Sunday, March 13, 2011

Nashville - Day 6 Part II

OK - here is the last post pertaining to our Nashville trip. On Saturday, our second stop was to the Belle Meade Plantation, which was founded in 1807 by John and Susannah Harding. It was originally a thoroughbred horse farm. The mansion was built in 1853 by their son, General William Harding. He had two daughters who married two brothers, William and Howell Jackson, and in total, four generations of this family lived at Belle Meade.

In 1953, the mansion and several outbuildings were deeded to the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities. While we visited, a wedding was being set up - and what a venue! Talk about a photographer's dream!! It has everything - great light, multiple locations for shooting, lots of texture...

Danne pulls a Minnie Pearl, trying on a smokin' hot hat in the Belle Meade gift shop.
One of the many carriages in the Belle Meade Carriage House


This is the smokehouse as seen from the back side. I like the pattern in the bricks.
Resting place of Enquirer, one of the stallions that made Belle Meade famous.

View of the front of Belle Meade. I read that the columns still have bullet scars from a Civil War battle fought on the front lawn.
The dairy building

This wraps up our visit to Nashville. All in all, it was good times with great friends. We enjoyed an uneventful flight home to snowy, blustery, cold Minnesota. The location for next year's Culver's Reunion is Phoenix. 

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Nashville - Day 6 Part I

For our last day in Nashville, I'll divide our day into two parts - The Hermitage, and Belle Meade Plantation. Saturday (March 1) was our first mild, sunny day of the trip, and, luckily, we'd planned a couple of activities that included time spent outdoors.

We visited The Hermitage first. This is the home and farm of Andrew Jackson, our 7th president, and his wife, Rachel. What began as a log home and rather modest farm site, grew into a large cotton plantation  with slave quarters, gardens, spring-fed creeks, and orchards, and an impressive mansion. Although we were allowed to tour the mansion, we weren't allowed to photograph inside.

Rachel and Andrew Jackson. She died shortly after he was elected president, and never saw the Whitehouse.
Some of Rachel's dining tableware.
The back porch of the mansion. In Jackson's time, there were no trees; they were clear cut for field use.
The mansion's dining room. This was viewed through a glass or acrylic wall from outdoors, so picture-taking was allowed.
The smokehouse
Don at the back of the mansion.
Tools of the trade. We found this away from the mansion, and wondered if the initials belong to slaves who tended the gardens.
The spring house (foreground). The creek runs through this.
Look!! Leaves are budding!! Someplace is enjoying the look of spring...
The spring bubbling up
Slave quarters
The original farm house, later used by slaves. We're told the second story was removed from the home before it was turned over to the slaves.

This is called "grape myrtle" and lines both sides of the path leading from the mansion to the garden, and Rachel's tomb.
Jackson didn't have any biological children, but adopted Rachel's nephew (Jackson's namesake), and a Creek Indian orphan, who died as a teenager.
Rachel Jackson's tomb. We were told that Andrew Jackson spent time here alone every evening.
The grave of one of Jackson's slaves in the family graveyard. No one knows what happened to the remains of the other slaves who died at The Hermitage.
This home is called "Tulip Grove." It was built by Andrew Jackson's son, Andrew Donelson Jackson. It's on the Hermitage property, and isn't maintained nearly as well as the main mansion. The trees with leaves are magnolia trees.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Nashville - Day 5

Following a night of severe (tornadic) weather in and around Nashville, we awoke to a cool, cloudy Friday. Mary planned some great activities for us, and her ideas were perfect! We started off with a bus tour by Grayline Bus Tours that took us to several locations throughout the city.

One of our first stops was at Bicentennial State Park, and I really wish we could have walked around this area. The park was designed to provide an unobstructed view of the State Capital. Fifty tall pillars represent each of the 50 states. There's a granite wall built to show the geographic and cultural history of the state, and there's a huge map of Tennessee done in granite (called Map Plaza), with the rivers represented with polished stone, so they glisten. There's also an amphitheater and flea market.

Bicentennial State Park, and the Tennessee State Capital in the distance (top of hill). There are fifty of the foreground pillars; one representing each state.

We then toured Music Row, where many recording studios are housed in old homes or small, nondescript buildings. Following a near wreck on a roundabout, we headed to the original Ryman Theatre, and we were given some time to spend inside. The theatre was originally built to house a church, so the seats are curved pews.

A display in the Ryman theatre - Johnny and June Cash

The stage of the original Ryman Theatre
Love the shoes - makes me think of the song, "King of the Road."
We also stopped with the tour bus at Legends, one of the more popular honky tonks. The walls are lined with records, and near the ceiling, are all kinds of unique guitars and other instruments.





This was called the "One Man Band."



Ahhh - an album cover for Bruce Springsteen!! 


I think this happy guy was on a bus headed to a different institution :)
Our last tour bus stop was at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

This was the vehicle of a music producer. 



Kris Kristofferson's lyrics for "Help Me Make it Through the Night."
Dress worn by Carrie Underwood
Dress worn by Taylor Swift

The gift shop - look at all the gold and platinum records!
Mary's plans to top off the day included tickets for the Grand Ole Opry. I didn't realize, but this is a live radio program (the worlds longest-running live radio program). The new Ryman Theatre was flooded for several months last year, and the show went on - sometimes in the original theatre, and at other venues in the area as well.

A lot of stars performed that night - Marty Stuart, The Oak Ridge Boys (it was the 30th anniversary of the release of Elvira, and we all sang along with surprise guest, Bo Bice), Vince Gill, Bill Anderson, Montgomery Gentry, Gretchen Wilson, and Allison Krause. We were treated to another surprise guest, Crystal Bowersox, who was the runner up in the last season of American Idol. She performed a song she wrote for her husband, "Mine all Mine." You can watch the performance here on You Tube.