Nashville, Day 4

It's Monday and that means, freedom, Willy! Unfortunately, Cindy actually has to work on this trip which means that I am on my own today.

First stop was the Belle Meade plantation,. Belle Meade was built in 1853. The owners, starting with William Harding, made their money primarily in horses. Bonnie Scotland was one of the most famous sires to come out of Belle Meade and almost every horse that won the Kentucky Derby since that time to the present day can trace its lineage back to Bonnie. (Seabiscuit is also a descendant.) If you click on the "Bonnie Scotland" link above, you can see the portrait that hangs in the plantation house today.

I took a tour with the costumed guide through the actual plantation house, below, which was very interesting. One of the cool features of the house is that you can actually wander through most of the rooms - there are no ropes/glass to keep you away from the historical furniture, half of which are the original pieces in the Harding home. Every room was very big with extremely high ceilings and hint at the elegance and wealth that the Southern gentility enjoyed in the late 1800s.

I then toured the grounds and saw the slave log cabin, a smokehouse, creamery, the original cabin that was used by the Hardings before the plantation house was built, the gardens, the carriage house and the masoleum. My only criticism is that it would have been nice had the tour focussed more on the slave experience - that was, ahem, largely left out. The only thing mentioned about the big "S" word was that Harding was a die-hard Confederate who donated half a million to the cause. Boooooooo.

For lunch, I went to eat at Martha's at the Plantation, the on-site restaurant above the gift shop. The food was amazing and I found out that the place had been profiled on Martha Stewart Living. I had tea punch (ice tea with fruit juice in it), herbed chicken salad sandwhich on sourdough, and a side of cheese grits. Grits (always plural, never singular I found out) are like polenta but a lot heavier. For dessert I had the fudge pie with peppermint ice cream, below, (I avoided the deep fried pie even though I was tempted to see how one might fry pie). Everything was fantastic.

After lunch I called a cab and met my new friend, Buddy. Buddy is retired from the army and now drives a cab in Nashville. He is very chatty and gives you an oral history of Nashville as you ride around. Frankly, I learned more about Belle Meade from Buddy than from the guide!!!

Buddy dropped me at my next destination: the Parthenon. Whoa! You say. How did Buddy drive you to Greece that quickly? And how much was that fare? Well, friends, Nashville has its own full-scale replica of the Athens Parthenon. Weird? Of course. Why a Parthenon? Why indeed. Buddy told me it was because Nashville is considered the "Athens of the South" due to the many universities and colleges located in and around the city. I think this is a bit of a stretch but whatever, the Parthenon is cool.

The Parthenon is located in Centennial Park and was built for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition of 1867. The first Parthenon was only meant to be temporary so it was essentially constructed of cardboard, styrofoam, pixie dust, and prayer. But it was so popular that between 1921-31 the city re-built a new, permanent buidling. Unfortunately, because I saw it on Monday when it was "closed", I did not get to see the 42 foot tall statue of Athena inside that is gilded with 8 pounds of real gold leaf. However, I did get to see the bronze doors, each of which weigh 7.5 tons/door, and which are the largest matching bronze doors in the world. I can now die happy!

When I was done being all Greek, I called Buddy and he took me to Opry Mills, the giant shopping complex located near the Grand Ole Opry. It was eeee-normous. I did a little shopping at Fossil and came across some very cute pug shirts, which of course I tried on and did a little "self-snap" of. (I am such a nerd!) And I may have bought one.... ;-) (CAUTION: soft porn below!!!)

Inside the mall, they also have a stingray petting zoo thing, and a Aquarium restaurant, below, that has an enormous fish tank so people can watch the very cool fish as they eat.


After single-walletedly supporting the Nashville cab industry, I went back to the hotel and met back up with C-dog. We had the obligatory, daily soaky-soak in the hot tub and then went back to the hotel room where we remained prone for the rest of the night. In fact, we only emerged to go down the street to get some crappy food. We spent the rest of the night packing and watching our new favourite show, Hogan Knows Best. Oh yes, this evening I was also mercilessly mocked for taking this amazing picture of the sunset from our hotel window. Some people just have no appreciation for fine art.