We decided to take the boys on one last hurrah before school starts, so we went to Nashville for two days after my birthday. Jackson has been asking to see stadiums, and Jeremy has had a hole burning in his wallet for the LEGO store at Opry Mills, so Nashville made a lot of sense.
We left Thursday morning and drove straight to Tennessee Tech. None of us have an affiliation to Tennessee Tech, but they have a stadium and that’s all that mattered.
Then we swung down to my alma mater, Middle Tennessee State University, where the gates to Floyd Stadium were wide open.
Jackson was so happy to touch the turf.
He used an old, unused iPhone to take his own pictures.
On we went to Nashville and checked into the hotel. Chuck secured a strange but spacious corner room that had one heck of a view.
After dropping off our bags we walked across the street to the Tennessee State Museum – a three-floor smattering of detailed exhibits completely free to the public.
18th Century medical advice:
Early journalism:
John Sevier:
William Blount:
Old Andrew Jackson:
Scary doll that comes alive at night and wanders the museum:
The only evidence that Chuck and I were on this trip:
The Battle of Chickamauga:
City money:
Stunning portrait of Ida B. Wells:
We stayed at the museum until it closed and then walked a few blocks to Puckett’s for dinner. If you’re ever in Nashville (or Franklin, or Chattanooga, or Murfreesboro, or Columbia), eat there. It’s delish!
From there, all we had to do was let the boys experience Broadway, which gave Jackson access to Bridgestone Arena and Nissan Stadium.
We capped off the night with swimming in the hotel pool, followed by checkers and chess on the patio.
After a few episodes of Shark Tank, we zonked out and went fast to sleep. I’d like to report that it was a perfect night’s sleep in comfortable hotel beds, but Jeremy got bit by a stomach bug and woke us up early with many trips to the restroom. While he was able to carry on with Friday activities, he didn’t feel 100% until sometime over the weekend.