {single} care in the world during our time there.

 

On Saturday, we spent the day at the Biltmore Estate! The Biltmore is the family home of the Vanderbilts that is a marvel of elegance and charm. George Vanderbilt wanted the home to be a French Renaissance chateau with 250 rooms for his family and friends to enjoy. We took a tour of the home which is filled with the family's vintage clothing, accessories, art, furniture and so much more.

We strolled acres upon acres of gardens where I found myself snapping pictures every few seconds. I am confident that their team of landscapers and horticultural experts must stay {very} busy because the beauty of the grounds and gardens is breathtaking. Lunch and a wine tasting were next on our list so we drove to Antler Hill Village to sip, eat and relax. I still find myself craving the Pimento Cheese, Green Tomato, Bacon with Pesto Aioli sandwich from Cedric's Tavern. It sounds divine, right?!  

Saturday night, I slipped back into my Rehearsal Dinner dress and dusted off my Wedding Day shoes for dinner at the Red Stag Grill because it was time to celebrate 365 days of marriage to my handsome husband! Every day I am thankful that "I have found the one whom my soul loves." TC - Thank you for making me a better woman, wife, sister, daughter and friend. I am so proud to be your wife!

Following dinner, it was time to open presents! The suspense was killing me because as you know from this post we were going to exchange traditional gifts. TC is always thoughtful and creative in his gift giving so I knew that he was going to do something that I would never expect {which he did}. He created a list of Chalk Adventures that included about 10 trips and events that we've talked about doing over the years. From the list, he asked me to guess which event or trip was the one that he had already planned for us. Have no fear, my very first guess was correct...he purchased tickets and we are going to Nashville, TN for the CMA Music Festival in June! We are huge country music fans so I was in complete shock. I am already counting down the days until we are listening to all of our favorite artists from sun up to sun down!

It was hard to top that but I was still really excited to share the gifts that I had gotten us. Months before our anniversary, I had narrowed down my paper options to three for a gift that was going to be for both of us. After a lot of thought, I decided to go with the Custom Painted Wedding Invitation Keepsake and it turned out beautiful! I will have it framed and hung on the wall soon.

TC is not only a huge country music fan, he is also a huge fan of NASCAR. He has grown up going to races with his family and he now has me attending 1 or 2 every year. Who would have thought?! :) So it only seemed fitting that I gave him a ticket for the Richard Petty Driving Experience in Charlotte. He will be in the driver's seat of a NASCAR race car for 8 laps!    

What a special weekend to celebrate an even more special year for us. Our journey has just begun and I can't wait to see what is in store for us!