garrett family: Annual Family Fautumn Vacation...Part 4

It was a long long long drive to Nashville, but we made it safely. I do have to tell a short story about our time on the road in the flatlands of Tennessee. It was dark, probably close to 9p and we were making great time because there weren't a lot of cars on the road and it was straight as an arrow. We pass an old car, looked like a lincoln continental or something similar and almost at the same time Aaron and I said that it looked as though there was no one driving the car. We laughed because often we say things at the same time. It wasn't but a few seconds later that I looked behind us to see if I could see the driver that I said, "umm, the car disappeared!" There weren't any exits off the highway and no other cars in sight. So creepy! We still get goosebumps when we talk about it :)
Anyway, we made it to Nashville and it took forever to find a nice enough hotel to spend our sleeping hours. With just a little rest under our belts we woke and headed out. It was a cold and rainy day but I have a dear friend who drove down about an hour from her Clarkesville, TN home to meet us at an indoor mall for lunch. It was so good to see Leah and her 1 year old! Fun fac- this is the same friend that brought me out to Waynesville, NC for her wedding!

Lilly and Elias

After spending some time catching up we parted ways and went to the city center to see...the Parthenon? Yes, the Parthenon. A full scale replica of the one you would see in Athens, Greece! It was pretty phenomenal the accuracy of the sculptures and statues. Athena was huge...and a little intimidating, standing at 41'10'' :)

And this is the view from the top of Centennial Park-

We made it to downtown Nashville and found this beautiful old train station that was converted into a hotel (another place theat I would love to return to for a night's stay).

We had a bite to eat and then went for a stroll down the strip It was pretty exciting!

It was late now and we were tired. Good thing we had friends just outside of Nashville that offered us a warm place to stay for the rest of our time in Tennessee. We were so thankful that Jared and Alyssa we so generous and welcoming. It was a blessing at the end of our very long trip to stay in a home rather than another hotel room. And of course it was good to catch up with Alyssa, my old friend from college. We had a great time talking and even made it to Franklin's annual pumpkin festival where we had some amazing BBQ and lot's of people watching.

It was a clear, sunny day and we were able to also take Elias to a pumpkin patch. And not juts your run of the mill parking lot patches either. This was a family run farm with animals, hay mazes, and soybean mazes too!