5/25/2017
We continued our adventure today in Nashville. First of we went and grabbed Jack some breakfast and then ventured out for our own sustenance. We ate at a restaurant called the Sky Blue Cafe. It was OK, but not in my top 50 of breakfast places, maybe not even top 100. That being said it wasn't "bad" and we were able to fuel up the bodies for our busy day so I'll count it as a win.
After breakfast we headed to the home of Andrew Jackson, The Hermitage. This is one of the best preserved plantation houses I've seen and while there were only a few rooms open and most you peered in, it was still a nice visit. The trees hid much of the view of the house itself, but the grounds were stunning. We took a horse and buggy ride through the grounds and generally enjoyed meandering. A couple of tidbits I found interesting:
1) He medicated his slaves, a very rare practice to treat illnesses of slaves back then.
2) He gave them wages occasionally and provided more food for them than most plantations.
3) The slaves got a day off.
4) He had one black gentleman that stayed on after the slaves were freed (actually it may have been his grandson's by then) and that man ended up being buried in the gardens. The only slave buried there we know of and he had a marker which is also quite unique.
5) His son was actually his nephew. His brother in law had twins and gave them one to raise so they would have an heir...
6) His son/nephew couldn't manage money or business very well at all.
7) The first 15 years they lived in a 2 room building out back. They only built the larger house when Andrew realized he would need something larger in order to entertain DC Style.
We spent about 4 hours here - the grounds were more extensive than I had planned so our visit a bit longer. By the time we were done some biting flies had come out and I was ready to go... do you know when they bite it stings? Yea, I didn't either - I do now.
We decided to come back to the BNB and eat left overs for lunch vs. going out. Both us wanted a small nap after being out in the hot sun and neither of us were hungry enough to warrant paying to go out. So we came home, had our snack and laid down. Jack meanwhile was still in meetings.... we tried to be super quiet for him.
We woke up around 3:45 and I could tell Jack was wrapping up so we waited for him to finish. Given his day was over he came with us as we went to visit the Parthenon. Yes, you read right - Parthenon in Nashville, TN. It was building in the late 1800's for an exhibition and they kept it. It is the most comical thing ever... I guess if you had not seen the actual Greek buildings it would be something else to see, but to us it was just well... quite silly. We did enjoy it though and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Athenian statue inside. That thing is massive and on a cheese scale of 1 to 10 it is an 11. I loved it! So worth the $6 entry fee.
All kidding aside the building is impressive and it's in Centennial Park which has some pretty ponds and statues on it's own. We didn't walk the entire park, but we saw the Women's Suffrage statue, sat and enjoyed the water and generally had a leisurely stroll in the afternoon sun. I was beginning to get redder on the shoulders than I like so we decided to come on back to the BNB.
Once back we got cleaned up, took additional naps, and headed out to enjoy an evening of Nashville Bars, but first food must be had. As you know I research restaurants well in advance.... We had already eaten at 2 of the 5 options I had selected for dinner, 1 we had dismissed the other night (George Jones for being too loud) and the other 2 just didn't sound good tonight so we went to Yelp. We found a BBQ place near here that Keith had recommended and Jack has been eating for lunch and decided to walk down for that. Upon getting there I realized that they are where you order your food and then sit down... Maybe it's petty of me, but I really don't like those restaurants. I'll eat there to save a penny, but when I'm out for teh night I want to sit down and have my order taken so we headed out.
Next door was McCabe Pub. It only had 3 stars on Yelp so my hopes were not high... boy was I wrong. This was the best meal we've had here and the service was great. We sat on the patio and just enjoyed the night. The pub is in the neighborhood we are staying in --- yes it's in the neighborhood. We don't really have restaurants in neighborhoods back home so that was cool in it'self. Nashville is just a city that is alive and I love the energy that comes off these little areas like this. Love it! Oh and did I mention we walked to the restaurant? Walked! Just love it!
After dinner we headed back to the BNB, grabbed what we needed and summoned an Uber. First we went to WildHorse Salon downtown. It was still in restaurant mode so we were seated and ordered some drinks. This bar is just cool. It has gigantic screens so you can see the artist and the first band they had was really good. We enjoyed sitting and listening to them for about an hour... they then went off and they had an intermission. During intermission the bar had line dancing lessons, which were cute to watch. The 2nd band that came on I didn't care for very much. The guy was trying to sing songs outside his range and well to me it was just noise so we decided to leave and head to Tootsies.
Mama has wanted to go to Tootsies for a long time, because it was where the artist husbands hung out back in the day when the artist were playing the Grand Ole' Opry at the Ryman. Walking to get there was intense and I'm glad I had 3 drinks or I would have had a panic attack. The mobs of people were insane... it was just waves and waves of people. We held hands/belt buckles/whatever we could find and formed a line behind Jack who weaved us through til we got to Tootsies. The line was out the door and well... it was just too many people.
So we proved we were old, called for an Uber and made it back to our BNB before 11:30 PM. That being said, I'm comfy in my PJS and ready to call it a night. I do hope to go out and dance some tomorrow as we didn't get that far tonight, but I'm not willing to deal with those crowds to do it...so we shall see.
Sleep well blogland -- hope you are doing well.
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