This weekend we were honored to be guests at the wedding of
a very dear friend which was being held at the Carnton Plantation in Franklin,
TN. We chose to go a day early and play
tourists. I say “play tourists” because
I grew up not that far from Franklin, so I really don’t feel like we are really
away from home even though we live in Alabama.
We had such great experiences at a variety of places, I thought I would
blog about it and share with others that might visit the area.
After checking into our hotel, the first order of business
was to find food for dinner. Had it
been earlier in the evening, we probably would have ventured to the downtown
Franklin area, but as we were pretty hungry, we opted for a place reasonably
close. We have a rule that we also try
new places when we travel, so we chose Buco Di Beppo, an Italian chain restaurant. The
staff was super friendly and our server did an excellent job explaining to us
about their family style dining.
Basically, you pick your item from the menu and they bring it out in a
bowl (small for 2-3 people, large for 4-6) and you share. You know, just like you eat when you are at
home. We decided on a Ceasar salad,
Penne San Remo, and a side of Italian broccoli. Wow!
Even with ordering a small, we had enough left over for another meal. But the food was yummy! I have just recently discovered that I like Ceasar salads, and this one did
not have a heavy dressing; it was just right.
The pasta dish was also rather tasty even if it did have a alfredo-ish
type cream sauce (I am not an alfredo fan) and the broccoli was #1! They added garlic, crushed red pepper, and a
sprinkling of parmesan to this favorite veggie and really gave it some
kick.
While eating, I gazed across the table at T and realized in horror that I had forgotten to cut
his hair this week like I had planned.
He could NOT go to the wedding looking scruffy with his combination
three week beard and goatee. So our
first priority the next day was a barber shop.
Having a feeling that Franklin probably still had a REAL barber shop
downtown, I did a quick search online and found exactly what we were looking
for with Carson’s Barber Shop – walk-ins and an
average wait time of less than ten minutes.
We arrived shortly after they opened and walked right in and got him
cleaned up. It is an old house that has
been converted into a barber shop, and they have all sorts of antique barbering
items around. They even had two little
cars for little guys to sit in for their trims. The waiting area even had a popcorn machine, TV,
and games. My favorite thing was the
antique glass door knobs on all of the doors. I know – weird.
Next stop was the Franklin Gun Shop. T is quite the gun enthusiast, and having passed their gigantic billboard on the interstate multiple times, this was a
must stop and look. They do have a
pretty good assortment of weaponry, new and used, as well as any accessory
needed. We managed to get in and out
with all of our money still in our pockets, so I considered that a success.
Now we were on to the real tourist stops. I wanted to go to the Parthenon (1) because I had never been there and
(2) we saw the real one last year in Athens, Greece and I wanted to compare the
two. It is located across from
Centennial Park in West End. The first floor has displays of items from the Tennessee Centennial and explains the history of the Nashville Parthenon.
They are currently showing an art exhibit
on the second floor called ARTWORK AMONG US: Portraits by Juan Pont Lezica
that is photographs of Nashvillians posed and dressed similar to famous
artwork. For instance, one of the photos
is of former Tennessee Titan Eddie George posed as The Thinker.
No photos are allowed of the artwork, so you will have to go see that
for yourselves. But photos are allowed
on the third floor where Athena stands guard over her temple. Having seen the Percy Jackson movie, I knew
kinda what to expect, but to walk up the stairs and see this humongous, dare I
say gaudy, statue was quite the sight.
I have always enjoyed
mythology, so I still thought it was neat to see the shield, the Medusa, and just the total Athena package.
We took several photos inside and out, and then moved on to our next
destination – Cheekwood Botanical Gardens.
I basically chose Cheekwood because (1) we had never been
there, (2) I thought it would provide good photo ops, and (3) we could get in
for free. The reason we could get in
for “free” is because we are members at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens, which
allows reciprocal visits to several other gardens and locations across the
country through the American Horticultural Society (AHS). If you visit several places like this in a
year, the membership is well worth it with reciprocal visits and other
discounts.
The Cheekwood property is located in a beautiful area just 8.5 miles
southwest of downtown Nashville. We first grabbed a quick lunch at The
Pineapple Room, their on-site restaurant.
Reservations are recommended, according to their website, but we did the
walk-in thing, and it worked out okay. From reading the menu cover, we learned that Cheekwood has a
treehouse exhibit this year,
so we got really pumped about seeing what kind of forest-y abodes
were in store for us. Here are shots of
the seven tree houses:
All of the treehouses are big enough for adults to go in them and each is unique in its own way. We did not explore the entire grounds available to us simply
due to time and the heat. The car’s temperature
reading said 102F, so I am sure it was
hovering close to 100, but it was
tolerable since there were many shady spots along our route and it was
dry. All of the walking actually kinda
reminded us of our time in Israel last spring, but with more grass and trees. I would definitely like to go back and see
some of the other gardens and the art museum housed in the Cheekwood Mansion.
I bet it has air conditioning!
So many great places are available to visit in middle
Tennessee, depending on your interests.
I hope this may have helped you in making the decision to hit the road
and see the sights. Happy trails!
