Today the kids and I had planned to drive to Murfreesboro, Tennessee when we decided to take a detour and drove into Spring Hill where we found the Spring Hill Battlefield, listed as one of the Tennesee Civil War Trails. We couldn't drive by something that interesting and not stop to see what we could learn. Upon stepping out of our vehicle, we were immediately aware that the temperature was a wee bit cooler in Tennessee than in Alabama. So, after taking a picture of the kids as we pulled into the parking lot, we all quickly grabbed our coats before heading up the hill to see what was ahead. I can honestly say that Vincent was the only one in our party that seemed to truly enjoy this outing! The kids and I couldn't really concentrate on much except the cold. Several times they tried to talk me into going back to the car, but I thought it would be best to climb the hill when it was cold than come back during the summer and sweat our way to the top. The kids were not in agreement and by the time we reached the top, we were all pretty cold~ as you can see from the photo below, the one where the kids are wearing their winter coats and sporting rosy cheeks. By the time we returned to the car, the kids swore they had all developed pneumonia, and our lips and fingers were numb. We may not have acquired as much information as I would have liked, but we did fit a bit of phys. ed into our day! Call us wimpy, I guess our bodies are just getting used to spending winters in the South!
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This afternoon we traveled just over an hour and a half to the Country Music Capital of the World, Nashville, Tennessee. Although I'd love to visit the Grand Ole Opry and other attractions that have made Nashville famous, our destination today was the Adventure Science Museum. As part of the ASTC passport program, we received free admission to the museum. Since we travel frequently and use every opportunity to use our reciprocal membership program, it is rare for us to run into a musuem that we consider truly unique. This museum was no different. Although it does have some nice exhibits, many of the activities are more fun than educational and would really appeal to children younger than mine. The Space Chase appears to be the newest exhibit at the museum and offered a wonderful Moon Walk exhibit that simulates weightlessness and allows you to see how the astronauts work in space. The Bodyquest exhibit reminded us of an exhibit at Sci-Quest in Alabama and although it was fun, we've also played the Grossology game at the Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Not the museum's fault...I guess we just go to too many museums. My son was disappointed that the Bluemax flight simulator was closed, that was the exhibit he wanted to see. On a scale of 1 to 5, we gave this museum a 3 (giving it one point because it was free). If my children were younger, I'd have given it a much higher score. If the flight simulator had been open, my son probably would have scored it higher.
We had planned to visit several other attractions while we were in Nashville, but were deterred due to the high number of homeless people that were on the streets, near the attractions. We were reminded of a bad experience we had when we were younger on a trip to Washington D.C. My husband and I had traveled to D.C. when our firstborn child was just under a year old. As soon as we parked and emerged from our vehicle, we were immediately surrounded by by people begging for money and trying to "help" with the baby for a quarter. It was very frightening due to the large number of people that surrounded us. Our first trip to our nation's capital was very brief because we were terrified. Ten years later when we had the opportunity to revisit D.C., we were hesitant because of this experience but things appear much different now.
We'll give Nashville another chance since we'll be driving through it on our way home. I'll let you know how I feel about the city after our second visit.