A Trip to Tennessee

*Warning: this is a really long, picture filled post.  Rather than break this trip into multiple posts I decided to just get it all done in one.

Dan's Grandmother, who we call Maw Maw, recently moved to Tennessee to live with her daughter.  We love Maw Maw and honestly don't know how much time she has left, so we made it a priority to visit her this summer while we still had the chance.  We made the choice to leave the kids home with friends and family.  We didn't think they'd appreciate the trip enough to make it worth the extra effort (and expense) of taking them with us. (Thanks again to all those who stepped up and took care of them while we were gone!)  

Maw Maw lives in Franklin, Tennessee, a city rich with Civil War history.  We visited several Civil War sites, including the Carter House, the site of the bloodiest battle of the War. 

The front of the beautiful Carter House. 

You can still see many bullet holes in the side of this building at the Carter House.

This is the Carnton Plantation, the home near the Carter House where the dead and wounded
were taken following the battle.  This home was turned into an instant hospital.
You can still see blood stains on the floors.

This is a portion of the Confederate graveyard at the Carnton Plantation. The Carnton family
donated a portion of their personal family cemetery for the burial of all those killed during the
battle at the Carter House.   The graves are organized by state.  

After a hot morning of site seeing we took a little break in beautiful Downtown Franklin.
We walked along the streets window shopping at antique shops, craft stores, and a toy store.
Dan took the opportunity to do a little business at a bank.  He never stops I tell you!

Our favorite stop in Downtown Franklin was Sweet CeCe's, a little frozen yogurt shop.
It was a frozen yogurt buffet where they weigh your cup to determine the price.  

At the end of each day we made a visit to Maw Maw.  It was so good to see her again
and see how happy she is here. It was so good to see her doing so well, even though her
memory is slipping.  As much as we miss her in Utah we know that she is in the right place.

As an extra bonus we got spend time with Aunt Kitsy (Maw Maw's daughter) and Uncle Dennis.
They are so wonderful.  We had a great time with them.We played games, ate lots of food, and
talked until late each evening. 

Another highlight of the trip was out visit to the Hermitage, the home of Andrew and Rachel
Jackson.This is the backside of the house.  I realized too late that I didn't get a picture of the
front!I loved the tour of the Hermitage.  The Jackson's have such a unique story.  The house
is beautiful and the grounds and many outbuildings are amazing.  

The grounds of the Hermitage were beautiful, and like most of Tennessee, were filled
with Lilacs! But unlike Utah Lilacs, most were pink rather than purple!

This is Rachel's Garden.  It is so much more beautiful in person and so peaceful.  I could have
sat there all day.

And this is the final resting place of Andrew and Rachel Jackson.  Andrew was heartbroken
when his wife died.  He visited her grave every evening until he died.

When we asked friends and family what we should see and do in Nashville almost everyone
said we needed to visit Centennial Park and see the Parthenon.  Little did I know that Nashville
is known as the Athens of the South. To celebrate Tennessee's Centennial they built this life-
sized Parthenon.  

The jewel of the Parthenon is this statue of Athena.  It is huge!! I can't remember how tall
she is, but I do know that the small statue of Nike in her palm is 6 feet tall.

We couldn't miss a trip to the Nashville Temple.  It is a small temple, yet still beautiful.

Of course, there were lilacs.

The most random thing about our visit to the temple was running into the only other person
we know in Tennessee, on old neighbor of ours Todd Callister.  He just happened to be walking
up the sidewalk of the temple as we arrived.

And on our last day in Tennesse we visited the Opryland Hotel.   It sounds weird to visit a hotel,
but it was filled with plenty of things to see and do.  It's kind of like visiting the hotels and casinos
in Vegas, just without the Casinos.

One of the highlights of the Hotel is taking a boat ride on the river.  We paid way too much
money for this picture but since pictures of the two of us on the trip were few are far between
we decided to splurge.

I found it very interesting where they got the water for this river.  They sent thousands of
empty bottles (If I remember right, they were empty Jack Daniel's bottles, but I could be wrong)
to every state in the nation, as well as other places around the world.  They asked people to fill
them from different bodies of water and send them back.  They water they received back was
poured into the Delta to form the "Blending of the Waters."

This plaque shows all the locations in Utah where water was collected.  

And after our trip to Opryland we began our long trip home, (which was nothing compared to the
loooong trip to Tennessee, which included several missed flights and an unexpected overnight
stay in Chicago.) Of all the airports we visited the Nashville airport was my favorite.