Summer Vacation 2013: Day 2 – Nashville, Tennessee

We set out early in the morning to see The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home, which is right outside of Nashville. It was beautiful. The home has almost all of the original furnishings and the wallpaper is original to the house. We walked the grounds and saw the beautiful old trees, which were probably not there when President Jackson lived there, as it was mostly farm land. The site still has some of the slave cabins on the property and a very nice spring and beautiful gardens. It also includes the Jackson family cemetery where Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachel are buried. The rain held off until we were in the car heading back into town.

From The Hermitage, we traveled to Centennial Park in Nashville to visit the Parthenon, a life size replica of the original in Greece, including a giant statue of Athena. It was one of the places Percy Jackson visited in the book The Lightning Thief, so Claire insisted we go there too. It was truly impressive, especially given that it was built for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition, and even more impressive that the original was completed in 432 BC.

Once in back in town, we dodged the rain as we went from music store to music store because James wanted to visit them, and they were suggested by Mr. Dye, his 7^th and 8^th grade band teacher. James didn’t find much, but it was kind of fun seeing old albums of bands Peter and I listened to as teenagers. We drove out to see the Grand Ole Opry and then drove back into town to see the Capitol building. The building was closed for the July 4^th holiday, but we walked a little through the memorial plaza across the street. There they have monuments to Tennessee residents who lost lives in WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam wars. It is very moving. We met Kate Boodee for dinner at Jackson’s Bar and Bistro and had a great time. We enjoyed catching up with her.