Nashville

Craig had a week off school in between semesters so we decided to take a little road trip to see Nashville, TN.  It is about a 3 hour drive from Memphis and thought this would be a good first road trip for Brooklyn.  We left for Nashville Monday morning May 6th.  Brooklyn got up to feed at 5:45am and we left right after she ate and luckily she slept the entire way.  Our first stop was at the Pancake Pantry.

We couldn't check into our hotel yet so we decided to grab some delicious pancakes and I mean delicious. I had crepe like pancakes with chocolate ganouch rolled up inside with chocolate syrup on top and whipped cream and a raspberry compote.  I mean seriously that is my kinda of breakfast.  Craig went for the classic buttermilk but he said those were great too.  After breakfast we headed downtown to pick up our city passes and then on to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

We didn't want to do a guided tour just in case Brooklyn decided to have one of her freak outs so we just wondered the museum our selves. They have a cool museum with the history of country music and then have the actual Hall of Fame.

Garth Brooks: Craig's Favorite country artist

After the Hall of Fame it was finally late enough for us to go check in to our hotel.  Brooklyn took a short nap and then we headed out to dinner.  Some friends of ours had told us about a restaurant that had a huge aquarium in it and it just happened to be really close to our hotel so we decided to head over there for dinner.

The food was a little over priced but it was a pretty cool atmosphere. There was a 200,000 gallon tank right in the middle of the restaurant.  Brooklyn slept all through dinner, which was awesome, but she woke up just before we left so that she could take a look at the fish.  Back to the hotel and off to bed. We are not used to sleeping in the same room as Brooklyn, she only last in our bedroom for 1/2 a night when we got home from the hospital and now I remember why, she is a noisy little sleeper.  Needless to say Brooklyn slept great and Craig and I were a little tired the next morning. Tuesday morning we headed just outside the Nashville city limits to the Hermitage, which is where President Andrew Jackson lived before and after his presidencies.


Brooklyn started off in the front back but that only lasted until we got to the front door, Craig had to run back to the car to get the stroller

The first part of the tour was a museum

Andrew Jackson's Mansion/Plantation 

It was an audio guided tour which was nice because we could go at our own pace with Brooklyn.  We were able to go through the mansion and all over the grounds.  There were these cute 4th graders all dressed up and scattered all over the grounds to tell you about the history of it. Next we grabbed some lunch from a little BBQ shack that was recommended by Food Network and then we were off to the Parthenon.

An exact replica of the Parthenon from ancient Greece

Inside the Parthenon on the first level was a museum about it being built and Nashville at the time it was built and then on the second level was information about the Parthenon and the figures that are on the outside of it.

Huge gold statue on the second level of the Goddess Athena (I think)

 We decided that was enough for the day and we headed back to the hotel for Brooklyn to take a nap somewhere else besides her carseat or Craig's arms.

Brooklyn hanging at the hotel

  That night we made a quick stop at the Grand Ole Opry.  We couldn't go to Nashville without seeing it. 

We didn't go inside because we didn't think Brooklyn would handle a 2 hour guided tour very well so we just admired it from afar. Wednesday morning Craig woke up a little more refreshed because he was able to tune out some of Brooklyn, but I still somehow heard all of her noises.  After we ate breakfast and packed up we headed off to the Nashville Zoo.

Brooklyn slept the entire time at the zoo so we don't have any pictures with her.  It was a pretty small zoo but kept up really nice.  After the zoo we started our journey back home to Memphis.  We had to stop just once to quickly feed and change Brooklyn, but other than that she was an absolute trooper.  We would definitely consider it a successful trip, although we were glad to have Brooklyn back up in her nursery.