Nashville, TN

So we left Asheville and Nana and headed out to Tennessee. Mom had rain most of the way back, but the storm must have been heading to the beach, because the mountains were clear and sunny. The most interesting part of the drive was passing a lady who had her cat sitting on a special window height shelf in her campervan. The cat looked like a fatter Sabrina (our cat) only you tell she was nicer (not our cat).

The hotel in Nashville was- well let's just say it was not the Biltmore. But it made up for the lack of charm with a firm ignorance of any rules so we could use the pool as late as we wanted. The kids swam until 9:30 then we went to dinner and to bed.

In the morning we went to see the home of Andrew Jackson- the Hermitage. K was brave and asked a question of our lovely wagon-driver tour guide. She asked why is it called the Hermitage. When the Jackson' s bought the house it was called the Rural Retreat, but that wasn't grand enough for what the Jackson's wanted to build so they changed the name to Hermitage which means the same thing. It also was a play on the fact that Jackson wanted to be a hermit, but no one would let him. The kids favorite part was the wagon ride of the fields and slave quarters pulled by the two draft horses- Andrew and Rachel. Ha, ha! J like how the donkey had a crush on Rachel and would trot along the fence braying to her. Oh young love! The Hermitage was very nice, but after Biltmore it looks so tiny!