Nashville Family Weekend

 The musical prodigy has returned to the motherland… wait, that most definitely did not happen.   Try again. 

Andrew Jackson's Hermitage House

I finally made it back to Nashville after 11 years!  Eeek!  I definitely had to go back and check the date on my last blog because 11 years is looking a little foggy by now.  This time around was a bit different as I had my 7 year-old son in tow.  As long as he has snacks and his iPad, he doesn’t complain too much when I bring him on adventures these days, and thankfully, this trip was no different.  After our last plane ride back from Italy, he was actually disappointed to hear that we would only be flying for 2 hours down to Tennessee.  We got on an absurdly early flight (thanks to my husband) and made it into Nashville by 7:30 AM.  After grabbing an Uber from the airport to the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center we spent the next few hours checking out the resort.  It was just as gorgeous as I remembered from my last trip and now has a very cool indoor/outdoor waterpark.  We grabbed a quick breakfast and coffee from the Delta Marketplace and Logan and I took an enjoyable short indoor boat ride around the Delta atrium.  Our guide pointed out different plants along the way.   It was a fun way to kill some time, but surprisingly pricey for such a short ride.  Our room was ready by around 10:30 AM.  We had a very nice balcony overlooking one of the atriums in the Cascades part of the hotel, near the lobby.  

Delta Riverboat Dock at Opryland

After a little nap, we grabbed the free shuttle from the Cascades Canopy to Opry Mills mall.  The shuttle runs every 30 minutes and the mall is very new.  It has a lot of fun “experiences” and restaurants, like the Aquarium Restaurant, Madam Tussads, Escape Game, Dave and Busters, Regal Movie Theater, etc.  It would be a great (albeit expensive) place to spend a rainy day with kids!  After walking around a bit, we decided to grab dinner from Mission BBQ.  The jalapeno and cheddar sausage is a clear winner!  I also had the pulled chicken with the Smokey BBQ sauce. 

View inside Sound Waves at Opryland

The next morning, we ate breakfast from the grab-and-go café near the lobby before proceeding to SoundWaves Waterpark.  We purchased our tickets well in advance since it is often sold out.  Logan had a blast!  He loves swimming and was really entertained by the not-lazy river, with small rapids that move you along through caves in a rapid manner, dodging obstacles along the way.  We spent HOURS in there.  After I finally convinced him to take a break, we switched to the multiple water slides before checking out the wave pool.  Unfortunately, our visit coincided with a giant swarm of Cicadas taking over Nashville.  They were everywhere and we didn’t stay outside for too long before coming back inside and back to the river.  Later that evening, we went back to Opry Mills to watch a movie and play some games and Dave & Busters.

Wagon Tour at the Hermitage House

We enjoyed room service for breakfast on Saturday morning before setting out for our educational portion of the trip.  An Uber took us 20 minutes from Opryland to Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage House.  I did come here on my trip last time and enjoyed it very much.  (Sad news… they no longer have the belted Galloway cows on the property)  Logan is just starting to learn about the Presidents of the United States at school, so I thought it would be a nice tie-in to his learnings.  Did I mention the swarm of Cicadas everywhere?  Yea… they were here too.  We started off with a wagon tour around the property to learn about slave life on the plantation.  Unfortunately, I don’t think either of us was paying much attention between the masses of bugs flying at us from all angles.  We did laugh a lot!  After our wagon tour and obligatory shaved ice, we toured the mansion.  This was a nice and short 20 minute tour around Andrew Jackson’s home.  We ended our morning we a stop for souvenirs and a snack at the café, including some “hard” sweet tea.  After returning back to the hotel, we got our swim gear back on and enjoyed the hotel pools and some pizza for dinner.

I purposely did not bring Logan downtown on this trip.  He doesn’t know too much country music and would not enjoy long walks in the heat or endless hours in a bar.  With that said, we did have a fun little getaway and still have lots to do on our next visit to Nashville!