2009 ~ Saturday, September 26, Site seeing in Nashville, TN with sibling

2009 Saturday, September 26, Smithsonian Free Day Nashville, Tennessee 

Becky drove to my house and I drove to Nashville, TN through Lawrenceburg, Columbia, up interstate 65 to Nashville.

We stopped at McDonald's in Columbia TN, to use the bathroom. 

In downtown Nashville, I made a wrong turn and I turned right off interstate 65 instead of going left which took me out of town so I had to turn around and go back into the downtown area. 

Our first stop was The Parthenon in Nashville. The Parthenon is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. 

Entry Cost was 5.50 each. The Parthenon had two galleries the east and west. 

The Parthenon

The Parthenon, Lake Watauga, and rose arbor are all Centennial Park features.

The Parthenon stands proudly as the centerpiece of Centennial Park, Nashville's premier urban park. The re-creation of the 42-foot statue Athena is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. The building and the Athena statue are both full-scale replicas of the Athenian originals.

The Parthenon also serves as the city of Nashville's art museum. The focus of the Parthenon's permanent collection is a group of sixty-three paintings by nineteenth and 20-century American artists donated by James M. Cowan. Additional gallery spaces provide a venue for a variety of temporary shows and exhibits.

The address is 2600 West End Avenue Nashville, TN 37203.

Athena 

The focus of the Parthenon's permanent collection is a group of 63 paintings by 19 and 20-century American artists donated by James M. Cowan. 
Additional gallery spaces provide a venue for a variety of temporary shows and exhibits.

The address is 2600 West End Avenue Nashville, TN 37203.

Tennessee State Capitol

Next, we rode to Tennessee’s State Capitol there was a walk-a-ton going on. 

I had to drive around several blocks before I found a park. My sister and I walked to the capitol, I took many pictures.

From the capital build, we walked to the Tennessee State Museum. 

The address is 505 Dederick Street Nashville, TN 37243. There was no charge to visit the museum. We were given a brochure about the museum. The upper level houses the earliest known migration of prehistoric people to Tennessee during the Paleolithic period. 

Artifacts from the Paleolithic, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods are on exhibit. The museum even has a display of bones from a mastodon that roamed Tennessee 10,000 years ago.

The room gradually slopes down into the Mezzanine life in Tennessee before the Civil War the antebellum period. This was life on the frontier and the state transforming into an urban society. Painting and a 3,500 Egyptian mummy brought to Tennessee in 1859. 

My sister said I am so hungry that I can eat that mummy. I turned toward the paintings hanging on the wall and my sister walked toward the lower level. 

I stopped to ask the curator at the desk on the second level about taking pictures of the hanging portraits.

The woman at the desk said she overheard my sister say that she was hungry enough to eat their mummy, we both laughed. 

The lower level had exhibits about the civil war and reconstruction with displays of firearms, quilts, silver, battle flags, uniforms, a Victorian painting gallery and objects from the Tennessee centennial exposition of 1897.

On the lower level, they were showing a film and serving popcorn and a drink, My sister said she wanted real food so we left the museum. We hurriedly went to the museum because my sister wanted lunch.

We stopped at Cocina Mexican Grill & Fresh Deli located at 

Union Station address is 501-A Union Street just a few streets down from the Museum. 

It was a slow day and the worker or owner came over and talked to us. I had cheese dip and it was very good. 

We left the Cocina Mexican Grill and walked down the fifth street.

We stopped so I could take a picture of the Ryman auditorium and some historic markers along the way. We walked over to Broadway Street where I took pictures of a guitar that had pictures of several different entertainers on it and nearby was an Elvis statue

Prehistoric people to Tennessee 

The mummy my sister said she was hungry enough to eat!

Civil War

Elvis Presley Statue located on Broadway Street 

Honky Tonk Guitar
Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Pardon, Conway Twitty, Hank Williams Jr, George Jones, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Charlie Pride, Merle Haggard

 Frist Center for Visual Arts

Our next stop was the Frist Center for Visual Arts, It originally housed the  Nashville’s main Post Office.

Frist building became an art museum in 2001. 

Today the Frist Center is one of the city’s most innovative museums and is centered on continually changing exhibits rather than on permanent collections.

Next, we stopped at the Frist Center for Visual Arts. It originally housing Nashville’s main post office, the historic Frist building became an art museum in 2001. Today the Frist Center is one of the city’s most innovative museums and is centered on continually changing exhibits rather than on permanent collections.

It did not take us long to go to the museum because my sister did not care much for the art. She said that there were too many naked statues and pictures. We talked to the curator at the desk and we told her that we had walked all the way from the capitol building and we were not sure which street to take back.

She said do not to go back the way you had come because it is all uphill. 

The curator said for us to go next door to Union Station.

Union Station Hotel located at 1001 Broadway Nashville, TN.

Union Station - A Wyndham Historic Hotel masterfully restored Nashville lodging — built within a 100-year-old railroad station.

I took pictures both inside and outside. 

I was a beautifully restored hotel building that was once a train depot.

We walked back to the car and we were going to visit the Hermitage but got turned around.

It had been a long day and we had walked miles so I decided to go home.

We stopped in Lawrenceburg to take some pictures of the downtown area and historic markers.

It had been a beautiful day for sightseeing but it was getting late and we both were tired from all that walking.

We were home by 5:50 P.M. 

Union Station Train Depot now Wyndham Hotel 

Union Station Hotel located at 1001 Broadway Nashville, TN.

Union Station - A Wyndham Historic Hotel masterfully restored Nashville lodging — built within a 100-year-old railroad station.

Inside Union Station Wyndham Hotel 

1962~ The Battle of Shiloh April 6-8, 1862

1962~ The Battle of  Shiloh April 6-8, 1862 

The Battle of Shiloh:

The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. 

A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and was encamped principally at Pittsburg Landing on the West bank of the river. 

Confederate forces under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard launched a surprise attack on Grant there.

Summer of 1962, our family attended the one hundred years Centennial of the Battle of Shiloh. 

We were vacationing in Savannah, Tennessee with my dad's friends Ronnie and Maria Cornelius.

Ronnie’s parents lived in Savannah within walking distance of the Shiloh Battle Field where the

Reenactment of the Battle of Shiloh was taking place.
Ronnie, Maria, and their children were staying with Ronnie's parents.

From the Cornelius home we could the Merchants (Sutlers)setting up tents with period style-goods to sell to the reenacts and the public. 

There were men dressed as Union and Confederate Soldiers getting ready to engage in battle.

We were amazed, as we watched the cannons and rifles being fired, during the reenactment

The smell of gunfire (burning power)and black smoke filled the air. The battle raged on men were dying, bodies covered the ground, what an awful sight, death.
We walked back to the Cornelius house and dad was ready to return to our vacation campsite on the Tennessee River.

We had arrived in Shiloh in dad's new Blue Dodge pick-up truck, pulling our red and white nine-seater outboard motorboat.

The bed of the truck was filled with eight kids, water-skis, orange life jackets, swimsuits, extra clothes, food, and water.

We had come prepared to swim, fish and camp on the Tennessee River.
We had brought a large green military tent for all our belongings and a place for all of us to sleep.

Dad and Ronnie had put out trot-lines early that morning and by late that afternoon 
they had caught enough catfish to cook for dinner.

After dad and Ronnie had cleaned all the catfish they built a roaring fire.

Mom had a cast iron pot with a handle, and the pot was hung over the hot roaring fire.

Mom would fill the cast iron pot full of Mazola oil when the oil was boiling

she would drop in the catfish. 

While the oil was still hot, mom would make hush-puppies and drop them one by one into the pot.
She stopped cooking hush-puppies when there was enough for the family.

In preparation for our upcoming meal, we would cover the picnic tables with a white sheet.

We would sat-out paper plates, forks, napkins, cups, catchup, tartar sauce and cups for ice tea.

We had purchased a cooler full of ice at the local store.

The kids would retreat back into the Tennessee River until dark, leaving mom to do all the cleaning up after dinner.

It would be way after nine when we headed to the tent and would fall onto our palates (a place for us to sleep.

We would be awakened by the buzzing and vampires mosquitos that left red blotches everywhere on us.

Insect repellent was the most.

We were invited to eat Sunday dinner with the Cornelius family.

Mrs. Cornelius had prepared cornbread, meatloaf, fried potatoes, white beans, corn and apple cake for dessert.

Our vacation was eating catfish, camping, skiing and swimming on the Tennessee River and the reenactment of the Battle of Shiloh.

My least favorite thing about our vacation was the vampire mosquitoes.