Day 3--All Around Nashville

Day 3 began bright and early.  A young sprinter on the floor above us began his Olympic training laps before 7:00 so we began our day early as well.  

We thought we would get a good overview of Nashville and drive by some of the famous sites.  We began by driving by the Hermitage.  Unless you plan on paying for the tour, don't bother driving by.  You can barely even see some of the grounds, let alone get a glimpse of the house.  We then headed to see the Parthenon.  Eli was quite impressed and said it was his favorite part and couldn't wait to tell his friend about it.  

Since we were close by, we drove through the Vanderbilt campus and then headed downtown.  Broadway was amazingly busy for a Sunday morning.  We drove made a few loops seeing all of the sites including the Ryman Auditorium and the Titan's Stadium.  We stopped for a quick bite to eat and headed to see the two-story Buchanan log home.  Unfortunately it was not open for tours so off to another stop.  

We spent the bulk of our day at the Adventure Science Center.  We lifted cars, completed mazes, got a unique peek of the Nashville skyline, played some brain games, learned our weights on different planets and spent some time training for our moon walk--quite an experience.  

After we closed down the museum, we headed to see the Grand Ole Opry.  We walked around the grounds, took our pictures and headed to the Opryland Hotel hoping to get a good meal.  Unfortunately that also did not end up the way we planned either.  We had fun touring around the botanical gardens and watching the fountain show, but most of the restaurants were closed.  We left the Opryland and headed to look for dinner.  We really try to avoid chains and eat local but realized that might be tough in such a tourist area.  We found a fun place with plenty of ambiance (taxidermy covered walls) and interesting food selections.  Henry had a huge burger with a fried egg and bacon that he absolutely demolished.