wow...that was rough!! we went for a week without internet. i have it on my phone...but can't post to my blog with photos...so i feel like i've been on a desert island for the last week! actually...we've been continuing our adventure. so far so good! here's a quick recap:
last you heard, we were in kansas city. after hanging out with our friends in kc, we headed on toward nashville. the drive was fine. we drove through the birth-land of panera bread...missouri. who knew!!! although it was a little odd that it wasn't called panera there...st. louis bread company. so weird!! (i also just found out that panera means bread box. hmmm...makes sense! ha ha ha...)
i really wanted to stop in st. louis and show the girls the arch. i thought it would be a great home schooling moment...then i read the reviews..."rough town". hmm...me, 2 girls and a car with a crap load of luggage on top of and in the car. i guess we should probably do the "rough town" thing when we have less crap. so...i just tried to take a quick pic of the arch as i was driving by trying not to wreck. hey...at least we saw it!
after hitting 4 states in less than 9 hours: missouri, illinois, kentucky and tennessee, we finally arrived at the traffic stopping point called nashville. i'm sure you saw in the news that they received some rain. well...actually...i think they received ALL the rain. we drove through town and many of the exits were blocked off because the bottom of the off ramp was underwater. i've seen some floods before...but this was terrible! we saw gas stations completely under water, vehicle so far underwater that the water was up to the rear view mirror...and much worse. the girls and i had a teachable moment and discussed disasters and it's effects on people. (nothing too in depth, but it's good to talk about it so they learn empathy.)
the next morning, after eating at....yes...panera... we went on a quick adventure to see nashville. i soon found out that the sites we wanted to see were closed due to the flood, so we set off to find vanderbilt...as in the university. we have a really good friend that graduated from there and we always give him grief about. maybe we just feel inadequate because our chosen schools didn't require ascots. ;) ha ha ha...so we drove around the campus a little bit and i caught a quick shot of a really cool building so he knew we visited. it's a beautiful campus...you should definitely check it out if you visit.
our next destination was the "parthenon". my husband kindly informed me that the parthenon was in greece. really??? i thought they moved it to nashville! ;) Here's a little info about the nashville parthenon:
The
Parthenon stands proudly as the centerpiece of Centennial Park,
Nashville's
premier urban park. The re-creation of the 42-foot statue Athena
is the
focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. The
building
and the Athena statue are both full-scale replicas of the
Athenian originals.
Originally
built for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition, this replica
of the
original Parthenon in Athens serves as a monument to what is
considered
the pinnacle of classical architecture. The plaster replicas of
the Parthenon
Marbles found in the Naos are direct casts of the original
sculptures
which adorned the pediments of the Athenian Parthenon, dating
back to
438 B.C. The originals of these powerful fragments are housed in
the British
Museum in London.
The Parthenon also serves as the city of Nashville's art museum. The focus of the Parthenon's permanent collection is a group of 63 paintings by 19th and 20th century American artists donated by James M. Cowan. Additional gallery spaces provide a venue for a variety of temporary shows and exhibits.
like i said, it was closed, but at least we got to drive by. i stopped to take a picture and kinsey yells "i'm not getting out! i don't want to see the building!" well...i guess homeschooling is over for that day...next stop, huntsville, alabama!
here are a few photos of our brief stop over. the first image is our "visit" to the arch, the building next to it is a wonderful building at vanderbilt university. the horizontal image is the parthenon and the last one is of my crazy girls having a much needed break at the pool...
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