The Trail's Our Thing

We checked out of our hotel at 9:45 am on Sunday and had most of the day to see more of Nashville. It was a beautiful day and we didn't even need to wear jackets! (It was hard to believe that the temperatures had been so cold earlier in the week.)

Our first destination was Centennial Park, a 132 acre city park near Vanderbilt University. The park is dominated by a full-size replica of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The structure was originally built for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition. The inside now houses an art museum, but it was closed on Sunday. We walked around the Parthenon and then over to a small lake where lots of Canada geese were swimming and honking.

We had visited Vanderbilt two years ago when Kelly was inducted into the Duke TIP program. Now we wanted Sophie to see it. The oldest part of the campus is just beautiful, with buildings dating back to 1873. There are over 300 different trees and shrubs on the campus, and it's actually been designated an arboreteum. Vanderbilt is considered one of the top 20 universities in the USA. We will probably come back for a visit as Kelly starts to get serious about colleges.

Nashville is the capital of Tennessee, and the beautiful capitol building sits on a high hill in the downtown area. I've been there before with my Leadership Knoxville class, and we actually sat in the senate chamber in the senators' seats and pretended we were voting on bills. There wasn't anything going on today. Charley found a spot to relax, while Kelly, Sophie and I circled the majestic building. It was built in 1859 and was occupied by Union forces during the Civil War.

The views from the Capitol were beautiful, in all directions. To the south we looked down Legislative Plaza toward downtown.

Tennessee had had three US presidents, and all three are recognized on the east side of the capitol. (I'm just sorry that we didn't end up with number 4, Al Gore...)

Andrew Jackson, Old Hickory, was the 7th President

James K. Polk was the 9th President. He and his wife are buried here. He was Governor of Tennessee before becoming President. He died at age 53, just 103 days after his term ended.

Andrew Johnson, was the 17th President of the United States, succeeding Abraham Lincoln. He was from Greeneville, Tennessee, where I went to college.

I was also very interested in this statue of Sergeant Alvin York, the most decorated soldier of World War I and a famous Tennessean. The statue is by Felix de Weldon, who also sculpted the Waving Girl statue in Savannah and the Iwo Jima memorial in Washington DC.

Our next stop was an important one-- lunch! We wanted to eat downtown near the "Music District," the "honky tonk" area of music clubs, restaurants, and shops. We parked on the main street called Broadway and set out on foot. It was very quiet at 11:45 on a Sunday morning. But I imagine it wasn't quiet at all on Saturday night! Charley talked with the woman in the Grey Line bus tour booth, and she recommended an Italian place, part of a small chain, called Demo's. This was an excellent choice: good food, friendly service, and very reasonable prices. I had a sampler of three different pastas, which came with a small salad, less than $9.00.

After Demo's we wandered around a little more, finally going inside a little bar with live music called Tootsies Orchid Lounge. Friends had recommended this to us. It's a tiny place, very rustic, and a band was playing country songs-- definitely a honky-tonk! Charley went up to the counter to order three beers (and a coke for Kelly) and somehow was misunderstood and got three bloody mary's instead. Go figure!

After leaving Tootsie's we walked on down Broadway. There was live music in several places, and also some people playing on the street. We also saw several horse and carriage tours go by.

The famous people you encounter in Nashville!

We walked past the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, a beautiful place with a great schedule of musical events. At that point we could have either gone to the Frist Museum of Art or the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We decided that since we were in Nashville, we would go to the Country Music Hall of Fame. This turned out to be a surprisingly good choice. I hadn't expected to enjoy the Grand Ole Opry, and I hadn't expected to enjoy this either! We spent about two hours in the museum-- it was very interesting.

There is much more to see and do in Nashville. We definitely decided we will come back another time soon.

We dropped Sophie off at the Nashville airport on our way back to Knoxville. The airport is right off I-40 and very easy. We really enjoyed having Sophie with us, and we've invited her to come again on her next trip to the USA. Next time we'd like to do an overnight trip to Asheville, North Carolina.

Nashville girl!