Music City

Here we are in Lovely Nashville. Did you know the terrain here is kinda mountainous? It's beautiful and everything just keeps getting greener! I could live here; well, after I leave Gulfport. Maybe I could divide my time. Yeah. We got all situated to go after taking hot showers and entered the city.

I think, by far, today was the most enjoyable for everyone. Even though it rained, we were all in good spirits. I honestly believe it has to do with the fact that the weather here is not comparable to a sauna. I am so glad I didn't give up and decide to go home. We started with the Verizon store because David had been promised a new phone in Nashville by Memphis Verizon stores. Unfortunately, someone was sorely confused along the way because he is still without a phone. No worries because we have new hope that upon entering Asheville, NC, he will have that phone. Let's not dwell on the negative though. It was a good day, lemme tell you about it.

We started with the Parthenon. Yeah, there is really a Parthenon here in Nashville. It's a complete replica housed inside a beautiful park that we didn't spend much time exploring due to the rain. The bottom floor of the Parthenon is an art museum and an informational tour on how the Parthenon came to be in Nashville and so forth. The top floor is the main attraction. The goddess Athena stands over 60 ft tall. She's guilded in gold and ivory and has lovely detail painted all over. Surrounding Athena are replicas of statues recovered from the ruins at the site of the Acropolyse, on which the Parthenon is situated. Athena (our daughter) was so excited to visit because it's a temple dedicated to ATHENA. Aurora was excited because she's a Greek Mythology buff. Arianna was excited because she was gonna see the lady after which her sister was named. We stayed for a long time until everyone had their fill. Then we hit the gift shop until David made us leave. Outside, we climbed the steps to the doors. This place is not a cheap tourist trap. This place is really cool and replicated with class. I am so glad we went.

After that we went to a restaurant that David's cousin Sandy, who lives in Nashville, told us we had to visit if we liked Italian food. She was right. It was excellent but a bit out of our price range. Our 1st tip should have been the valet parking sign. Our 2nd indication should have been when they asked us if we had reservations. Getting a table at this place without a reservation on Father's Day is hard to do, good thing we showed up early. When we left, the place was packing them in with people. Fortunately, the kids were well behaved. In fact, we even got a few compliments on how awesome they were. After we rolled our overstuffed selves outta there, we headed to the Gaylord Opry Resort, another place David's cousin Sandy advised us to check out.

She said it'd be a fun indoor activity for the kids, with it being so rainy. David and I didn't think this strange because we were big fans of chillin' for free at Disney resorts when we lived in Orlando. Disney has beautiful, well manicured, impressive resorts but they paled in comparison to the Gaylord Opry!

Upon entering, Aurora complained that visiting a hotel when you're not planning to stay is cheap and lame. She quickly changed her mind. The hotel itself looks to be a series of older brick buildings adjoined with open courtyards. Each room has an adorable little iron-framed balcony with a decorative iron table and chairs set upon the porch. There are white french doors leading to the balcony and that's as far as I could see without being a blatant Peeping Tom. I am sure the rooms were nice!

The Gaylord hotel has recently installed a glass ceiling above each courtyard, completely shutting in all open air areas. There are beautiful little rivers and streams along sidewalks, lined with tropical plants and lovely flowers. There are quaint bridges, waterfalls, gazebos, a riverboat, cute shops, and an array of restaurants and cafes. Along sidewalks and boardwalks, there are occasional benches inviting guests and visitors to stop and stay a while. Stay a while is something that can easily be done with acres of space set inside 3 conservatory-like settings. It's so big, we got lost, even with maps to guide our way! There is also what looks to be a fun indoor pool but we never made it that far! Would it be wrong to get divorced just so we can re-marry here?

The girls had a blast just running around, splashing in the water, and discovering their surroundings. Athena proclaimed that she wanted to live there forever. She was also extremely disappointed we couldn't stay for the night. My AAA travel book said the rates ranged from $199 to $400 per night. We definitely weren't staying there! After HOURS of wandering around the resort, we left for the campsite. The night ended with playing, s'mores and stories. Everyone fell asleep happy and comfortable.

What I Learned: As the South is known as the Bible Belt, Nashville is known as the Belt Buckle. There are definitely a lot of churches here but Nashville is also the biggest publisher/printer of Bibles in the world. Nashville's Parthenon was originally a plaster structure meant to be temporary. After 25 years, much longer than anyone anticipated it standing, Music City decided to make it a permanent building. Lots of money and careful planning was dumped into building the new structure. The Nashville's Parthenon houses the world's largest pair of brass doors and they are surprisingly easy to push open/closed. Most of the sculptures that come from the Acropolypse in Athens are on display not in Greece but the United Kingdom. In the 1600's after the Parthenon was destroyed, the pieces lay in disarray all over the Acropolypse. The Brits asked the Greek government if they could have the partially demolished statues from the site. Greece didn't see the broken statues as a valuable part of their history until this past century. Now they have museums with empty sections that are empty with the intention of buying back their art. Good luck! Nike, the goddess of victory is Athena's right hand woman. There are several Athenas that visit the Nashville Parthenon each year. She's not the only Athena in the USA. Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home is on the Nashville outskirts. He's apparently still a very celebrated man 'round these here parts. Many country stars today performed at the Grand Ole Opry before they were ever famous. Many famous counrty singers are from the east Tennessee area.