Off the Beaten Path in Nashville

If emerging hip cities were like the new kids at school, then Nashville would be the fascinating girl with the cool outfit who shows up at homeroom. With its vibrant music scene, emerging foodie status, streets full of the young and bearded and very own TV show, Nashville is the place to be. Or so we discovered when we decided to take our Christmas vacation there and everyone we told said, “We’ve been meaning to go to Nashville.”

 

The 10-hour drive is relatively painless for those of us from the DC-metro area (straight out on I-66, left on I-81, right on I-40), so it’s a good way to spend an I-don’t-want-to-fly vacation. I did not become an expert on Nashville in our five days of touring, eating, drinking and copious napping. But we did discover some neat out-of-the-way sights, scenes and drinks that will appeal to us aging cool kids.

1. The Parthenon at night

Our first evening in Nashville, we strolled over to the Parthenon in Centennial Park. During the day, I’m sure it’s amazing to see this leftover relic from the 1897 Centennial Exposition and the art inside. But at night, it was spooky and regal and lit with Christmas colors. We wandered between its concrete columns and told stories of time warps. You never get a monument all to yourself in D.C.

2. Johnny Cash Museum

We decided to skip the Country Music Hall of Fame for the Johnny Cash Museum, which had more sentimental value for me because I love the love story of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. The small museum packed in a lot of tourists when we were there, but we were still able to spend all the time we wanted listening to his music, watching his videos and looking over an interesting and intimate array of stuff from Johnny’s life. I didn’t see the love letter Johnny wrote to June after she died, but my husband did. With my tendency to cry in public, he thought that was best.

3. The Escape Game. Driving to this out-of-the-way building, I started to think that maybe I’d been suckered into a dumb activity that only tourists do. Wrong. The Escape Game location is in an amazing artist enclave, little homes for recording studios and a pie shop and a really fantastic coffee shop. And the game itself – where you and your compatriots are locked in a room for an hour and must solve puzzles to escape – is totally awesome. And no, we didn’t escape. Boo.

4. Third Man Records. The Nashville outpost of Jack White’s recording studio is tiny and weird and quirky, selling almost entirely vinyl. It’s worth a visit if you’re a fan. And ask if the studio is open. Walking through it, with its Astroturf barbecue area and big blue wall and ginormous overhead fan makes you feel like a rock star.

5. Haircut at Monty's

If there is anyone in your party who could remotely use a haircut, take them to Monty’s in the Arcade. The open-air corridor of shops covered with a roof is cool; art galleries ring the second floor. And Monty’s is everything you want a cool-guy barber shop to be: the barbers are friendly and tattooed, the Galaga is free, the pomade is plentiful and there’s a Playboy in the magazine rack. 

6. Dancing on a Monday at The 5 Spot. As we sat on our stools at The 5 Spot and watched the couples begin expertly jumping and jiving to the first beat of the first song on this soul and swing night, the couple next to us leaned over and asked, “Do you know what’s going on?” We’d come to dance. But this was DANCING: swinging and spinning and what have you. Fortunately, after a couple of whiskeys with picklebacks, we were right in there and it was blast. Get there early. When we left at midnight, the line stretched halfway down the block.

7. Corsair Distillery 

Visit this distillery in the old Yazoo brewery. You can sip a beer beforehand in the Corsair taproom, check out the 100-year-old pre-Prohibition-built still on the tour, pet the bowtie-wearing cat that lives in the distillery and sample some killer rye during the post-tour tasting. Extra bonus: Anyone in your group not interested in the tour can hang out at the Soda Parlor down the hall.

8. Arcade and comic books. On New Years Eve, I made the males in my family decide the itinerary. And boy, did they. We spent two hours at a great $7/hour-$10/day video game arcade on the non-tourist side of Nashville. After an hour, I bailed and went to the nicest tea shop next door. Then we went to a comic book and used album store, where the cash register guy made me feel very good about my depth and breadth of Arrow knowledge.

9. Galax, VA

No, the city of Galax, VA is not in Nashville. But it is the best place to stay for the night if you’d rather drive two five-hour stints than one 10-hour marathon. Galax is home to the historic Rex Theater which, every Friday night, hosts a live bluegrass show broadcast on WBRF 98.1. Obvious regulars come out for the lively show – they jump up for every song and politely sit down and fan themselves in between. Do yourself a favor and fuel up at the Galax Smokehouse beforehand.

Off Season Tubing in Harpers Ferry

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Floating down the Potomac River with my butt in a tube and the 85-degree day warming my arms and legs, I had one thing to yell at my husband, who was bumping easily on some light rapids a few yards away with a peaceful smile on his face: "How do you like this for a Monday?"

He'd taken a long weekend to celebrate his birthday, and on this particular beautiful Monday just before Labor Day, my family of four had the whole stretch of the Potomac River near Harpers Ferry, WV to ourselves. For the entire 6-mile, 3-hourish white water tubing ride, the only people we saw were the ones waving at us from atop the pedestrian bridge that crossed the river.

They looked like ants. Little envious ants.

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As summer draws to a close, it would seem wise to put aside such warm-weather activities. But what I learned from that gorgeous Monday white water tubing with the help of the Harpers Ferry Adventure Center is that there is no better time to go than when no one else is going.

"Our motto is, 'If you can think of it, we can make it happen,'" said Chase Gregson, an employee at Harpers Ferry Adventure Center, in reference to the many out-of-the-box adventures they put together for customers. "We've had people go white water rafting or tubing when there was snow on the ground."

Now, for me, that would be pushing it. But Gregson says temperatures at their location -- just west of Loudon County in northeast West Virginia, about an hour drive from the Beltway -- can stay warm until mid-October. Can you imagine bumping along in a tube, the wide expanse of the river all around you, and gazing at all the trees brilliant with oranges and reds and yellows? That's a way to see the fall leaves without the traffic!

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Imagine floating down this river with the hills decked in fall colors.

White water tubing is a way to add a little spark to a tube ride. The tube acts like a bumper to the rock-causing rapids in the Potomac and you generally bounce off the rocks and spin away. The Adventure Center promises Category I-III rapids; on the day we went, we enjoyed bumps and some shoots, but nothing that felt dangerous. The Adventure Center appropriately requires everyone to be 12 and over; between the rapids and still water that requires paddling with your hands, it's easy for large expanses of water to separate various members of your group.

Chase with the Adventure Center offered these additional tips to guarantee a fun, off-season tube ride:

• Bring a wetsuit or rent one from the Adventure Center if you are concerned about the temperature of the water. They also rent splash tops, which are windbreakers that resist water and are not as constrictive as wetsuits.
• Wear close-toed shoes. This area of the Potomac River is actively fished and you wouldn't want your tubing day ruined by a cut foot.
• Call before you come if you're wondering about the conditions. The Adventure Center will not let you out on the river if there is ice flowing or lightening and thunder in the area. If you're already on the water when a storm hits, employees trained in swift water rescue will raft to you and get you out of the water. 
• Come on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and early Friday if you're looking for a less-crowded experience. The Harpers Ferry Adventure Center is closed on Tuesday.
• The Adventure Center offers many deals after Labor Day. Check online before you go.

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Yay to off-season tubing!!

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Harpers Ferry Adventure Center

37410 Adventure Center Lane Purcellville, VA 20132

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In-Between Tip: Harpers Ferry Adventure Center offers tubing, white water rafting, kayaking, zip lining, horseback riding, Segway tours, hiking expeditions and, come three scary nights in October, a Haunted Hayride and Zipline Tour. What better way to wig you and yours out than by zipping through a West Virginia forest in the dark? 

Map to In-Between Fun in the DMV

I've decided to mark today's 20th blog post (YEAH!!) by adding a new map feature to the site. Pinterest allows me to track the locations where I've had fun in the DMV, and will help you loyal In-Between readers find fun and adventure close to where you live. I will continue to update the map as I discover new places, so make sure to check back often (the link will always be to the right in the sidebar).

Click photo to find fun, In Between activities close to home.

Thank you to everyone who has commented on this site, emailed or interacted with me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. I love knowing that I've inspired some of you or helped you discover a new piece of this great community we live in. Please keep sending me your In-Between suggestions or pointing me toward museums, restaurants or activities you'd like me to investigate. Here's to aging gracefully and having a great time while we do it!

Have a fun place you'd like to recommend for an In Between in D.C. blog post? Please tell me about it in the comments below.

Exploring Virginia Wine Country

Fabbioli Cellars in March

We’ve gotten grumpy as we’ve gotten older. That dense elbow-to-elbow city-ness that my husband and I used to love about being inside the Beltway when we were younger is something we look to escape every so often these days. So we’re blessed that, in under an hour, we can be driving past stately wooden fences, rolling hills and stone buildings that signify one thing: We’re in Virginia wine country.

It took us too long to visit it. Our little kids (don't take them to a winery; just don't), and the extreme good fortune of spending bits of every summer visiting my parents’ vineyard in Sonoma County kept us away. But finally, this March, we pawned our now older kids off on some friends and headed west for a weekend.

Virginia wine country is unique from Sonoma or Napa because of its history. The ancient stone inns and horse fences stretching over pastoral hills and two-lane brick roads taking you through downtown Burgs (Middleburg, Leesburg) are beautiful in their longevity and sense of place. I’m not a Horse & Hound kind of woman, but I definitely see the appeal.

Wine is produced in every nook and cranny of Virginia – it’s the fifth-largest wine-producing state – but we stayed north of I-66 and east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where we had almost 40 wineries to choose from.

Wineries We Visited

Hidden Brook Winery – We began our tasting north of Leesburg at Hidden Brook Winery, a cabin in the woods in an area that’s becoming a crossroads for wineries, with Hidden Brook, Fabbioli Cellars, The Vineyards and Winery at Lost Creek, and Tarara Winery all in a couple of miles of each other. If you follow my rule of no more than four wineries in a day, you could hit this quadrant and be done. Hidden Brook was a lovely place to visit.

The award-winning wines of Fabbioli Cellars

Fabbioli Cellars – This family home with the tasting room in the cellar knocked me out! The tasting was an event, a seven-course, food-and-wine pairing with a host all to ourselves. And any West Coast snottiness was wiped away by the appeal of these Fabbioli Wines. We walked away with several bottles of the Tre Sorelle, a Table Red, and a Tannat for a special occasion.

Barrel Oak Winery – The two times we’ve been to Barrel Oak (once for a friend’s birthday party), we found the crowds we were trying to escape. Just off I-66, the winery is perched at the top of a big hill filled with picnic tables and fire pits and 20-somethings in their aviator glasses admiring the view. Which is great for this obviously popular winery. But not so great for us grumps. We snuck into the besieged tasting room, bought a bottle, drank a bit of it at a picnic table, and escaped.

Three Fox Vineyards

Three Fox Vineyards – Three Fox Vineyards has a small and cozy tasting room on the south side of I-66, and a large, beautiful meadow rolling down to benches facing a creek. This is where we walked with our last glass of the day to enjoy the late afternoon light. Three Fox focuses on producing Italian-style wines, and we took home a couple bottles of the Piemontese Nebbiolo.

Bluemont Vineyard – Bluemont Vineyard was our last stop before we headed back home Sunday. What a way to go out! The drive alone was awesome – we took a “shortcut” north along the spine of a mountain-top road with incredible views of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west, and then up a steep, sweat-inducing road to get to the winery. On a clear day, you can see Tysons from the ski chalet-like second story deck. The tasting room staffers are loads of fun and as many locals seemed to be filling the tasting room as non-locals. Oh, the wine? We couldn’t leave without a few bottles of their Cabernet Franc.

The March view at Bluemont Vineyard

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Visiting Virginia Wine Country

For everything you could ever want to know about visiting Virginia wineries, check out VirginiaWine.org. 

Where to Stay: We stayed at the Red Fox Inn, a fieldstone building and collection of cottages in the quaint downtown strip of Middleburg. It is thought to be the oldest continually operating inn in the United States, and it has been visited by President John F. Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and was a regular destination during fox hunting season for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. 

The incredible brunch at The Ashby Inn

Where to Eat: We had some outstanding meals in Virginia wine country.

• The Wine Kitchen
• Tuscarora Mill
• The Ashby Inn in Paris, Va. - I have to give a special recommendation to The Ashby Inn's Sunday brunch. Paris, Va., is a two-block town in a valley with the Ashby Inn at the top of its main (only) street. And the three-course meal and accompanying brunch cocktails were some of the most innovative and beautifully presented food and drinks I've had in my life.