Nashville Now

by Rob

It shouldn't surprise me that things are different than I imagined or remember.

Despite my earlier prediction regarding our day, we decided pretty quickly to head for the Adventure Science Center. We had heard about it from someone at Eric and Miriam's wedding. Based on the fliers and information that we had to work with, it was clearly the kid's first pick. Kim and I would have preferred to go to The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's homestead, but ultimately the desire to keep them happy was stronger than our desire to do the "school field trip" thing, as they deemed it.

Turns out, this was a good choice, although the 30 or more minutes that we stood in line waiting to pay the admission price was a bit frustrating. This was especially hard for me, since we were about sixth or seventh in line, and behind us the line disappeared out the door and out of sight. I tried to remember to "set the tone" by being patient and cool about it, but it was work. Once inside, we were quickly drawn into the plethora of hands on exhibits. Some of the activities and displays were about basic scientific matters like physics, light, and sound. Other areas were dedicated to the human body and space. The kids were able to explore the place on their own. Occasionally we lost track of one or both of them, but never for very long.

The science center has a view of downtown Nashville. I took this picture there. I don't really know what I was expecting, but the skyline is more substantial than I guessed that it would be. I know that it's been over 20 years since I've been here -- things have changed and my memories have faded -- but it just doesn't look like I thought it would.

We decided to leave the museum at lunchtime. Our plan was to head to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. In all honesty, I felt like we should do something related to country music while we're here, but I didn't figure that I'd be very impressed by this museum. I was wrong. Opened in 2001, the museum is modern and well designed. We were all content to take our time, reading information and looking at items throughout the two floors of displays. I was surprised by how familiar I am with some of the key people from the history of country music. It was fun to see Buck Owen's red, white and blue guitar; I remember it from Hee Haw. One of the displays includes the back drop and the corn field from the show. When we looked at the walls of gold and platinum albums, I was surprised to see that I recognized a lot of them from when I was growing up.

I also especially enjoyed the special exhibition about Hank Williams. I didn't know anything about him until a couple of years ago. One of my favorite Christian artists, David Crowder, recorded a bluegrass version of "I Saw the Light." At the time that his recording was being released, Crowder did some interviews about Hank Williams and the importance of his influence on a wide range of musicians. Williams sure was a mess, but the designers of this exhibition didn't sugar coat anything.

Before leaving, we hit the gift shop, of course. Nate bought a straw cowboy hat. His souvenir of choice for this visit.


We left the museum after about 3 hours. We decided to head into the "SoBro" neighborhood nearby. We had seen a strip of neon sign covered businesses just a few blocks from the museum. We didn't know if it was authentic or tourist driven, but it looked like a classic section of downtown Nashville. After walking half of the way to our destination, I was surprised to look up and see the Ryman Auditorium. I remember that when we visited there when I was a kid, it seemed as though we had driven to an out-of-the-way location to find it. That's certainly not the case now. It's directly across the street from the Nashville Convention Center, and just around the corner from the block of activity that we were heading to.

Kim and the kids didn't take a lot of interest in the stores, but Abbie was also hoping to buy a cowboy hat and within a few minutes they found an interesting shop that sold them. I waited outside with Elvis while they looked inside. Within ten minutes they came out, Abbie now sporting a white, flannel hat.

We walked back to our car by a different route and came upon the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. I had heard about this facility sometime in the last year or so. The trend for major city symphonies to abandon larger performing art centers for smaller, acoustically brilliant concert halls reminds me of the way that baseball stadiums have been changing. I would love to attend a performance at this venue. I am amazed at the architecture and the fact that the building opened less than 2 years ago. I think that the classic, 19th century appearance of the building is wonderful. Kim and the kids decided that anyone who lives on Schermerhorn Road ought to be able to see something in the hall for free. The fact that we're leaving and there's no performance there this evening, means that there won't be anymore speculation about that.

We're back at the hotel for the night. The day was great, but after walking for most of it, no one seems interested in doing much this evening. The kids haven't even mentioned the pool; instead, they're parked in front of the Disney channel, which we don't get at home. They're as happy as can be. Tomorrow we head to "Hot-lanta." We'll spend a couple of days with Barbie before making the final leg of our southbound route. We'll be in Florida from Sunday to Sunday.

I'm not sorry that our schedule led us to spend some time here. The kids really seem to be appreciating this time, and they've already asked about coming back. They think that we could use some more time to explore. I think that's good; as we leave, we'll leave them wanting more.