If you haven’t been to Clarksville, Tennessee lately, you’ll definitely want to schedule a visit. Just an hour’s drive from Nashville, this history-filled town has tons of outdoor activities, an increasingly sophisticated restaurant scene, and a newly-revitalized downtown that’ll have you dreaming of renovating a loft space and moving here ASAP. We spent an […]

Maybe you want a great mural photo, but you don’t want to wait in an hour-long line to get it. Or perhaps you want beautiful, interesting backdrops for your photos that haven’t already been used by half of Nashville. I’ve got an easy solution — Head to Rutherford County! Just a quick drive from Nashville, […]

Spend a few days in Santa Barbara and it’s safe to say you’ll never want to leave. Nestled between the majestic Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Santa Barbara boasts an average 300 sunny days a year and temperatures that generally stay between the mid-60s and mid-70s. It’s just 90 miles north of LA […]

Shelby Bottoms has some beautiful natural features you won’t find at any other park in Nashville — including several beaver dams! But with its close proximity to urban Nashville, you and your family might see a little more than you bargained for… We don’t get out to Nashville’s Shelby Bottoms Park all that often and […]

Looking for an easy North Georgia trail that features several scenic waterfalls? The Raven Cliff Falls Trail is perfect for you and your family! Here’s all you need to know before you go! It’s sort of mind boggling to me that you can drive just an hour and a half from the big city bustle […]

These fantastic restaurants near Nashville boast fabulous food and lots of small-town Southern charm. This post was written in partnership with Visit Rutherford.  Nashville’s restaurant scene is on fire right now, but while this means more options on the food front, it also means higher prices, longer waits for a table, and the disappearance of […]

Get ready for the ultimate Chattanooga family vacation. If there’s any city I feel completely knowledgeable about (besides Nashville), it’s Chattanooga, Tennessee. My oldest stepdaughter enrolled at UT Chattanooga in 2008, my younger stepdaughter followed her a few years later, and at least one of them has lived in Chattanooga ever since. We generally visit […]

A while back, I wrote about my favorite ‘secret’ hiking trail in Nashville — the Hidden Lake trail at Harpeth River State Park. It’s a gorgeous trail with a fascinating past, and most people who read the post were excited to find out about it. Notice I said MOST. ‘Well, I guess it’s not a […]

Years ago, when I was a young reporter for the ABC affiliate in Columbia, South Carolina, I interviewed a minister who’d been a local leader in the Civil Rights Movement and had worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. The interview took place in his home, and before we arrived, he’d pulled out albums full […]

There’s nothing like visiting a town when it’s all dressed up for Christmas. We’ve been scheduling a Christmas weekend getaway each year for some time now and these trips have ended up being some of my all-time favorites — and it’s no surprise when I think about it… As fun as my own hometown’s holiday traditions […]