i went to nashville, part 4

i'm sorry for stretching these out soooo looong, but i wanted to make sure that i posted about everything. it was mine and austin's first vacation and hopefully not our last trip to nashville.

i mentioned that we took the last bit of our trip to make mini stops in other big cities in tennessee.. namely, knoxville and gatlinburg. in knoxville, i really wanted to stop by nostalgia.

 

this picture was taken from across the street, but i loved the turquoise accents on the front of the building (the sign, the walkway). this place was huge, and we were lucky to have gotten there fairly early in the day, so we had time to mosey around the whole store.

one of the first things that greets you is this cute cute old-tv-turned-aquarium:

 obsessed! <3

they had incredible selection.. i ended up buying a sweet little vintage top, something that is forever alluding me. :)

our reasons for stopping in gatlinburg were a little bit sillier.. i wanted austin to see the main street with all of the tourist attractions (i LOVE that road.. i bet that it's just as much fun to stare at as the attractions would be!), and i needed a new pair of jeans. i only owned one pair of jeans prior to this trip, and, with weather changing/my current job requiring dresses to be worn with tights at all times, i needed another pair or two. my one pair of jeans came from the levi's outlet in gatlinburg, so i figured it'd be a quick stop because i knew my style and i knew my size (when i bought my first pair of jeans, they were the only pair that i tried on!). unfortunately (to austin's dismay), i was wrong. THIRTEEN pairs of jeans later, i ended up spending exactly what i would have at home on a new pair. don't get me wrong, they're perfect and i really did need them, but it was a bit of a waste.. and not a fun side adventure. ;)

after those (and a couple of other) stops, we had to really head home.

i was a sad pup. <3

i went to nashville, part 3

even though third man records was the obvious outlier in terms of things we did in nashville, we did so many other awesome things!! a few were even awesome enough to mention. :)

hatch show print
this letterpress shop has been running since 1879, and the interior was incredible. we couldn't help ourselves and bought 4 posters from them! i took a few pictures, because i was in awe of the walls and also of their letterpress blocks.. there seemed to be millions!

in this one, i spotted a poster at the top for a show at the salem civic center! i got pretty geeky excited, because we lived in salem for a time (it's about twenty minutes down the road from our current home)

las paletas
i was SO. EXCITED. about these popsicles. unfortunately, i forgot to take pictures... whoops. but i got the avocado, and austin got the pineapple blueberry. thumbs up from both of us! we enjoyed them while walking through the park across the street.

rare bird antique mall
i was told beforehand that even though this was a little bit of a drive compared to everything else we visited while in town, it was worth it. that was so true!! i was OBSESSED. we actually showed up on a day that they were planning on closing early ( :( ), so we didn't even get to see half of the place. i bought a little pin, because i wanted something.. but this is one place i definitely absolutely for sure will be visiting again.

the day after all of this, we left nashville. but we took a long route home, stopping in knoxville and gatlinburg (no dolly parton sightings, unfortunately). i'll write about those detours later. <3

i went to nashville, part 2

so. i was in nashville. but why? i mean it's a pretty cool city in it's own right, but i think people were confused as to why austin would take me there rather than somewhere closer/bigger/more interesting, whatever.

anyone who knows me, probably knows that i idolize jack white. in a pretty serious way. i have these strange tiers in my head of my favorite music/bands, and his bands are generally at the top of each tier. especially the white stripes. so, when i read years ago that his record store in nashville, third man records, was like a teeny tiny sorta white stripes museum, i dreamt & dreamt of the day i'd be able to see it.

well. saturday, april 14th was that day!! unfortunately, i'm real awkward and i was SO nervous (SOOOO nervous) to even be in the place, so this was the only picture that i took. however. i can highly recommend the store to any vinyl, white stripes, third man, or jack white fan. :) i think i got most excited seeing the 'fell in love with a girl' lego pieces ;)

luckily, this trip DID coincide with my birthday, so i had some extra birthday money to spend.. not nearly enough, seeing as i wanted e v e r y t h i n g (honestly. everything.), including a lil white stripes onesie with the pope and the devil shaking hands for my niece (i passed on that, though).

here's a really blurry cell phone picture of my third man swag that i took on the hotel room bed when we did a drop off because i was scared of my records warping in my hot car (i know, i know)!
(clockwise l-r: 3 free prints, the white stripes' 'under great white northern lights,' the white stripes' 'white blood cells,' first aid kit's 'universal soldier' 7 inch [which i didn't know existed! and freaked out about! did you know that jack is doing his european tour with them?! what a dream.], jack white's 'sixteen saltines' and 'love interruption' 7 inches, a cute little third man records tshirt, and the teeniest white stripes peppermint swirl button. <3 austin had to drag me away from the mini record player (it came with 6 wrapped 1-inch records.. what in the world so cute).

even though this was the most important and most exciting part of our little road trip, we still did so many cool things! but i'll save those for later. <3

i went to nashville, part 1

back in january sometime, austin told me that i needed to take the second weekend of april off of work. he didn't exactly tell me why until last thursday.

he was taking me to nashville!!

we left around 5pm friday night (i attended a funeral in the morning while austin was at work), but not until after we stopped for huge mcdonald's iced coffees.

my ollllddddd gps (circa uh, 2005?) only steered us wrong once (unfortunately it was right at the street of our hotel.. but we figured things out). austin drove the first couple of hours, and then i powered through the rest.

i'll post the rest of our trip throughout the week <3