Heading Home

We left the park after it started raining again, harder.  I took a quick poll and the kids wanted to go down the Natchez Trace to Florence and head home that way.  So, being on the west side of town, we scooted on over to the Trace and hopped on. 

It became quickly apparent that we were going to be exhausted by the time we actually reached home, going 2 hours south and still having 2 hours to head east from there, so we got off the Trace at the Merriwether Lewis site and wound our way through Amish country to Lawrenceburg where we stopped for pizza and took it to a little park just down the road.

We saw about 10 buggies with Amish people, one had several children in it.  I called them 'Amlets' and it struck us all as a perfect term. 

As we waited for Matt to come out with the pizza-Little Caesar's has yet to have cheese pizza in the hot n ready capacity-Chan told us the unfortunate tale of The Smurfs being made into a 3-D movie with live action and that... Neil Patrick Harris was playing a human in it.  Nooooooo!

Jake said, "If I grew a foot for every pizza I have ever eaten, I would be able to take over the world!"  Chan said, "Or...just be covered in feet."  That was SO funny, we all rolled and I drew a foot on my hand to remind myself to write that down as soon as I could. 

Awkward wording!  I saw several messages that looked to be left for dead people under the bridge.  A check revealed that 18 people have killed themselves on or near the Birdsong Hollow Bridge on the Trace since 2000.  So many, in fact, that there are anti-suicide signs up in the area now.

 

We got back home around 10:30.  Small Dog had been in the yard all day with Big Dogs and she seemed to have done just fine.  The whole day cost us gas money, 2 meals and $2.50 in parking fees.  Not bad considering all we did!  : )

The Dragon Park

Fannie Mae Dees Park has been a favorite stop on any trip.  Even though it was still drizzling, we opted to hop out and walk around anyway.

The park was named after Fannie Mae Dees, who refused to sell her house to the University (Vanderbilt) and they shut off her power and she froze to death in her basement.  We just call it The Dragon Park and every time we go, I see new pictures in the mosaics.  I must have 300 photos of the dragons and still that many more left to take.

Matt took this one.  I stole it from his website.

Another one! Look at my adorable shirt. hehehe!

 

Kidcussion is adlepated, but determined to climb on the dragon

My very favorite of the gods

Just a tiny portion of the different pictures in the mosaics covering the serpents (they are, technically sea serpents and not dragons at all).

Centennial Park

After lunch, we went to Phillips Toy Mart, which was a favorite place to visit when the kids were younger.  It had not changed at all and they climbed up in the tower to watch the model trains and picked up every other toy in the store.  We left with a pig-shaped eraser and a handful of dice for Jake's D&D addiction.

Headed back toward town, the kids wanted to stop in at Centennial Park.  Matt had some geocaches he could get there, so we turned in and spent an hour or so walking around before the rain sent us scampering for the van once again.

While running in the garden, Jake ran head-first into...a...wall.  He did not see it.  Hrm

He seemed okay, then he said he was dizzy, then a big knot came up on his head, then it started bleeding and then...some of his hair fell out.  Like...a big chunk of it.  Ack!

We called him 'Kidcussion' the rest of the day, though I did keep a close eye on him and we made him stay awake for the next 6 hours.  I gave him headache stuff back in the van and he rested his noggin a little.

There's so much more to see at the park, but between the rain and Kidcussion, we decided to leave and see what else we could get into.

Lunch Break

It started raining when we were headed back to the library, so we decided to head out to get lunch.  Parking the 3 hours we were downtown cost us $2.50 with our stamped ticket!  : )

We decided to go to West End to eat and after a few miles the kids spotted Moe's.  Chan was just asking to eat there a couple days ago, so there was no question of going somewhere Nashville-specific or getting something to go and heading to a park.  Moe's it was!

He's not wearing PANTS

I get a thumbs-up from the Peanut Gallery when polled about moving to Nashville.
There's the capital building behind them.

The books outside Ben West, for the first few weeks of driving around Nashville, I had to look for them as a landmark.  Then I learned about these things called street names.  Pre-GPS, I was really reliant on objects and colors of buildings to navigate.

It's actually pouring rain in the pics of the Customs House.  I was in traffic taking them, so they are a little off.

Oh, Billy!  If only I did not have to share you with Matt!