Yeehaw, Welcome to Nashville. Buckle up because this is going to be a long one! We’ve been very busy exploring the city, and our stay was unexpectedly extended (more on that later), so lots to go over :-)
Our arrival to Nashville was a little bumpy. Like I mentioned earlier, before we left for this trip we were having some trouble with “Animal”, our cute little car that we tow behind the RV. It wasn’t giving us so much trouble that we couldn’t use it, but we knew we needed to have it looked at further and fixed before we got stranded in some desert out west. We called ahead to a Chevy dealership in Nashville and made an appointment. We still needed a car to get around so I started looking for a rental. Easier said than done- just about every rental location in Nashville was sold out. But we finally found one. On Wednesday when we arrived, it was a crazy little dance of dropping off Animal and picking up the rental, while driving the RV in a not RV friendly part of town, while the kids were finishing up school for the day and Pat was still doing work calls. Crazy to say the least! Zach and I hopped out at the rental location, and Pat was in a not great place with the RV, so we told him to go ahead without us and we would meet them wherever they landed. But what should have been a quick car pickup turned into an almost 2 hour ordeal. Turns out that the online rental system accidentally oversold their cars, and there was a whole waiting room full of people and no cars available. Luckily, we were 4th in line and they had 4 cars coming from another town, but even after they arrived, they needed to be checked in and cleaned and sanitized. It was also lunchtime, so Zach and I survived on whatever old granola bars I had in the bottom of my backpack, haha. Finally, we got our car, scarfed down some lunch and then met Daddy and Sarah to continue on to our campground.
That night, we went over to the Gaylord Opryland Resort, which is right down the street from our campground. If you’ve never been (Pat and I have been there tons for work and conferences), it is absolutely huge. We kept telling the kids how huge it was, but they didn’t quite believe us until they saw it. We definitely got our steps in that night, walking every section of the hotel.
Thursday and Friday were school days for the kids, but one of the advantages of moving time zones is that we get done a little earlier in the day and can go on some adventures. Thursday we went to Centennial Park in downtown Nashville and visited the Parthenon. It is a full scale replica of the Parthenon in Athens. Zach, who is very into Greek Mythology and Percy Jackson at the moment, has been VERY excited about this stop! In both the book and the movie, Percy Jackson goes to the Nashville Parthenon to get one of the pearls that he is looking for, and ends up fighting a Hydra in the main hall inside by the Athena statue. Inside was a little art museum, and even a small display about Percy Jackson. Upstairs was the 45’ Athena statue. Both kids really enjoyed the visit. Afterwards, we went outside to the big lawn and it was the perfect day to fly their new kites.
On Friday, the kids played with some of their new friends in the campground while we waited for Daddy to finish work, and then headed to Downtown Nashville for dinner and walking around. We went to the Wildhorse Saloon for an earlyish dinner, and there was line dancing and then a live band. I was a little nervous about eating inside (we haven’t done that much) but the room is absolutely huge, and they did a really good job of spacing tables and enforcing masks. We were sorta up on the side in our own little world, and the kids had a great view of the stage. After dinner, I was excited to walk the kids down Broadway- I knew that Zach especially would love the energy. But we only made it a block before we bailed--- it was so so crowded and so full of drunk people and people without masks and not distancing. Nashville really only started opening up a week or so ago, and apparently EVERYONE wanted to get back to partying. But we found a little ice cream shop with the craziest milkshakes and then DROVE down Broadway checking out all the bars playing live music from the comfort of our car.
Sarah’s assessment: This city is too loud!
Zach’s assessment: This is the greatest place EVER!!!
Saturday was supposed to be our driving day, but alas, Animal is not fixed yet. Good news: They found the problem and it wasn’t major. Bad news: They needed to order parts and they wouldn’t be in until Monday or Tuesday. So, we’ve extended our stay in this “too noisy, best city ever”. It was a bit of a dreary day, so it was rather low key, but we did stumble upon a skate park on the way back from grocery shopping. There was also a cool walking path that led to a big pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River.
Sunday has been probably my favorite day so far. We did a little food/park tour of Nashville. We started the day at the Pancake Pantry, and were surprised to get a table as soon as we walked in, but by the time we finished our pancakes, the line was wrapped around the building. Then we saw on the map that there was a park called “Dragon Park” not far from where we were. We HAD to check it out, because one of the kids favorite parks at home, we call it dragon park (even though I'm pretty sure the playground equipment is supposed to be an alligator- but the name has stuck). This place was so much cooler! There was a gigantic tile mosaic dragon that stretched across the playground, and was covered in all sorts of playful images. After jumping all over every inch of the dragon, we drove to the center of the city and visited Bicentennial Park, which is stretched between the Tennessee Capitol Building on one end, and a giant carillon (a huge instrument like an organ, but with bells in towers) on the other end. We enjoyed walking around the park, playing frisbee, listening to the bells (I have Chattanooga Choo Choo stuck in my head now!) and rolling down the giant lawn of the Capitol Building. We also stopped by the farmers market next to the park for a little snack. Then, for our final stop of the day, we drove clear across town to have lunch at the Loveless Cafe. Pat heard that they were known for their biscuits, and he heard right. They also had amazing fried chicken, and Pat had some yummy smoked ham. By the time we finished up there, we were all plump and tired, and spent the rest of the day relaxing at the (very cold) campground pool.
We should be here until Tuesday or Wednesday, before continuing on to Memphis, but the kids have school and we’ve hit all of the major touristy things on our list, so we will probably hang close to the campground or maybe go to the skate park again :-)
