As we mentioned in prior posts, we’ve had a recent addition to the family and we’ve learned a lot about how to travel with a baby! We are attempting to visit US states that we haven’t yet been to. So, for spring break we decided to do a bit of a Tennessee/Kentucky road trip. We were joined on this trip by Della’s parents Peggy and Wayne. We started out in Memphis and then drove to Mammoth Cave in KY and then headed back into Tennessee to check out Nashville!

While in Nashville, we stayed in an AirBnB in the West End. It was a private suite in someone’s home. We got their entire second floor and it was lovely to have three bedrooms, a sitting room, and a bathroom all to ourselves. They even had some toddler friendly toys!

What We Did

Bicentennial Park – It was a little cold, so we didn’t spend too long here though we thought it was quite lovely. We checked out some views of the capital and read some of the information spread throughout the park.

Country Music Hall of Fame – This was very crowded! We ended up standing in line for a little while. At the time we visited, there was a special exhibit about Emmylou Harris. We then spent quite awhile exploring the main exhibit which follows country music from its roots to the present day. We enjoyed another special exhibit on the outlaw country scene from Austin in the 70s. We thought the museum was fairly well organized but a little hard to follow. Audio guides might have helped but they were out, unfortunately. We had to take turns keeping Kiddo entertained as he wasn’t content to sit in his stroller. None of us are huge country music fans, but we found it interesting all the same. 

The outside is supposed to look piano keys.

Downtown Highlights – We spent the evening wandering the streets of downtown. We walked Broadway, Second Ave, and the riverfront. There were so many different bars that had live music going and we enjoyed walking by and listening in. Many had open windows to the street. This is another time where we might have enjoyed our time a little bit differently if we hadn’t been traveling with Kiddo. 

The Hermitage – Last year, we visited the Bill Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, AK. We hadn’t ever been to a presidential library and we thought it was really interesting. We decided we wanted to visit more throughout our travels! We have since visited LBJ in Austin and Bush in Dallas. So, we decided to stop by The Hermitage on our way to the airport.

The Hermitage is Andrew Jackson’s residence and functions as a museum and historic site. It has a lot of information about the life of Andrew Jackson and you can walk through the historic farm and home. There was an audio guide to bring you through the site which was quite good. In addition to the self-guided audio tour, they also do an in-person tour of the mansion. Unfortunately, there was a long line of people waiting for this part. We did want to see it though, so we waited in line.

Unfortunately, this is where the day got a little bit messy. Kiddo had not napped on the drive to the Hermitage as we had hoped so he was a little antsy and grumpy. Della was a little frustrated that she missed out on a pretty good introductory film and most of the museum area. Kiddo did enjoy trying to walk through the grounds, but wasn’t too interested in stopping to listen to the audio guide! It was also a chilly day, so the long wait outside the mansion was a little trying on all of us.  The worst part was when it was our turn, he melted down once he put in the carrier so Della stayed outside while the rest toured inside. Eric took over and got him to sleep with a lot of help from Peggy so that Della could still rush through the mansion. Due to our time constraint of getting to the airport on time for our flight, we only had time to go quickly through the gardens -and unfortunately missed most of the rest of the fields. We enjoyed the visit and would recommend it – though doing it with a baby who has missed nap time is not ideal. 

Where We Ate

Farmers Market House – this was an extensive food hall with all kinds of food! We each got something from a different stall: Eric got fried catfish, Della a burrito, Wayne Jamaican, and Peggy gyros. We all enjoyed our food. Kiddo enjoyed eating off all of our plates.

Edley’s – We had intended to go to the classic Hattie B’s Hot Chicken for dinner but it turned out it was closed on Sunday night – which is the night we were there of course. We still wanted to try hot chicken, so after a little research we ended up at Edley’s. The line was a bit long to order and several of the sides we wanted were already gone, but we did enjoy the food we did get. Della got Hot Chicken and while it was probably not the classic experience, it was still a good one. 

Vegetarian Indian Restaurant at the Woodlands – One evening, we met an old friend of Wayne and Peggy and he took us here. We were a little tired of BBQ at that point so this was a welcome change. We shared some appetizers, dosas, and curries. All of us enjoyed the meal, even Kiddo who was mostly content to hang out and chow down!

Traveling with Kiddo (lessons learned)

Kiddo was about 13 months old and about a week away from walking! It was hard to schedule days around appropriate nap times and we had only brought a small cheap umbrella stroller with us. He did not nap easily in it. We learned we had to buy a bulkier but reclining stroller which would have made things easier!

Bringing our hook-on high chair was great for several meals, both out at restaurants and in the Airbnb!