Over Labor Day weekend, the NFO and I took our first trip together sans kids since having them.
A short jaunt to Nashville, aka Music City USA, for the bat mitzvah of the daughter of one of the NFO’s best friends.
Now, my philosophy on travel (adopted from my dad) is that you must do something unique to the locale you are visiting.
On business trips, I set a goal of at least 1 attraction.
On personal trips (though after generating at least 1 lead in Nashville, I suppose there’s no such thing), I aim for 2 or 3.
Well, on this one, I made it to the Hermitage, home of America’s 7th president, Andrew Jackson.
After watching the film narrated by Martin Sheen and certainly updated to cover Jackson’s less than glorious treatment of women, native Americans, and blacks, we learned that “Jacksonian Democracy” and the birth of the Democratic party was actually the language utilized by all of these groups to ultimately advance their own causes….so I guess he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.
I was reminded of some of the aspects of Jackson from my 10th grade US History class with Mrs. Powers and the fact that, shall we say, not everyone thought that Jackson’s “urbane savage” and “autocratic democratic” styles were the best.
Still, I enjoyed the hour or so of American history.
One puzzling moment was at the entrance. The fee was $17 and, if you go to the Hermitage, you are there because you wanted to be. It’s not like it’s in a strip mall.
Well, the family in front of me got into a heated debated about whether the money was worth it or not. Now, certainly, I have NO idea of their financial standing, but I do know that they were on vacation and HAD gone out there.
And, well, especially with your kids (theirs were teenagers), I kind of feel like…if you are already there, better to suck it up and just pay. I, too, hesitated at the price tag, but figured I probably wouldn’t be back for a long time (I had been there once before about 20 years ago), so at less than $1/year, it’s paid off for me well.
I’m not trying to judge them at all, but I did take note of it.
The other two stops were the campus of Vanderbilt University, founded by Commodore Perry with a grant of $1 million (in today’s dollars that’s $18.5 million today or more, depending on how you compare-see here),
and Centennial Park, built to celebrate, you guessed it the 100th anniversary of the state of Tennessee.
The main attraction is a full-scale replica of the Parthenon from Greece, in part, I believe because Nashville is known as “the Athens of the South” for its commitment to education/knowledge.
I also discovered that it is the “silicon valley of healthcare business,” but that’s a topic for another day.
Special kudos to the NFO for her willingness to go.
