Nashville, TN

Charles and I had a wonderful time on our trip to Music City!

Our first stop was the Belle Meade Plantation. Thoroughbred racehorses were raised here. Belle Meade was home to Bonnie Scotland, whose line includes Secretariat, Funny Side, Big Brown, and Iroquois, the first American to win across the Pond.

We arrived at Belle Meade just in time for lunch at Martha's at the Plantation. While our waitress left a lot to be desired (and wouldn't you know it, all the other waiters seemed to be great!), we had a really good lunch. I loved the oil clothes which covered the tables and the sprig of rosemary on each table. We had delicious lady biscuits, and I enjoyed Southern fried chicken strips, smashed potatoes and green beans, while Charles enjoyed chicken fried steak (after waiting on the mix up on his order to be corrected), smashed potatoes and green beans. We both chose the tea punch to drink which was sweet tea mixed with a little orange juice; I felt like I was back at Ma's! (Some Sundays during our lunch at Ma's, my grandmother, we would put a little orange juice in our tea too) For dessert, we enjoyed sweet potato fried pie topped with vanilla bean ice cream - delicious!

A tour of the Belle Meade mansion began just in time to allow us to walk of some of our lunch! The house was beautiful and contained so many gorgeous pieces, but even more interesting , it was decorated like a Victorian Christmas.

We entered the entry hall to find a Christmas tree under the beautiful curved staircase. Christmas trees were just coming into fashion in the U.S. at that time. It would have been decorated with ornaments made by the children and lit candles (with a bucket of sand near by) and would only have been set up for a Christmas party, and after the party, it would have been thrown out instead of staying up through Christmas Day - or beyond!

The library was very interesting! Apparently a Victorian Christmas included elements of our current day Halloween. A small round table with balloon chairs was set up under the chandelier. Black tulle was draped from the chandelier over the table, and a crystal ball was atop the table, all set up so that the children's fortunes could be read. Also in the library was an ink well made from horse's hooves.

I really enjoyed the parlors too. The front parlor was a spider web of differing colored yarn. Each child would find their name card on the table, and attached to the card would be a particular color of yarn. The children would follow their yarn around the room, and every so often, a little gift bag of little goodies would be attached to the yarn. They would follow the yarn to its end, where it was tied to their big gift.

The other parlor was complete with snowballs made from cotton. Inside each snowball would have been a noise popper so that when they hit they would make a noise! The pocket doors between the parlors would have been opened and the children would have snowballs fights in the parlors!

We then toured the garden and the grounds... We saw the dairy house...
and the original cabin which was later a slave cabin...

We then drove to Belmont and toured the Belmont mansion. This tour was also interesting. In addition to learning about the house and furnishings, we learned about the owner who played both the Confederate and Union forces to get her cotton during the Civil War! We also saw several sample pieces of the numerous sets of china; I especially liked a couple of the patterns!

We then found and checked into out hotel, changed clothes and headed out for the evening. We thought that by leaving 3 hours prior to the show, we would have plenty of time for a nice dinner. We were wrong! Traffic - and finding our way around - the Opryland Hotel/Opry Mills area was horrible on a Saturday evening. We managed to make our way into the hotel and enjoy a hamburger from Stax (and even snag a table) before the show...

We then walked over to the Grand Ole Opry House...
and saw the Rockettes! The show was wonderful - what a way to start the holidays!!

The next morning, we headed downtown for a tour of Nashville. We arrived early and walked along the river front.

Here's Charles across the river from LP Stadium...

The Titans were playing the Jets. Even though we didn't have tickets, we could still hear the crowds during the game...

We started out for a self-guided tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame...
Even though neither Charles nor I are big country music fans, we still found lots of interesting things on display...

We saw many posters, including ones of Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash...

and for the Grand Ole Opry...
We saw numerous gold records, including one for The Gambler...
We saw stage outfits of Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty...
We saw Dolly Parton's wig and dress and Willie Nelson's bandanna and shoes...

We saw Alabama's guitars...
We even saw a display dedicated to Hee Haw. Charles popped out of the corn patch to say "Howdie!"
There was lots of Elvis items on display, from his shoes...
to his gold piano...
to his Cadillac, complete with an in car tv and stereo system...

We took some time in the Williams family exhibit and heard Hank Williams' "Hey, Hey Good Lookin'"... Then Charles got ready for some football! We saw one of Hank Williams, Jr.'s original manuscripts...

We then made our way into the Hall of Fame rotunda and saw plaques for many greats, including Elvis and Minnie Pearl...

After looking at each of them, we met our guide for a walking tour of Nashville...
We saw many things on the walking tour.

Nashville's first skyscraper...

Nashville's tallest building, which some call the Batman Building...

We saw MANY Titans fans taking the pedestrian bridge to the game...
We even saw a parachuter parachuting into the game...

Our first stop was at the Ryman...

We learned how the gambling, steamboat captain (Ryman) came to build the tabernacle so that the local preacher would never have to preach under a tent again and how its acoustics are second only to the Mormon Tabernacle, providing it with the nickname the Carnegie Hall of the South.

Inside we saw Minnie Pearl's dress, and hat, complete with the price tag...

We saw the stage where many greats, actors and musicians from all genres, have performed...

We saw many performance posters, including one from r.e.m ...

and one from Coldplay...

This is a view from the bottom of the stage...
and here is Charles in the Confederate Gallery (the balcony)...
We were told that the pews were closer in the Confederate Gallery because the Confederate veterans (who the gallery was added for for a convention) were slighter in stature than we are today.

We then saw the back door of the Ryman, where the Everly Brothers were discovered and out of which beer runs were made across the Ryman alley to Tootsies...

We crossed the Ryman alley to Tootsie's too...

Tootsie's stage has witnessed many great performances and even was where Kid Rock and Pam Anderson renewed their vows in Nashville...
The crazy thing is much later in the day, pretty much right across Broadway from Tootsie's Orchid Bar, we saw Kid Rock hanging out on a balcony - and wouldn't you know it, our camera battery died, so no picture of it!!
Our next stop was Ernest Tubb's Record Shop where we saw the Midnite Jamboree stage...

Even though Hatch Show Print Shop was not open, we still heard a little of its history...

We then had a late lunch at Jack's Bar-B-Que

Even though we had to wait in line to get in, it was well worth it! We still had time to kill before our trolley tour, so we walked down to the site of Fort Nashborough and took a quick look at its replica...

While walking on our own, we also saw Printer's Alley... We then enjoyed a great trolley (although since it was cold, we were in a little bus) tour of Nashville.

We saw RCA Studios where many great songs were recorded...

Many other hot spots on Music Row were pointed out to us as well.

We saw the local news station where Oprah was once the anchor and Pat Sajack was the meteorologist before they went on to other gigs...We saw Vandy's Stadium...

and many other Nashville landmarks before heading back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

We had a great dinner with Lance and Tamara at the Germantown Cafe. We had delicious escargot, and Charles enjoyed the pasta of the day which was penne with mushrooms and seafood, and I enjoyed the pork topped with plum sauce. The dinner was delicious, and we had a good visit with Lance and Tam!

The next morning, after searching Nashville for a new battery and battery charger for the camera, we visited Cooter's...

We saw more Dukes of Hazzard memiorbilia than I even knew had been made! Except a certain Dukes of Hazzard watch which Charles had as a little boy was not on display!

We saw a miniture town...

and here's Charles in front of the hood of one of the General Lees used in the show...

and we saw Daisy's Jeep...

and a Hazzard County Sheriff's car...

and even Roscoe P. Coltrane's uniform...

We then went to ICE which was amazing!! It was scenes from The Grinch who Stole Christmas sculpted from ice. Even the building got us in the festive mood...

We put on parkas and were ready for the adventure!

Here I am at the entrance...

We were then welcomed to Who-ville...
Charles met the Grinch; it was so cold you could easily see your breath...
Here's a picture of the Grinch and me...

and one of Charles and Max...
We entered the slide room, and at the top of the steps to the slide was the Grinch, Max and their sled...Charles had a great time sliding on the ice slide... I did too!

We even got to meet Cindy Lou Who...

and saw the Grinch carving the roast beast!
and the best yet, we saw the Grinch's heart grow three sizes during our trip...
After leaving Who-ville, we still were not finished with the ice sculptures...

We entered a room with the shepard and his sheep gazing upon...

and the angel heralding... the Nativity...
We both really enjoyed ICE! It was one of my favorite things that we did on this trip!!!

We then had a late lunch at The Aquarium Restaurant. The wait to be seated was pretty and relaxing...

We enjoyed our lunch...

and even saw a green eel (which looked just like the Grinch before his heart grew three sizes)!We then drove to Bicentennial Park...

It was very interesting and informative.

The entrance was flanked by railroad tressels and Tennessee State flags. We were told that the reason that the TN flag has three stars on it is because (1) there are 3 parts to TN -- the Western, Central and Eastern and (2) because TN was the 16th state - you take the 13 original colonies and add 3 to it and you get 16!

We enjoyed looking at the WWII memorial. The sphere showed the routes of the TN units to all parts of the world...

We also enjoyed hearing the carrilon bells in the Court of the Three Stars...The view through the park and up to the TN State Capital was very pretty... We were finally able to check into the Opryland Hotel. After taking a look at our room (which we loved) we took a walk around the hotel. We started out in the Cascades which is where our room was located...Everthing was decorated for Christmas and absolutely beautiful!

We then walked to the Delta area where we took the riverboat cruise which was fun.

We saw this beautifully lit, huge Christmas tree... and lots of other beautiful things along the way -- I really liked the kissing balls hanging from the trees along the ride!

The Delta area had lots of hot air balloon decorations which I just loved!After the boat ride, we walked around a little more and found this gorgeous poinsettia tree!All of the planters in the hotel were so pretty; I thought of Mama when we saw them all! The Jack in the Box was really fun to see too...
We then headed back to the room and changed for a nice dinner at Old Hickory Steakhouse... It was such a nice dinner! The atmosphere was so nice and peaceful, and the dinner was delicious! We enjoyed escargot, and Charles enjoyed wonderful scallops...while I enjoyed a delicious filet and their smashed potatoes were really good too! For dessert we tried their brulee topped cheesecake with pistacio brittle toppings and mixed berries - what a wonderful end to dinner!

After dinner we walked around some more and enjoyed a wonderful fountain show. The fountains and lighting were set to Christmas music...
the show was spectacular!

One fountain gushed so high and would implode on itself so it looked almost like a firework show; it was amazing...

We then walked through the Gardens Conservatory where animal parachuters were dangling from the ceiling... The pictures just don't do it justice, but this gazebo was really pretty...This area also had elves throughout. I really liked this napping elf... The whole area was so tranquil and beautiful. Here is Charles meandering behind one of the many waterfalls...
and here I am on the Gardens skywalk...
It was amazing how each area had a skywalk which allowed you to really see to ceiling and an overview of the area, but once you ventured into each area on the ground level, they were even more spectacular and filled with surprises at every turn...

Our night's stay was definitely not uneventful and not as relaxing as we had hoped. The hotel was hosting at TN Beta Club Convention and while some of the students were well behaved, the ones staying on our floor definitely were not! It got so bad that we had to call the front desk to complain about the noise -- running in the halls, banging on doors, screaming out ( I don't know why they just didn't text each other, we saw them doing it all day long)-- it got so bad at one point, I even threatened to go out into the hall. After we were finally able to fall asleep through the noise (even the nice relaxing music which was playing upon entry into the room didn't drown it out), we were awoken by the fire alarm - which, thankfully, was a false alarm. I was appalled by the behavior of these kids and was glad to hear Charles say that South Panola's Beta Club members do not behave so badly -- must be those good chaperones they have!!

Anyway, we woke up somewhat rested, and walked through the hotel again in the daylight and found more interesting things...

Here is Charles with an elephant...

and me with a deer...

Best of all there were bunnies throughout the hotel...

and there was even a Nashville Nessie!

The flowers throughout the hotel were beautiful, but I especially loved the orchids growing on the trees...

The cascading waterfulls were also pretty and calming...

We checked out of the hotel and drove to The Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson.

We toured the house and saw the guitar shaped carriage drive...

The tour of the house was very interesting, and the tour guides were great! I found it interesting that there were only two guest rooms, one for men and one for women and children, but we learned that it was common to share the bed with a stranger and if there was no room to just sleep on the floor...

The house was decorated beautifully and the views from the upstairs window onto the land were beautiful as well.

This is a picture of the back of the house - I love the wraparound porches...

Here are portraits of Andrew and Rachel, his wife...

and to scale models of them in the attire they wore to a ball in New Orleans...

After viewing the house, we viewed the grounds.

This is their tomb...

and this was the original Hermitage which was two stories and decorated with luxeries when Andrew and Rachel lived there. After they moved into the main house, it was converted into slave quarters which meant that it must also be converted into a single story cabin...

This was another slave cabin on the grounds...

Inside, the root cellar was visible. I found it interesting that root cellars were also called "hidey-holes" by the slaves and were used not just for storing food but were also where slaves would keep their personal items...

This is a picture of the ice house which was kept cool by the spring which also supplied the water for the plantation...

The view of the creek was beautiful. Here Charles is learning a little more about the grounds from the audio tour (which was really good)...

I really liked the Belted Galloway cattle which were grazing. Although Jackson would not have had this breed, he would have had cattle on the grounds. We were told that the children who visit often call them the oreo cows! They were so cute and wooly...

and this little calf was too cute! I called for him to look at me, and sure enough, he did for just the cutest picture!

Charles picked some cotton in the cotton patch...

Although it was strange for us to hear, many of the visitors to The Hermitage have never seen cotton growing or been able to touch it on its stalks.

We really enjoyed our tour of The Hermitage.

We then drove to the Parthenon...

It is amazing how it could be replicated to scale.

I didn't realize that the Parthenon was actually just one of many foreign influenced buildings which were built on these grounds for Nashville's centenial celebration. After the celebration, all of the buildings were torn down but due to the publics outcry, the Parthenon was saved and later rebuilt out of permanent materials.

Here is Charles at the Parthenon...

The bronze doors into the Parthenon are enormous! Here is Charles standing by them...

Although you now enter the Parthenon through the museum, these doors are still opened daily and are so well calibrated that it takes only one person to open them! I thought the story of their instalation was interesting. We were told that after the hinges were set, the doors were slid into place on ice blocks and once as the blocks melted, they were lowered into place and secured!

We were able to see the statue of Athena which was also gigantic. Here I am standing in front of her...

The workmanship, especially on the shield, was wonderful...

After leaving the Parthenon, we drove to the Loveless Cafe for an early dinner. The drive to the cafe (it is located on the Natchez Trace right outside of Nashville) was really pretty, and the cafe and surrounding stores (although most were closed, including one that looked really cute) were a great experience...
We enjoyed delicious biscuits and an assortment of preserves along with fried chicken and samplings of other meats and veggies...

The Loveless Cafe was our last stop on our way back to Hernando. We had a great time in Music City!