Day 3 of 30 Days of Mayhem: Nashville and driving to Louisville, Kentucky

My husband is a rock star. Ha! I guess that isn't the right description as I mean he is amazing and awesome and goes above and beyond for our family. When I think of an actual rock star those aren't the attributes I would associate with most of them.

This morning while the rest of us slept he showered, had breakfast, went to Walmart and got the supplies we needed for the day (I did send him a list last night), and got gas so that when the rest of us got up we would be ready to leave for today's adventures.

The rest of us slackers slept until 8:30ish. Eliza Claire woke up a few minutes after I did and commented on how nice it was to not be woken up this morning and not be in a hurry. Then she asked if we could snuggle. My heart might have melted a tiny bit.  After snuggling with her for a bit I switched beds and had some Ruby snuggles.

It seemed to take us forever to get out of the hotel this morning. Though given how much stuff we have I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Each person doesn't have that much, but when it's all combined it gets a bit crazy.

Ruby was convinced that her hair brush had been lost and was gone forever. I looked for it and didn't find it to start with but explained that until everything was packed up I was not losing hope.

Charlotte lost her flip flops and looked everywhere for them last night. She could not find them. She was convinced she had left them in "Are Kansas" so when Michael went to the store this morning he picked up a new pair. When Eliza Claire was looking for something in her backpack, aka her car bag, she found Charlotte's flip flops! Now why and how they got in there I do not know but I'm glad I told Michael to buy a cheap replacement pair.

Who wore it best, Monkey Farmer Joe or Me?  Charlotte and Ruby were making MFJ accessories on the way to Nashville this morning including the hat pictured above, a bow tie, and mustache, 

We headed from Dickson to Nashville to visit Vanderbilt. The first 15-20 minutes of walking around campus was not going well. The girls were bored and Rehm was mortified that he was being seen with his crazy family. His Dad was listening to the self guided tour of campus, Ruby was doing walkovers from place to place, Charlotte was twirling, Eliza Claire was out of sorts because her back hurt and she had a headache. Once I acknowledged his mood and assured him that he would never see these people again in his life, not were they paying any attention to our family's antics, he calmed down a bit and I think enjoyed the visit.

It was good to talk about different parts of the campus, different size schools, things they saw on campus and their purpose (like emergency call boxes), and explain that there was benefit for the girls of being there as well as it would give them a feel for campus size they like or not and whether they liked a campus in a good sized city, and the more campuses they visited before they had to start making choices about colleges the easier , I hope, it will be to decide.

Charlotte thinks she wants to go to a school smaller than Vandy but bigger than Sol Ross (we visited there two years ago at spring break). Rehm knows he wants to go somewhere in a good sized city and not too small.

We checked out the campus bookstore, bought some ice cream and walked across the street to Centennial Park to visit the Parthenon.

Charlotte saw this book at the bookstore and wanted to get it but did not have enough money with her to do so.  I told her I would put it on her birthday list.

Charlotte's nemesis

We had a picnic lunch but did not use our picnic blanket as it was in the very bottom of the van. It's a shame as it would have been very useful today. Oh well, hopefully we will plan better next time. During lunch a couple of squirrels were stalking us. A couple of times they got within feet of us which freaked Charlotte out to the point she screamed. Rehm found this just completely unbelievable.

I do have to say I got a bit frustrated with Michael because he didn't read my mind or know how I packed the cooler and did not bring everything we needed from the van for lunch and we had to send a couple of kids back to the car to get the missing stuff. I did apologize later but I felt bad.

After lunch we went to explore the Parthenon. I honestly have no clue why Nashville has a replica of the Parthenon and still don't after visiting today. When we got down to the entrance there was no food or drinks allowed and five of the six of us had reusable water bottles with us. Charlotte and Ruby quickly admitted they really had no desire to go inside and view the actual exhibit. Rehm and Eliza Claire were just as quick to let it be known that they really did want to. Michael took them and I stayed with the other two.

We perused the gift shop and enjoyed the air conditioning. The girls made pressed pennies. I love pressed pennies they are the best souvenirs ever as they only cost $0.51 making them easy to say "yes" to. After about 30 minutes or so Charlotte decided she really did want to go see the exhibit, about that time Michael, Rehm and Eliza Claire came through the exit. Both kids were excitedly talking about the 42 foot tall statue of Athena inside and that sealed the deal. Charlotte and Ruby decided they had to see it.

While Michael, Rehm. and Eliza Claire shopped in the gift shop, Ruby, Charlotte and I went to see the exhibit. I think there was some interesting stuff in it on when and why it was built and there was definitely some interesting art. The girls were on a mission and I did not get to stop and read but I did make them walk through the entire thing. Both were embarrassed, uncomfortable, shocked, by the nudity in the artwork. I tried to explain to them that while it is good to be modest and not flaunt our bodies, God made the human body and all parts of it are beautiful and not embarrassed about it. We also talked about social media and not looking at pornography and not sending pictures of ourselves unclothed to anyone. We saw Athena in all of her glory and were ready to go. We were probably in the exhibit about 15 minutes.

We met up with the rest of the Maniacs, saw their gift shop purchases - two more pressed pennies, a key chain for Rehm and a ornament for the family Christmas tree. We headed out and were soon on our way toward Kentucky.

It was nice to have a relatively short drive today. Kentucky is a beautiful state. Every state we have visited so far, I have declared I could live in. Each time I can feel Michael's unease. This is a thing with Texans. They can not imagine ever living outside the state. I liked the Nashville area and I love the scenery in Kentucky so far.

At some point in the drive I turned around to find this colored foot in my face.  It cracked me up.

The time changed somewhere along the way. We arrived at the hotel at 7:00 pm local time. The first room we were given was a standard two queen room. We asked if they had any off our favorites and they put us in one of the accessible versions. It is huge! Rehm basically has his own room tonight for his air mattress. Though he has no door and is between the rest of us and the restroom, but he won't get tripped over by anyone tonight for sure.

Dinner was pasta in the instant pot and leftover taco bowl goodness from last night, heated in the microwave. I had dinner done in 20 minutes, I think. We ate at 8:00 local time which is significantly earlier than the last two nights. It was appreciated by all of us.

We were able to get some laundry done, have plenty of pool time, watch the NBA final game, and just relax for a bit. It was great.

Oops, I woke her up taking this photo and made her headache worse.  But I just couldn't resist because she was so cute.  

Oh, we did not get to Maker's Mark today, which I hate because I know Michael was excited about going there. Unfortunately it was only open until 3:30 and given the time we got to Nashville and the distance to Maker's Mark we knew it was not going to happen. The good news is we are about 20 minutes away from the Jim Beam Distillery and while it is not Maker's Mark, we are planning to tour it tomorrow morning. Then we will head into Louisville proper for a bit and maybe across the river into the edge of Indiana before heading to Cincinnati, where we will be having dinner with family.

States visited so far: 3

Ha! I thought this was going to be a short post

,
Jenn