The Hermitage — Andrew Jackson's home he built over time and lived in occasionally from 1804 to 1845 — is a nice place to visit and walk through some history. You're not allowed to photograph the inside of the house and can only go through it on a tour, but it's very similar to the Carnton Plantation in Franklin in terms of years it was active and use. Of course this one didn't have blood stains on the floor from a battle as far as I'm aware. 

The area outside the house is also beautiful. You can see the garden with Andrew Jackson and his wife, Rachel's, tomb. I loved that Jackson didn't want anything excessive written on his tombstone, but for Rachel he made sure to write this beautiful eulogy. 

Read more for photos and a throwback to three years ago when I went with Brittney and Whit...

The John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge is a short walk away from Lower Broadway where all the Honky Tonks are. It is a nice little walk that connects downtown Nashville with the residential suburbs of East Nashville, and contains a nice view of the downtown skyline and also the color-changing Gateway or "Korean War Veterans Memorial" Bridge. 

I just love how peaceful it feels any time of the day. Although it's not like the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge from Chattanooga where the both sides of the bridge are vibrant or touristy, it's still a good place to come and walk or bike through and back. 

Plus, because it's a short walk from downtown/Broadway, you can get yourself some Mike's Ice Cream after and stop by all the Honky Tonk's. 

See more for photos...

I'm always asked if I moved to Nashville for music. As in, Are you a musician? No. Mostly for the sake of others hearing, I am not. 

But definitely one of the things I love about Nashville is it's music. The authenticity of the performances here and the community and support for each other that I've seen is really inspiring. 

But to learn more about the history of music in Nashville, the Country Music Hall of Fame is the way to go.

In addition to admission to the Country Music Hall of Fame (CMHF), check out the RCA Studio B tour, and a tour (or at least a visit) of Hatch Show Print.

Read on for more details and photos...

When April was here #waybackwhen (specifically November), I wanted to go on a day trip somewhere else aside from Nashville or the immediate surrounding area. Researching various options (including other nearby states), and asking others who are from here, Chattanooga was the chosen city considering it was nearly everyone's first recommendation.

We initially had the idea to set out super early, had even bought tickets to ride the Southern Belle Riverboat cruise at 12:15pm. But sometimes not everything goes as planned. 

The night before, I got a flat tire. So the next morning — the one where we were supposed to head out super early — we had to go to the tire shop instead. We got breakfast after, thinking we had a lot of time, and left around 11am. After realizing we might just barely make it, we called the Riverboat company at about 11:30am asking what would happen if we were five minutes late, to be informed that the boat had left 15 minutes ago. We were so confused until we realized that Chattanooga is one hour ahead of Nashville. 

We had literally missed the boat.

I was able to get a gift certificate for the money I spent so I could go back later. I'll be sure to share the actual experience. But in case you want to go now then I recommend you get a Groupon.

Here's what we actually did instead:

1. Lunch at Good Dog and dancing on the sidewalk ;)
2. The Incline Railway
3. Clumpie's Ice Cream (made from local ingredients)
4. Drive through Lookout Mountain en route to Rock City
5. Side trip to Georgia look out and a fairytale village
6. Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge — awesome at sunset
7. Carousel Ride at Coolidge Park
8. Took night pictures at the Polka Dot Wall — exact location hard to determine. By Broad and Main St, near The Feed restaurant.
9. Dinner at Sugar's

With additional time, we could have explored:

• Tennessee Aquarium — world’s largest freshwater aquarium
• River Gorge Explorer
• Raccoon Mountain Caverns
• A show at Track 29
• Some more districts of downtown Chattanooga —see a breakdown here.

For all pictures and trip details/experience, read on...

When I came to visit Nashville almost three years ago — I had just finished college and was on my "spring break" in March — it snowed. In March. It wasn't a heavy snow by any means. It was just fluff that melted as soon as it hit the ground. But it was snow. 

And coming from Los Angeles where it was sunny, and spring was coming, I just thought that if some place still had snow, then it must snow even more in the winter time. I concluded that Nashville must have heavy snow in their winters. 

Then I moved here.

I told everyone that I wanted four seasons. That included real deal, shoveling snow seasons. I was so excited to finally have a white snowy winter. And everyone, I mean everyone that had lived here, told me that "in Nashville, it doesn't really snow. It just gets icy." 

What do you mean it doesn't snow?? I saw snow three years ago in March. 

"Well sometimes it's a light snow that melts as it hits the ground, but it's never really heavy snow. It doesn't stick."

Every time I had this conversation, I felt slightly bummed out. But in the back of my mind, I honestly just didn't believe them. Which is why I probably had the same conversation so many times.

My hope was further solidified though when Lizzie from the farm said that the persimmon seed revealed an intense snow will fall winter by showing a spoon shape (persimmon seeds can predict weather, didn't you know?). 

And then December came. Winter came. And it was sunny. Sometimes cold. But mostly mild and sunny.

My hopes started becoming less.

Coming back from Los Angeles and Utah, I still felt like there was a chance. And then hallelujah. It happened.

I was there with my roommate Annemarie when she got the phone call that school would be cancelled the next day. SNOW WAS COMING. 

READ MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DID AND SEE PHOTOS...

One thing I've been wanting to do more often in Tennessee is go hiking. There are hiking meetup groups, and specifically night hikes that I plan to do, but then it sort of gets lost throughout the day on my list of priorities. 

While April was here, my friend Matt suggested a little half-day trip to Cummins Falls State Park. He easily convinced me it was an ideal location to hike in from his beautiful photos of the waterfalls themselves and him behind the waterfall. Not only going to a waterfall but being able to go behind one? SOLD. 

READ MORE TO SEE PHOTOS, HIKE DETAILS, & DOUGHNUTS!...

Two weeks ago last night, April flew in to Nashville. I was BEYOND thrilled. The reality didn't even really hit me until I had blown up the air mattress and got ready to go pick her up. 

We went straight to Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (because I swear that's the best ice cream ever in my life so far (gelato is it's own category)) and then hit up The 5 Spot for their Monday night throwback dancing — making the oldie's good again.

Since she had just come from visiting her sister in Montana, I figured it was better to ease her into the Nashville city life. Instead of going straight into the tourist Nashville, we focused on a few key Nashville aspects before spending most of the day in Franklin.

The itinerary included:

• Breakfast at The Pancake Pantry
• Pictures with art walls nearby (like the one above)
• Carnton Plantation
• Lotz House
• Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge which also included a drive through some of Natchez Trace Parkway
• Dinner at The Loveless Cafe
• Music at The Bluebird Cafe

CLICK THROUGH TO SEE PICTURES & DETAILS

In due time, I'll show you my non-Pinterest perfect room that I've finally settled into in Nashville that includes a 3'x4' black and white poster of the ducks. They're pretty much lifesize. Which is nice, because I miss them along with the rest of the farm.

I've been lucky enough to be able to go out there at least once each week to visit and help out. But they just recently had their last farmer's market for the season last Saturday, so not as much harvesting to do anymore.

There's always a good reason to go out there though. Just this past Sunday, they actually had a little house concert which included a band called Pilgrim — composed of a really sweet family that sold everything to travel around the US in an airstream doing these house concerts. Seriously fantastic. 

But back to the animals. I talked about separating the sheep (full disclosure: some went to get... well... slaughtered on Monday. You should have seen my face when Lizzie told me. I'm just glad they lived a great life).

CLICK THROUGH TO SEE A PHOTO DOCUMENTARY OF EVERYONE ELSE

Is it just me or did anyone else just realize that "shepherd" almost exactly breaks down into "sheep herd(er)"?  

Don't worry — I just checked Wikipedia (which knows all, right?) and it confirmed that shepherd is, in fact, an amalgam (looked that up too — it means a mixture or a blend) of sheep herder! I knew I was kind of onto something.

Anyhow... THE SHEEP. 

I went to visit and help Jesse and Lizzie out on the farm yesterday because it was the big day where the baby boys would be separated from their mamas. Kind of sad... but it does prevent them from getting a little too excited and impregnating the other females. 

Backing up a little: giving water to the sheep was actually my first solo job on the farm. It was also the first time I drove the "gator" by myself, in the same day I was taught how to drive the gator. Moving fast, I know. 

CLICK THROUGH TO READ & SEE PHOTOS OF HOW WE SEPARATED THE SHEEP & MY FIRST SOLO EXPERIENCE

This post could also be titled, "Learning how to not ruin the plants and greens when pulling them out of the ground or chopping them," but that might be too long. 

Yesterday was the first morning in three Mondays where I didn't get up at 7am (well, more like 7:30am if we're going to be honest) and have some fresh duck eggs for breakfast prepared by Jesse, go out and check on those ducks, put water in their kiddie pool and fresh food in their bowl, and then go help Lizzie harvest.

I remember when first talking to Lizzie on the phone, she asked me questions about my experience harvesting. I think I grew a sweet pea plant for a school project one year, does that count? Not so much. She said something also about hoeing and plowing. I realized that I have heard the words, and know they have to do with farming, but I've never participated in them and had no idea how that even looked. Thank goodness for Google Images. In any case, I felt I at least could learn. 

After arriving on the farm, I remember going out the first morning and seeing the field we would be "harvesting." I thought to myself, "What/Where are we harvesting?" In my mind I imagined the obviousness of cornstalks growing out of the ground. And while there were tall stalks of okra growing in one area, from the distance I was standing (and maybe it's also because I wasn't wearing my glasses to sharpen things up) it just looked like there were some greens in various lines along the dirt, and some white blanket-like covers. 

Lo and behold, the "some greens" turned out to be a lot of greens. Just like the sweet potatoes I talked about last time — which were hidden under a lot of what looked like dead vines — there were more plants/food like radishes and turnips hidden beneath the dirt. A whole lot more greens were revealed under the white blankets as well (the blanket is used for protection against certain bugs and extreme weather). 

Because it's the end of the season, harvesting and planting was not as demanding or intense as it might have been just some weeks before. The weather was beautiful most days, and we had time to enjoy being out in the field.

Harvesting at first was really slow for me. I was really tedious about picking anything out of the ground, asking Lizzie almost every moment if something like a radish was large enough to take out. For those plants that are hidden in the dirt, you have to dig around it to see if it's ready and large enough to join the bunch. And then there's other plants — the "greens" — where you take a knife and just cut from the stem near the bottom. In time, I was a little more speedy. I was almost matching Lizzie at one point in making bunches of mazuna. Kind of.

In essence, it's been one of the greatest joys these last few weeks in understanding what goes into planting and harvesting, and being part of each process. I definitely now know what a hoe and a plow is. So you could say I've come a long way. 

I've been asked what exactly we've been harvesting on Sugar Camp Farm, and although you can find a list on their website, I've also compiled a little photo journal below with a little video (yay!) of Lizzie explaining the process of harvesting pink beauty radishes (it's a fitting name considering they're pink, beautiful, and radishes).

CLICK THROUGH TO SEE ALL THE PHOTOS & WATCH THE VIDEO...

Because at the laundromat, you really have some time to reflect on this random day filled with sunshine and my own spider paranoia among the limitless options of washers and dryers and clothes going round and round. 

READ MORE ABOUT THE CYCLE OF MY DAY... 

Hello! HAPPY OCTOBER FIRST!!!!

It's been awhile. But September was definitely a blur in a really wonderful dancy twirl sort of way. Like when you're just dancing and spinning and a little exhausted from twirling but having the best time anyways? That feeling.

I haven't had the chance to compile a day-to-day account of my Route 66 yet, but I promise it's coming soon. What I have done is transferred my blog from Blogger to Squarespace (I've been using Blogger for about five years now so this is one of those life-changing technological moments for me) and even made a fancy Facebook page if you want to check it out and "like" it. It's all coming together. Slowly. But surely! 

Just to catch you up — I left September 2nd on my Route 66 road trip and successfully made it through eight states starting in Santa Monica, CA and ending in Chicago, IL before things started to slow down. I had a couple days in Chicago before spending five days in Ohio and one day in West Virginia before FINALLY driving through Kentucky (honorary state mention) and making it to TENNESSEE. I literally cried when I crossed the state line randomly listening to Danza Kuduro (which is probably the most opposite-of-crying kind of music). Out of joy mostly. It felt really great to be here. 

I spent that first night near Nashville (although I got here too late to do any actual exploring), and then took my time the next morning before making it to my destination of the next 3 – 5 weeks: Sugar Camp Farm. 

READ MORE TO SEE LEARN ABOUT THE FARM, WWOOFing, & WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO...