Nugget vs Middle Tennessee part 4- Shaun day 2

Friday June 28, 2017

Temple day! Windy before the session but we took the photos anyways and thank goodness because it was raining hard afterwards. 

Andrew Jackson's Hermitage

President Jackson's estate.

I found this Road to be very interesting. A creative way to bring that part of his life to his estate.  He did enjoy sharing his war stories.

The Manson. They wouldn't let us take photos inside the house sadly.

Things learned from tour guides:

-Pres. Jackson loved to tell his war stories

-Pres Jackson read 18 newspapers a day and SAVED THEM ALL.

-The Jackson's had interesting taste in wallpaper. The photos on the website doesn't even come close to showing this.

Back of the house.

Water well.

The gardens.

Family cemetery. 

The Jackon's Tomb.

Back of the house.

Slave housing.

They give you a handheld to listen to stories at markers. We were walking the grounds listening to stories that talked about wildlife.. and deer.

And wild turkeys jumping up and down.. it was pretty funny.

Walking along the gravel path, the lanyard on the handheld caught a branch and I couldn't stop laughing. 

Drove past Eastern Flank Battlefield.

We didn't want to stop because it's just an open field, and we've already seen enough of those. 

Carnton Plantation and the Battle of Franklin

We opted not to pay for the tour of the house.

The Lotz House and across the street was the Carter House (also Battle of Franklin). Shaun told me the stories so we saved our money and didn't do the tour (seriously, the tours of these houses is like $15+ per person! By not going into the 3 houses we saved $50+ each).

Then we started to randomly drive out looking at the historical plaques and came into this tiny town of Leipers Fork. We were really tempted to stop and have dinner at this outdoor bbq pit but we just weren't hungry yet. However they did have these cars.. 

And remnants of old walls

Fort Granger

Earthen works made by Union Soldiers that are still there. It was amazing to see.

Fireflies EVERYWHERE! I tried to catch them in photos but no luck.

Nugget vs Middle Tennessee part 2- parks

Brace yourself for loads of photos...

Wednesday June 21
Centennial Park

Since it was the summer solstice, there were some astronomers out with their solar telescopes letting everyone enjoy them.  It was pretty cool.

And this lone reggae drummer..

There's an art museum inside but we chose to save money.  It's a giant statue of Athena inside.

Water bottle for scale.

Awesome swing benches everywhere.

And the magnolia trees..

Bicentennial Mall State Park

Walkway of the Counties on the East side

North end of the park

The chimes played a different song every 15 minutes.

Names of singers and song writers who impacted music.

Tennessee State History walk on the west side. We started from the end and walked to the beginning of time...

It was really neat.  Every decade had a pillar and along the wall it listed things that were happening, quotes, population...

World War II Memorial

The Civil War... the granite wall was one long perfect wall until the Civil War.  They had the wall in blocks broken up and scattered. Tennessee was the last state to withdraw from the Union and the first to be restored.

A way awesome amphitheater.  

The South end you can see the State Capitol.

There was a giant to scale map of the state.

.

Elise's head for scale. She wanted to pick one and wear it.

Again with the columns..