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!).