Nashville Getaway

This past weekend, we had a wonderful getaway to Nashville.  It was rather last minute, but when the babysitters say they are available, you make yourself available!  We were planning to do something this month, but didn't know what.  Jared had 5 or 6 vacation days to use up before April 1...we will plan better this year :)!  Anyway, Nashville was a great choice.  So, Thursday afternoon we headed to Salem, to drop the kids off and head south.  We stayed at The Inn at Opryland, which is owned by the same company and right across the street from Opryland (with free shuttle service).

Thursday night we headed across the street to check out Opryland and get some dinner.  This place is like a Vegas hotel without the casinos...it's huge, with a lot going on!

There are 9 acres of gardens and water inside.  It is beautiful, you could get lost walking around in there.

Self portrait

Indoor Waterfalls

Friday morning we were told we had to eat breakfast at The Pancake Pantry (check out the menu).  When I was there a few years ago for a girls weekend, we drove past and the line was out the door and down the block.  It is suggested you get there before 9am to avoid the crazy lines.  We got there at about 8:45 and there was a short line out the door.  Nothing that scared us away! It most definitely lived up to the hype.  If you visit Nashville...go!

The people on the left are in line.  I enjoyed their famous sweet potato pancakes and Jared wasn't disappointed with his  Sante Fe cornmeal pancakes.

After breakfast, we walked around the area for a while and they decided to find the Nashville Antique Archaeology store.  It was in an area that used to be a Marathon Automobile car factory (from the early 1900's), so it was fun to explore.  There were also several other shops around.

A bike from Mike's personal collection.

I remember seeing the pig head episode!

The store was almost like a museum too.  There were several items that were just on display and not for sale. 

The outside of the building.

 After we finished at Antique Archaeology, we decided to just meander through the old buildings.  There were a lot of small businesses; salons, photographers, insurance agencies.  But there were also a lot of pictures and old pieces of equipment around to look at.

An Antique Drill Press

  After we finished meandering, we decided to visit The Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson's home.  It was very interesting and involved a lot of walking!  It is set on 1200 acres.  For those of you who don't know...Andrew Jackson was the 7th President and was for slavery, I think he had 150+ slaves on his plantation.  We toured the grounds as well as a guided tour of his mansion.  Most of the furnishings are original.  We weren't able to take pictures inside the house, but here are some of our walk around the grounds.

View from the front

Jackson's wife, Rachel's 1 acre "Pleasure Garden"

Andrew and Rachel Jackson's tomb in the garden

I found it interesting that one slave of the Jackson's lived at The Hermitage his entire life.  He was born there and was the 1st tour guide when the plantation became a museum (in 1889)!  Alfred, was his name, and he is also buried in the garden.  Another interesting tidbit about the Jacksons...they had no biological children.  They had 1 'adopted' son who was born as a twin to Rachel Jackson's brother and they gave them one of the boys to raise as their own!  Crazy!

This shows how big this place is.

We would highly recommend this tour as well, on your visit to Nashville :).

Friday night we got dressed up and went out to a nice dinner (no pictures though).  Saturday morning we checked out of our hotel, decided to stroll through Opryland again, in the daylight and found a fun little lunch spot in East Nashville.  There are still lots of things we would have liked to fit in, so I guess we'll just have to go back!  

I can't thank my parents enough for keeping the kids!  They had a great time and we all slept in past 8 today!

Oh, and check out the instagram link, there are other Nashville pics on there!