Travel

Weekend in Chattanooga

Leah Short — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 00:33:56 +0000

Living in Nashville, it’s easy to have a quick getaway to Chattanooga for the weekend. A two-hour drive east on I-24 (plus the time zone change) lands you in downtown Chattanooga with plenty to see, do, and eat! In August, we did just that and had the best time. I’m already thinking about my next visit! I’ll walk you through where we stayed, ate, and played. The entire time we couldn’t get over how much nicer their downtown is than Nashville. “It City” has taken its toll on our downtown, so fellow Nashvillians, a weekend break awaits you!

Friday

We left Nashville just in time to arrive in Chattanooga around 5 p.m. Plenty of time to check in to our hotel, look around, grab a drink, and head out to dinner. We stayed at The Read House and I cannot say enough good things about it. We booked a corner room with two queen beds in the historic tower, which has recently undergone a $25-million renovation… and you can tell! It was swanky and I loved it! The hotel has this Great Gatsby vibe with its decor, and one of the rooms is supposedly haunted (more on that later).

The Mockingbird (Nashville)

Leah Short — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 15:00:55 +0000

It seems like every other day a new restaurant is popping up in Nashville. My “to dine” list is growing and growing and growing! Last month I finally got the chance to check out The Mockingbird. This place is the cutest, down to the plates. It had a great atmosphere and I can’t wait to go back when the weather is warmer and check out their patio.

Luckily I went with a group of friends who love to eat, so we ordered several small plates, entrees, drinks, and dessert! It was a feast and I can’t wait to go back! First up was drinks. I ordered their Punchin’ Bag, which is kind of like a grown up version of a Capri Sun. They come in a few different flavors and mine was a lemon mint with bourbon. It was really good and refreshing, but hard to toast with one of these!

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San Antonio in December

Leah Short — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 13:30:25 +0000

Earlier this month, my mom and I spent three days in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio has been on my list to visit for a while and ended up being the perfect destination for a December vacation. We had airplane fare that was about to expire, so we thought – where can we go in December where it’s warm and we don’t have to worry about getting snowed in? TEXAS!

San Antonio goes all out for Christmas and we felt like we had the place to ourselves. Early December must be a great time to take a vacation if you want to avoid the touristy crowds, and the weather was perfect. San Antonio has gorgeous Christmas lights everywhere, especially on the Riverwalk. I jokingly asked my mom to take my picture in front of every Christmas tree we came across – 22 pictures later I’m still laughing over this!

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Day Trip from Nashville: Short Mountain Distillery & Rock Island State Park

Leah Short — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 18:08:03 +0000

Being a Tennessean for a good portion of my life, I hate to admit that there are many spots I haven’t discovered. While I love having a big trip on my agenda, it’s always fun (and cheap!) to explore closer to home. This is where day trips come in handy. Hop in the car, take a short drive, and see what’s out there! This past weekend, my friend Laura and I headed east to Rock Island State Park with a pit stop in Woodbury to visit Short Mountain Distillery.

From Nashville, you can take either I-40 or I-24 east, depending on where in town you are. Either way is about a 1 1/2 drive to the distillery. We went on Sunday and got there right in time for the 12:30 p.m. tour. The tour is $10 bucks and they tell you about the history of distilling in that area from way back in prohibition times to today.

You can see how they make moonshine the old-fashioned way and the modern-day way. The tour is about an hour and after you get a free tasting. I bought their Prohibition Tea, which is sweet tea moonshine with a hint of peach. It’s pretty amazing by itself, but I hear mixing it with lemonade will knock your socks off!

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California Walnut Harvest Tour

Leah Short — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 12:32:15 +0000

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to be invited to the 2014 California Walnut Harvest Tour. I flew to Sacramento, California, looking forward to a fun day filled with all things walnut. While the trip there was crazy (delayed flight, missed connection & 4 airports later!), the tour was so worth the travel pains. I was only there for about 34 hours total, but I had an absolute blast learning from one of the walnut growers and meeting new friends. I pretty much want to pack up and move to California and grow walnuts!

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Week in Food Recap (Nashville)

Leah Short — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 15:36:33 +0000

Settle in…this is a long one! Two weekends ago my bestie Shannon from Bake. Frost. Repeat. came to Nashville for the weekend. I love when she comes because we plan her entire stay around what we’re going to eat. Being the “It City” and all, there’s plenty to choose from and I get to mark some spots off my list. It’s a tough job making the restaurant rounds through Nashville. Seriously, it’s embarrassing how many places I have yet to visit.

Our first stop was Adele’s. We had granny-time reservations because it was either eat early or way late. Turns out eating early has it perks as we sipped on cocktails first and enjoyed sitting outside. The weather was perfect. I had the JW Margarita and Shannon had the Sangria. I enjoyed the margarita, but it was definitely for sipping. It was so potent, I couldn’t finish it since I was driving. I mean seriously, one cocktail through dinner. I know I’m a lightweight, but geez. I tasted the sangria and it was really good. I’d order the margarita again, but between the two I liked the sangria better.

Since we planned on ordering dessert (more on that later), we decided to share the JW Chicken as an entree and order a side. It’s half a chicken, so it’s plenty for two if you’re eating light. I don’t normally order chicken out, but everyone has raved about this dish. The chicken is brined and it’s well-seasoned and perfectly tender. It comes with kale and a green sauce, but that seemed more like garnish to us. While we both liked the chicken very much, it was still just chicken. I’d order it again though.

To go with our chicken, we had the JW Potatoes. Apparently we were on a mission to order everything JW – Jonathan Waxman. (Not really, just a coincidence.) The potatoes were crispy, just the way we like them, but way too salty. They’re topped with shredded Parmesan which upped the salt factor even more. We scraped off as much salt as we could and powered through them. Crispy potatoes trump salt in our book.

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Traveling Eats: Key West, FL

Leah Short — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 01:48:54 +0000

A little over a month ago, my mom and I went to Key West, Florida, to celebrate our birthdays. Neither of us had been before and we were really excited to get away from the winter weather and head to sunny Florida! The weather was so cold in Nashville that we were nervous our flight would be cancelled. We lucked out and everything went as planned. We have never had so much fun eating our way through a city…and oh that Key Lime Pie!

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Food Finds: Nashville

Leah Short — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:07:47 +0000

I feel really fortunate to be living in Nashville where I’m surrounded by so much good food. We’re in the news a lot for our restaurants, but sometimes those local gems get lost. Thankfully I’ve got word of mouth, Twitter, and Batch Nashville to help me out! Lately I’ve discovered some awesome food finds right here in Nashville. If you don’t live here, don’t worry! Most of these goodies can be ordered online…or you’ll just need to plan a trip to the Music City soon!

I am obsessed with The Breakfast Sandwich from Sweet 16th bakery in East Nashville. Obsessed. My coworker was having one for breakfast and let me have a bite and that was all I needed. It’s a slice of egg and cheese casserole with mild green chilis, served in their cheddar cheese scone. It is to die for. I’m glad I don’t live close to this bakery or I’d be a bajillion pounds because I’d eat that sandwich every single day. Their scones are light and fluffy, almost like a biscuit. The sandwich is a tinge greasy from all that glorious cheese, but not overkill. It’s just enough to satisfy you and cure any morning blahs. Get to the bakery early, the line lasts as long as their open and everyone orders the sandwich. If they ever ran out before my order, I’d crumple into a ball and boo hoo right there.

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Salted Caramel (Chicago)

Leah Short — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 13:06:06 +0000

At the end of September, I vacationed in Chicago and there were a ton of places on my list that we didn’t get a chance to visit. I first heard of Salted Caramel on Cooking Channel’s Unique Sweets. Their Carousel Cookies were highlighted and I was sold. I’m a big fan of snacking, but I can get into a vicious sweet/savory circle. A few bites of sweet then I need something salty, then I need something sweet again. Yeah, this is why I own a treadmill. I was thrilled to discover you can order their delicious goodies online! I ordered the Carousel Cookies, Pretzel Grahams, and the Salted Bourbon Caramel Marshmallows.

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Traveling Eats: Chicago

Leah Short — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 12:47:00 +0000

Last weekend, Mom and I took a few days off and headed to Chicago. It had been 10 years since our last visit and on that visit we planned poorly and weren’t prepared for their chilly April weather. It rained a lot, too. So it was time to let Chicago redeem itself and did it ever. The weather was gorgeous all four days that we were there. Since we had visited the museums and aquarium on our last visit, we skipped those and opted for the tours this time. We also ate ate ate. I made a list of all the restaurants and bakeries I wanted to try…but we only managed to hit one on the list. Our dining choices were really spread out and so we ended up flying by the seat of our pants for most of our meals. While it wasn’t the culinary cream of the crop I had planned, we had great food the entire time. It just means I need to go back to mark more restaurants off my list!

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