We spent last weekend in Tennessee with my parents, celebrating Father’s Day (a little late) and exploring Nashville.
We kicked Saturday off with a donut breakfast enjoyed on the river walk, followed by a trip to the Clarksville farmer’s market.
Then we drove into Nashville to enjoy the 96-degree temperatures outdoors at Centennial Park. (This is where a sarcasm font would come in handy.)
Next we headed to 21st Avenue South, which is super cute street full of restaurants and little shops. A friend recommended we eat at The Pancake Pantry, so my dear dad stood in line for 45 minutes to get us a table while we explored the shops. My favorite shop was definitely Social Graces, the coolest paper goods store I’ve ever seen. They had all kinds of journals, wrapping paper, invitations, and cards. I wanted to buy everything. Instead, I just took pictures of the decor and wished I had a better crafting gene.
After enormous plates of pancakes, we headed to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens for even more enjoyment of the scalding heat. The gardens were really beautiful, but the coolest part was treehouse display, a bunch of large-scale outdoor treehouse structures inspired by great works of literature. And we could go inside all of them!
This treehouse was inspired by The Hobbit. It had a slide!
To get a break from the heat, we went to Jeni’s to FINALLY eat the real Jeni’s ice cream! This was actually the main reason we traveled to Nashville. The verdict? The homemade version from Jeni’s cookbook tastes exactly like the real thing. I need to buy that cookbook.
And then we headed to our final park of the day, the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. This one was far less popular than Centennial Park, but it was still quite pretty. And it had this really cool circle of bell towers that baffled us for a minute until Eric asked, “What are these?” and, as if on command, they began to chime different songs. Apparently it’s a tribute to the musicians of Nashville.
After a full day of exploring Nashville, we returned to Clarksville for the rest of the weekend.
We journeyed to yet another park in Clarksville. A brand new, really awesome park on the river.
And that concludes your photo journey of Tennessee. Happy weekend!
-Ally
Audrey says
1. I know Mr. Shipley of Shipley Donuts! He lives in Waco.
2. I love how your dad was in line behind a small child to go down the slide.
Ashley Morgan says
Love the sweet potato pancakes…oh my goodness, I want them now 🙂