Touring Tennessee: Day Three - Nashville Zoo, Monell's and Music Row at Night

After an unanticipated hiatus, I'm returning to continue the marvelous spring break vacation we took in Tennessee.

After a long but exciting and satisfying day sightseeing in Nashville, we awoke early the next morning and headed to Nashville Zoo at Grassmere (3777 Nolensville Pike, Nashville, TN, 37211; 615-833-1534).  Due to the location of our hotel, we only had to spend 15 minutes in the car - 10 minutes drive time, and 5 minutes to get into the gate and park.

Nashville Zoo is an unfinished attraction - they have some heavy plans ahead for this wild animal park - but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.  First, we wandered through a raised-boardwalk pathway surrounded by a lush green canopy of foliage.  It made us feel as though we were in the jungle.  We saw several types of wild birds, my favorite being the blue macaw (three of them).

There is a bit of a system in the zoo (as there are in most zoos) that you can follow easily in a circle and see all the exhibits from start to finish.  We attempted to follow this system but failed due to two toddlers and heat exhaustion.  Still, we saw the majority of the exhibits - just not all of them.

A list of what we did see:  Gibbon apes, meerkats (they had the babies out!), a trip to the petting zoo (where the children lovingly patted pygmy goats and exclaimed over kangaroos), flamingoes, African crested porcupines, giant anteaters, tapirs, red pandas (which look like adorable teddy bears), clouded leopards, a white Bengal tiger, lemurs, zebras, elephants, and giraffes.  We also paid a visit to the zoo's historic working farm, where we saw mules, cows and beautiful flowers.

There is a gorgeous carousel that features jungle animals and fast-paced African drum music.  Betsy and I were all set to go for a ride, but when I placed her on her animal of choice (a giraffe) she backed out and wanted down, so we didn't get to go around after all.

We headed back to our hotel after passing off our tokens to a young family entering the zoo (paying it forward) and took a nap before going to dinner at Monell's (1235 6th Ave. North, Nashville, TN, 37208; 615-248-4747).

Now, some of y'all may have not heard of Monell's, and maybe some of you have.  In any event, you NEED to know that this place serves the best fried chicken I've ever tasted.  Tourists like to say Loveless Cafe is where it's at, but locals know Monell's is the place to go.  It's a family-style restaurant, which means you are seated at a long table with complete strangers, encouraging interesting conversation.  The food is a set menu and they only serve sweet tea and water (you've got to love the simplicity in that).  They always serve their fried chicken every night, and I could not get enough of it.  They also make a so-excellent-it-defies-description baked potato salad, loaded with cheddar cheese, sour cream, bacon bits and who knows what else.  I just know it's good.  And, you pay a flat rate of $13.50 per person over 6 to eat as much food as you want.  They just keep it coming.

Once we were so full to the point that I actually had to use the restroom before we left, we decided it would be the perfect opportunity to experience Nashville at night.  I was so excited to have the opportunity to use my camera on all the bright neon lights on Music Row and snap some photos of street musicians.  I was surprised and delighted to run into Lily from Pied Piper, who was downtown doing the same thing as me.  She remembered me, which cemented my belief that Nashville really is a friendly town.

After a very full day - and night - of fun, we finally decided it was time to call it a night.

(After taking a couple shots of this gorgeous fountain across the street from where we parked.)

Day Four is up next - We visit a train museum, get lost, annoy an entire group of middle-aged tourists at the Grand Ole Opry, and head back for more Pied Piper ice cream.  Brace yourselves.

Touring Tennessee: Day Two - Nashville Proper and East End

We awoke early the following morning and got out of our crusty hotel room before 8:00 AM.  We headed to Pancake Pantry (1796 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37212-3704; 615-383-9333), a Nashville legend.  It's a restaurant which serves over 50 varieties of pancakes.  They're celebrating 50 years this year.

The kids split a plate of Polka Dot pancakes - plain buttermilk pancakes sprinkled with chocolate M & M's.  (I had a couple bites.  They were simple and yummy!)

Christopher enjoyed a plate of pecan pancakes - the maple syrup had pecans in it!  And I had the "Chocolate Sin" crepe plate - crepes filled with raspberry preserves and chocolate sauce, with fresh cream.  We all split a platter of sausage links.  The staff was friendly and the service was fast.  We were probably there less than an hour, which is ideal when you have small kids.

Our delicious breakfast!

Keep your eyes peeled - Pancake Pantry is supposedly a hotspot for Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman.  They love to eat there!

After our breakfast, we drove over to Centennial Park (2600 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203) so the kids could play. 

At Centennial Park there is a full-scale detailed replica of the Parthenon in Greece.  There is an art museum located underneath the Parthenon.

Also for viewing (and excellent photo opportunites) is a 1942 N.C. & ST. L. Locomotive-576 steam engine.  We're a family who likes our trains, so we all enjoyed this little (or, rather, large) surprise upon our arrival to the park.



There is also a wonderful, sprawling playground for children of all ages and stages.  We ate a picnic lunch here and the kids played for an hour or two.  Our favorite features of this playground is that although it is raised, the toddler structure uses ramps and wide, shallow stairs so even the smallest child can ascend easily; also in the center of the structure is a large oak tree which provides shade all day, so nobody gets too hot or sunburned.

After playtime and lunch, we went sightseeing.  We strolled around just taking in beautiful churches, funky little shops, street performers and of course, Union Station Hotel (1001 Broadway, Nashville, TN, 37203; 615-726-1001).

Built in 1900, Union Station is now owned and operated by Wyndham and is considered a "Wyndham Historic Hotel".  The trains still run past it (as shown above) and its location is just a ten minute walk from Broadway.

We also visited the state capitol building (600 Charlotte Avenue, Nashville, TN, 37219; 615-741-2001):

Entry to the building is free and every 30 minutes they have a free walking tour of the premises.  Upon entry you are given a sticker pass and are directed down a long corridor to an elevator.  Once you get to the first story, if you have a stroller or a wheelchair you pretty much can't go on the tour because it's all stairs from there.  The elevator does go all the way up but you can't participate in the tour that way.  Still, it has beautiful architecture and spectacular view of the city.

This is about the point where we were all very tired and sunburned and I got hungry, so I snatched a hot dog from a vendor on Broadway.

An all-beef footlong with mustard and relish on a toasted wheat hoagie bun.  It was worth $5.  Trust me.

There was one more stop before we decided we were done for the day - Pied Piper Creamery (114 South 11th Street, Nashville, TN, 37206; 615-227-4114).

This place is not considered part of downtown Nashville; you have to cross the Cumberland River just to the east of downtown.  It's known as East End, a quaint village-like town, with craftsman homes and funky boutiques and eateries.

I'd read about Pied Piper Creamery while researching for our trip (thank you Alphamom!) and knew we just had to go there.  It's a quaint little ice cream shop owned and operated by Jenny Piper.  They have classic flavors like vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, but they also have really cool off-the-wall varieties such as avocado, ginger-lemon custard, and their bestseller, Trailer Trash.  The babies each had a small vanilla cup, Chris chose Thankth Eather Bunny (a malted vanilla ice cream with robin's eggs candies, two of his favorite things), and I enjoyed a cone of Some Like It Hot - dark chocolate ice cream with cinnamon and cayenne pepper.

I also had the opportunity to chat with Jenny and Lily (as Jenny calls her, the shop's high school intern).  They are both really sweet and interesting people, and very helpful.  We talked about photography (Lily is a budding photographer), children (Jenny has a little boy), ice cream (of course!) and the tornadoes that touched down in Alabama and Tennessee the day before.  I highly recommend visiting Pied Piper if you ever find yourself in the area.  The ice cream and the people were just so good, we went back for seconds!

After Pied Piper, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel.  We talked about going out to eat but we were just too tired and decided to order a pizza instead.  We had to be up early again the next day - Day Three!  We go to the ZOO!  Stay tuned...

PS:  While downtown, watch out for this dude.  He WILL flash you (don't worry, there's a stocking suit under the trench coat, but the idea is still intact!).

Touring Tennessee: Day One

Due to some personal issues, we were not able to travel to Missouri and Kansas as we'd originally planned.  We opted instead to drive to Nashville, Tennessee for a few days.  None of us in the Renz family had ever been to Nashville and we figured, why not?

The first day of our trip was spent in the car.  We left Charleston, SC at about 8:00 AM EST.  We stopped for lunch in Spartanburg, SC and a quick visit with my friend Rebecca Williams, who is starting her own cosmetics company, Vexxy Cosmetics, a fully vegan line of make-up.  You can check out her progress blog here.

When we finally entered Tennessee through North Carolina, tornado warnings were tearing up the radio station airwaves.  We were in Knoxville hearing reports of tornadoes touching down all over the area, so we chose to pull over and wait it out in a Wal-Mart.  Let me tell you something, Wal-Mart is the worst place to take refuge in the event of a tornado, because there isn't anywhere to go in a giant warehouse.  They'll just stick you in the center of the store, most often the Apparel section, and tell you that you'll have to wait it out and hope a tornado doesn't come crashing down on you.

Obviously a tornado did not come crashing down on us or I wouldn't be writing this.

Anyway, after we left the Wal-Mart, we continued driving along the I-40 to Nashville.  I was scared out of my mind because the tornado warnings and reports were nonstop, and I had my dad on the phone the whole time looking at the radar on the Weather Channel's website.  He said there were several cells to the southeast of us and it looked like we were barely missing all the rotations.  Somehow we managed to avoid seeing one single cyclone, which is a blessing because we're not dead, but frustrating because I really wanted a shot of a twister to show everyone.

We finally arrived at our hotel in Nashville around 9 PM CDT.  We stayed at La Quinta Inn on Sidco Drive in southeast Nashville.

Do not stay at this hotel.

I am going to summarize our four-night, three-day stay at this miserable pit in this blog post only so the rest of the blogs about the trip aren't tainted with the bad taste of displeasure.

When we arrived, they gave us the wrong room.  It was a nice room, with a big king sized bed.  But we'd asked for two doubles when we'd reserved the place.

We should have just stayed in this room.  It was bright and happy and clean.

After that was cleared up, they put us in a new room with two double beds.  The smell upon entering - I don't even know where to begin.  It clearly had poor ventilation and being next to the swimming pool didn't help.  It was an odd mixture of chlorine, mold and mildew.  The floors were not vacummed.  The towels were folded neatly but upon unfolding to use one to take a shower I discovered they were all extremely damp.  The place was so bad I decided I didn't want to remember it, and hopefully eventually forget it, so to help with that I refused to take photos of the abomination disguised as a hotel room.

I complained the next morning and they apologized and said while they couldn't move us again, they'd fix the towel issue and knock $10/night off our price.

Almost an entire workweek goes by and the towels are consistently damp, the floors are never vacuumed and they never honored the discount.  We made sure to have maid service come every day we were there and nothing changed.  They didn't even take out the trash.  Continental breakfast, while certainly is not going to be stellar by any means, included a waffle machine that was utterly destroyed by another guest on our check-out day and it took staff almost an hour to start cleaning it up, without even bothering to throw down a plastic "Caution" sign for the benefit of the other guests.  Their toaster was plugged in but did not function - period.  They had stale slices of white bread and bruised apples.  Basically the waffles were the only halfway decent offering the place had and they allowed what I imagine a four-year-old to attempt to operate and essentially demolish it and anyone else's chances of happiness that morning.  Allie Brosh at Hyperbole-and-a-Half knows what I'm talking about when it comes to waffles equaling happiness and love. 

Anyway!  If we ever go back to Nashville, which we ADORED, we'll be staying here:

Wyndham Historic Hotel:  Union Station

NOT HERE:

La Quinta Inn Nashville South

Day Two of our Tennessean trip coming soon!  With BETTER photographs, I promise!