Youth Temple Trip to Nashville

November Journal

Nashville Vacation: Gaylord Opryland Resort

This place was a-mazing! We just went to walk through the gardens that were decorated for Christmas but I liked it enough I wanted to go back again.

This is a bonus picture of Tucker watching football with Josh. He loves football. It is the funniest thing. He will sit on the couch and just zone out like a grown man if we let him!

Nashville Vacation: The Parthenon

I do not know why Nashville has a Parthenon but they do. And it is big and beautiful. The kids LOVED running around it. I was just amazed by how large the columns were. Seriously they were huge. There is an art museum inside but we didn't go see that.

Nashville Vacation: Fort Negley

I can't believe I am still writing about our Nashville trip. It was almost a month ago and I have been so busy that I almost forgot I never finished up my posts. So, here we are, toward the end of the trip, at a Civil War site called Fort Negley. I know practically nothing about the Civil War at the moment so I will not even try to tell what this fort had to do with things. But it is old and we went and had a lovely walk. If anybody can tell me what tree produces the strange green fruit that I took pictures of, I would love to know. It totally stumped my tree knowledge.

And we drove past Vanderbilt University too. Can I just say that if Josh did a fellowship in Nashville that I think I would like it there?

Nashville Vacation: Build a Bear

My kids got really spoiled hanging out with their grandparents for a week. It was lovely watching them have fun moments with Josh's parents. This build a bear activity was at the resort and each kid made one (well, I made Tucker's). Emmett got a tiger he has named Zial (rhymes with dial), Melynn got a pig named Piggie and Tucker got a frog named Mr. Froggy.

That face about sums up how much the kids liked their new toys.

Nashville Vacation: Opry Mills Mall

I love outlet malls. This was not a disappointment. If only I had more money to spend there! We had fun looking at the Lego store, the Disney store and many others. Wes and Susan were so sweet and bought our whole family Nashville t-shirts. We ate at the Mexican restaurant Chuy's one night for dinner and at the mall food court for lunch another day. We even let the kids go on the carousel (which we never do).

Here is Melynn at Chuy's with the largest chip I have EVER seen. It was almost as big as her face.

The Rainforest Cafe had some fun animals outside of it. Here is their animated hippopotamus.  Their goofy hats came from visiting Santa Claus.

The Carousel

I got to go for free. I loved it.

Nashville Vacation: Country Music Hall of Fame

This is a great museum for adults. Adults that love music. I loved it and would love to go back without kids. The kids were pretty good, considering we went here after going to the Hermitage. It was a long day for them and this museum didn't have much for the kids to do. The newest display all about Reba was my favorite. And the stuff about Elvis.

In the Reba exhibit, they had her famous red dress that she wore at some awards show to perform. It was low-cut and she said she got more press attention from the dress than if she had actually won an award! The exhibit had a gigantic screen playing a movie all about Reba and it was so fun to watch. Unfortunately it was too long for the kids so we left partway through. Some of her awards were on display along with her costumes. She is a tiny lady. Like a toothpick. Very petite.

So is Kellie Pickler. There was a small display showing off her Dancing With the Stars trophy along with her costume for their final dance. She is itty-bitty! The mirror-ball trophy is smaller in real life than it looks on tv. Still cool to see up close though!

The other things that I loved were Elvis' gold Cadillac and his gold piano. Really gold. His taste was very extravagant. I need to go see Graceland. I'm sure it is so over-the-top. I liked all the strange instruments and the wall of records (platinum, gold, etc.).

Here are my pictures:

 This is the low-cut red dress I mentioned. It doesn't look very sheer on the mannequin but in the video it showed her in it and it was pretty see-through.

 I see these red dresses and can't help but think of her song Fancy.

 One of her CMAs

These leather jackets and guitar belonged to the Everly Brothers. Love them. Reminds me of the long car ride to visit grandma Rose. Haylee and I would sing the harmony together.

Susan, Josh and Emmett in front of the gold Cadillac.

This just made me laugh. The Whomper II. It looks like a drum/upright bass in one.

And this three handled guitar. Seriously. Isn't playing one set of strings hard enough?

The gold piano. Oh I want to play on it. Sadly, it was behind plexiglass.

The wall of records. 

 Kellie Pickler's outfit and trophy.

Nashville Vacation: The Hermitage (Home of Andrew Jackson)

The Hermitage is Andrew Jackson's mansion. My abysmal memory of history facts made me check who exactly Andrew Jackson was. He was the 7th President of the United States and sadly I didn't know much about what he had done. In preparation for the trip I found, kind of by accident, a book called Landmarks of Tennessee History that had lots of information about The Hermitage. It was in the pile of books for sale at the library. So I splurged and bought it and read all about some really old mansions. I won't bore anyone with the details but if you are a history buff and want to borrow my book, it has some really fun stories. It told me about Andrew's wife, Rachel, who had previously been in an abusive marriage before marrying Jackson. She had a garden to the east of the mansion that was her special place. Jackson loved her so much and she died right before his inauguration. During the campaign, his opponents attacked Rachel because of her past marriage calling her an adulterer and Jackson believed his wife died of a broken heart. She is buried in her garden and he was buried next to her. It was very special to learn more about her. She became very real to me during our time there. The other stories that really touched me were about Uncle Alfred. He was one of Jackson's slaves. After he was emancipated, he was hired on to work at the home. His job throughout his life was to take care of the horses and the stables. He lived with his wife, who worked in the house as Rachel's personal maid, in a cabin close behind the mansion. After the home was sold to the state (which was part of Jackson's last wishes) to become a museum, Uncle Alfred became the first tour guide. He asked for a proper burial, which the historical society gave him, and he is buried close by General Jackson and his beloved wife. When I walked into the little cabin out back, it reminded me of the pioneer homes that I have seen reconstructed in Winter Quarters. It looked almost exactly the same. And the time period is close. And the stories of Uncle Alfred  just overwhelmed me. I got pretty teary-eyed listening about his life.

The Hermitage was a fun tour because they had audio with two options, one for adults and one for kids. I just listened to the kid version and it was really well-done. Not too long and very lively. Emmett and Melynn both LOVED it. We listened to it all over the grounds, learning about growing cotton, and about the spring house, and about the first Hermitage buildings. There was just so much to learn. The visitor's center had a 20 minute film that we watched right before we left. Normally you would watch it before you do all the walking, but we wanted to take advantage of the kids cheery moods so we saved it for last. Anyway, it talked about Jackson's presidency and how he was the one that forced the Cherokee and other Indian nations to walk the Trail of Tears. There were other things that I can't remember now. It was well-done.

This is the backside of the house. I couldn't take any pictures inside.

This is taken from Rachel's garden, looking back at the house. The garden is like a traditional four-square English garden (I don't know the proper terms) and it had all sorts of flowers and trees, all labeled. It took me back to Botany 201 when I had to memorize over 100 different trees and shrubs.

This is the family cemetery. Their adopted son (they never had biological kids) and his descendents were buried here.

This is the memorial General Jackson built for his sweet wife, Rachel. He is buried beside her. And yes, we still have our headphones on. 

Tucker took Josh's audio tour because it had buttons. He looked like this a lot of the time (with the pacifier!). Now we are back to getting rid of the thing. 

Here is Uncle Alfred's grave.

And his cabin.

Here are the kids playing in the cotton field.

The whole family at the front of The Hermitage. Squinting in the bright sunshine.

It was like stepping back in time just for a day.