Nashville, TN - Where we stayed

After leaving the Adventure Science Center, we heeded to out hotel.  We are members of the Holiday Inn Priority Club so we prefer to stay there and gather priority club points.  Also, we have never been disappointed in any of hte Holiday Inn Express hotels that we have stayed at.

We booked the room through Expedia.com which means we prepaid for the room but received a very good rte.  The one disadvantage to going through a service like Expedia is the fact that you have paid for the room whether you make it there or not.  And remember, we are flying standby so may not make it there.  With 31 empty seats on our flight, we decided to chance it.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Nashville, Airport.  The front desk clerk was very helpful and got us checked in quickly.  Our room was spotless and comfortable.  The only negative was that it was a handicapped equipped room so the bathroom door was a little bit wider than most and swung into the room instead of into the bathroom.  This made for an awkward entry area with both doors colliding when both were opened.  Bot otherwise, the room was good.

I received my complimentary bottles of water and asked for a toothbrush and toothpaste, which were gladly provided.

After freshening up, I asked the clerk (who's name escapes me right now) for advice on where to get good southern BBQ.  He advised that the best ribs were found in a neighborhood where you drove up and grabbed them from a window but he didn't recommend that we head there since it was in what he described as a sketchy neighborhood.  Of the three restaurants I named for him, he recommended Jacks BBQ.  He also came up with a suggestion that I had been toying with myself.  He suggested that we use the hotel shuttle service to return our rental cart hat evening and then to return to the airport the next day.  Doing this saved us some time and hassle in the morning and also $10 off our rental bill.

After a good night sleep, we enjoyed a complimentary hot breakfast and pleasant conversation with the morning clerk, Lamar.  The ride to  the airport was hassle free and dropped us off right at the departure door.

Nashville, TN - Adventure Science Center

Our next stop was the Adventure Science Center.  We spent $31 on admission (after saving a buck using my student status) and it was wort every penny.  The center is a two story building chock full of interactive educational activities.  We ran around trying everything we cold and I am sure that we did not see and do everything. 

A highlight for me was watching Lil' Bit try to lift a cat.  In this activity, there was a car on one end of a beam and two ropes on the other.  The lesson was to show how being farther away from the fulcrum made it possible and easier for a person to lift a car b themselves. Assuming that the person weighs more than 38 pounds, that is.

 

I know that Lil' Bit did not understand what this water table was trying to show but she managed to play there for what seemed like forever.

I had better start saving for med school now

This was definitely the kids' favorite activity.  There were two wheelchairs, two ramps, two payphones (one high and one handicapped accessible and a small basketball court.

The kids played on the wheelchairs for quite a while

 

Sadly, Lil' Bit couldn't try this since you had to weigh at least 50 pounds.

 

 The kids and I strongly recommend the Adventure Science Center.  Well worth the price of admission.

Nashville, TN - Antique Archeology

Big Boy, my husband and I are big fans of the show American Pickers and we knew that in addition to the original store in Iowa, they had opened up a store in Nashville, TN. we headed there after lunch.

We found the store to be a little bit touristy- selling T-Shirts, shot glasses, hats, coffee cups and picker gloved, all emblazoned with the Antique Archeology logo. We also found the prices of these items to be a bit high. T-shirts ran about $25 and shot glasses $7.

But, it was really cool to be in the store and see a lot of real "picks". It had the feel of a combination museum, tourist trap and antique shop all at once.

I don't blame them for cashing in on the tourist traffic. After all, the tourists wade in all day long and most likely do not actually buy the high priced antiques. I have no problem with the store taking advantage of the opportunity to sell to the tourists. I do feel that they are priced too high, though and I have to admit that I resented that part a little bit. I would have loved to spend my money there and buy a shirt for my son and maybe husband but not for $25.

Found Big Boy's future coveralls

 

 

Nashville, TN - lunch

By the time we left the arboretum, we were hungry. And when we get hungry, we get cranky. So, we pulled out of the arboretum and pulled into the very first place we saw.

A Krystal Burger joint. Oh boy, I don't think have ever seen service like this. There was one person working  the front of the store and she just about ignored us. I mean, ignored us so much that I started to wonder f the video screen in front of us was some sort of tough screen self order like at Royal Farms. So, there I was tapping on the monitor like a crazy woman when we finally got acknowledged. She took our order for double bacon cheeseburgers and drinks. She took our payment and we went to the table to wait for our food. It took forever. I started to realize why we were just about the only ones there at lunch time. All the locals must know better.

Our food finally came and halfway through out sandwiches, Big Boy pointed out that our doubles were singles. I checked my receipt and sure enough, we had paid for doubles. I went back to the counter to point this out but soon realized that I would see service y Tuesday. And anyway, by then, Big Boy had eaten his share of my proof that we had been ripped off. I let it go.

Word to the wise... drive a little farther next time and skip Krystal Burgers

Nashville, TN - August 25-26

We decided to make our Nashville trip an overnight one since the only return flight we could find on Saturday would have been at 4:00PM.  With travel back tot he airport, this means that our day would have ended at around 2:00.  We didn't feel that would have given us enough time to explore the city.

We started out for the airport at 6:00AM for an hour commute and an 8:00 AM flight.  It was nice to sleep in for a little while since we usually have a 6:00AM flight out of town and have to be up at some crazy time like 3:00AM to get showered and on the road.

The kids did their usual grumble for a minute or two before popping us and gathering their travel bags.  Even though their was an overnighter, we still traveled light.  We had a total of five carry on bags, one of which was a small cooler.  Lil' Bit had my old fanny pack which was big enough for a headset, her kindle fire and her PSP

The  bag was almost as big as she was and I was afraid that she would eventually tip over.  But she took the job of carrying her own stuff seriously and refused my offer to load in onto the stroller.  Oh, yeah, we brought the stroller.  And a small booster seat for the rental car.

We brought the cooler but we only used it for some mini donuts (I just couldn't stand the thought of McDonald's for breakfast.  We decide to splurge a little on this trip and let Big Boy buy breakfast and all three of us to eat out for lunch and dinner.  The kids have been really good about doing the sandwich thing so I thought I would give them a break from it.

Big Boy had a sling style backpack with his Kindle and PSP and I had two small bags which had a change of clothes and all of our power cords.

I was going t bring my cannon Rebel camera since I had a car to stash it in but I realized halfway to the airport that I had forgotten it.

Our flight was empty enough for us to be issued boarding passes right when we checked in a the gate.  We had seats together and had a very smooth flight.  I slept for a good part of the 1:25 hr flight.

We arrived in Nashville at 9:00AM Nashville time.  We had booked a car through Enterprise and ended up with a small red compact.  The kids declared it a great car and wanted one just like it.  That was when I realized that we already had one just like it.  Our car at home is also a Toyota Corolla.  The difference was that this one is new and shiny and not full of crumbs and dents and 150K miles.

Our first stop was the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens.  There is a tree house exhibit that I thought would be a blast for the kids.  Since they spent so much time playing at Millennium Park in Chicago, I left a lot of time on the agenda for the tree houses.  As we approached the counter,  noticed that students had a reduced rate of $5 rather than the $12 adult price.  I told the woman at the counter that I was a newly returned college student but had not thought to bring my ID.  Almost the truth.  I am anewly returned college student but i have not been issued an ID for my online college.  She believed me and charged me the student rate.

Lil' Bit loved them from the first moment.  Big Boy was not so enthusiastic.  he grumbled and complained and refused to have fun.  He ended up perking up a little bit as the morning went on but never had the sparkle that Lil' Bit had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the tree houses were interesting and fun for Lil' Bit, I found the arboretum to be a bit of a let down.  They were nice, don't get me wrong, but I have been to nicer gardens so I wold say that the gardens alone wold not be worth the trip.  We left the gardens just before 1:00 and noticed that they were starting to get crowded as we were leaving.

To Be Continued.