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Nashville – June of 2017 – Eating, drinking, dancing and of course Crossfit.

Wow.  What a cool town Nashville is.  I obviously like this kind of vibe which is probably why I like Austin so much too.  We decided to stay downtown at the Renaissance.  Rooms are nice and the hotel is very nice.  They have a decent bar on the second floor and the fitness room is quite good.  The pool area is typical of downtown hotels with the pool on the second level inside and an outdoor sunbathing area.  With all of the construction going on around the Renaissance it was surprisingly quite and relaxing on the sundeck.  The downtown area is fun to walk with lots of historical buildings and churches.  Go inside the Union Station Hotel as it is beautiful inside.  Along the river you can see the exact spot the town was founded and a replica of the old fort.

The most important part of the stay was obviously a drop-in at the local Crossfit box.  The closest gym to downtown is Crossfit Music City.  I find gyms in high demand locations can afford it for a reason.  Music City didn’t disappoint. Rebecca, one of the owners, was very welcoming as were all of the locals.  I’m a CF-1 and sometimes other coaches don’t like to critique you if they know.  Rebecca had no problem telling me my overhead squat was starting to look like crap toward the end of the WOD and I love that.  Definitely drop-in if you get a chance.

Broadway Street downtown in bar row.  There is plenty to do nightly and a bunch of the bars have rooftop patios and live music.  We liked Tootsies and a bar that just opened called Mellow Mushroom.  MM was still working out some kinks but they had a great rooftop bar with live music and I think it’s going to be a great place to hang out.  Also visit The Wildhorse Saloon and BB Kings (for Jazz fans).  We were lucky enough to have the Wildhorse closed down for us for a private event but it actually got much more fun when they opened the doors up at 10 to the public.  This is a big venue and it looks like they almost always have a high quality band.  Try out Jack’s Bar-B-Que on Broadway.  Most of the locals told me this was the best in town and it was very good.  Everyone also kept talking about having a meat and 3 and I finally asked what it was.  We were directed to Arnold’s where we picked out a meat and three sides for lunch.  Arnold’s was fantastic and very reasonable.

One day we took a taxi to 12th Ave South shopping and strolled through all of the quaint little boutique shops and had a couple microbrews.  This area has charm and was fun to walk around.  I’ll be honest.  If you are budget minded you may not find anything you want to buy down here but it was still great to stroll.  We ended the day taking a taxi from 12th Ave Sth to an area called the Gulch.  The Gulch had some cool shopping and we had dinner at a place called The Whisky Kitchen.  So good.  If you get a chance try the Tennessee Whiskey Yam Fries for sure.  We also enjoyed the WK edamame and a drink called the Basil-Berry Lemonade.

Arnold’s Meat & 3

Wildhorse

Kresta liked our servers glasses at BB King’s

Mellow Mushroom

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Nassau Bahamas 2017- Fun things we did! Including Crossfit

There are literally too many things to do on Nassau for someone going over for a week or ten days.  The trip had to include a drop-in at the local Crossfit box as I plan where we stay some vacations around how close it is to a gym.  Happy Hour Crossfit did not disappoint.  The local people I meet were super friendly and the coach was awesome.  Bit of a tough workout for vacation but who’s complaining.  If you’re a Crossfitter and visiting Nassau you need to get into this box for a workout.  Some of the best experiences I’ve had on vacation were getting to meet new friends at the box from around the world.  If you don’t search out a box on vacation and inject yourself into the community you are missing the boat.  It is a fantastic way to meet local people and find out what the truly fun things to do are and where to eat, etc..

We also did a day excursion over to Blue Lagoon Island and did the Segway tour.  It’s a fairly short boat ride and the island is beautiful.  If you want to go and stay for the day and sit at the beach that is included in the cost but food and drink are not and it is EXPENSIVE.  The Segway tour was alright but frankly was a little boring for me.  We opted to take to first boat back to Nassau and spend time in town.

We did the Snuba tour one day and that was quite fun.  I’m not a huge fan of saltwater in my mouth and hence I don’t really like to snorkel.  I did not drink any saltwater with the Snuba equipment.  You can dive down to a depth of 20 feet and while the reefs aren’t the best in the world there was plenty to see.  A couple we talked to the day before had seen a shark in the reefs on their excursion.  Lucky,  apparently that does not happen often.  The biggest drawback to the trip was that time under water is very short.  For a 4 hour excursion we were underwater about 30 minutes.

Most of the excursions send a bus to pick up at all of the hotels and that is included in the cost.  There is a Jeep tour around the island that we heard was good and a walking tour of local restaurants downtown that some people liked.  If you’re interested in an all day excursion everyone talked about the speed ferry ride to Harbour Island to see the pink sand beaches.