Today we went to Radnor Lake which totally exceeded our expectations. The birds here are so different (and sound so different) from what we have back home. Just walking through the forest and hearing the birdsong was a treat, but we also saw a Northern Cardinal, a Summer Tanager, a Tufted Titmouse (giggle), and about four others that I don't know what they were. We also saw tons of turtles. There are a plethora of turtles here - they're like some sort of menace! Plus we saw a deer, some butterflies, dragonflies, and these really weird little blue moths. And more turtles. It was totally worth the trip: the lake is beautiful, as our the surroundings (and the houses on the way out there).
Picked up some staples at Trader Joe's. Love Trader Joe's. Why they're not in Canada is beyond me.Then we went to the Parthenon which was built for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition. It is a replica of the original Parthenon in Athens, and serves as a monument to what is considered the pinnacle of classical architecture. It was kind of strange, but then there is an area nearby named Bourdeaux. And... we just came from Athens.
The weird bit was the "replication" of the statue of Athena that was housed in the original Parthenon. I've seen a lot of Greek and Roman statues in my day (thanks, Vatican!), but Alan LeQuire's re-imagining of her is a catastrophe. I hope they raise the funds to do something um, a little more fitting with actual Greek sculptures.
From here we walked to the downtown area. I have never walked by so many bars with so much live music going on. A lot of it was quite good and clearly there's a lot of talent in Nashville, but we're not huge country fans so we carried on over the pedestrian bridge to East Nashville and ended up at the Pharmacy, which was recommended to us by our check out guy at Trader Joe's. The line up went out the door and almost to the end of the block. We didn't get great seats, but the burgers were incredibly good and it was a really cool place. Huge indoor space with a nice beer garden out the back with nice white lights strung up between the trees.Caught public transit home (people are so helpful) so we didn't have to walk the five or six miles back to our place. Looks like the day pass will be the way to go tomorrow. I think the downtown area isn't necessarily for us, so we'll check out some of the other neighbourhoods tomorrow.
Stay there long enough and you'll learn to love country music. There's a lot of different types. Some good, some really annoying. Isn't TJ's awesome, they even have a super discount cousin store, Aldi. If you don't have a bag you have to carry your stuff out in your arms or your turned up shirt.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Aldi! I will keep my eyes peeled the next time we're in the US. TJ's is freaking awesome. Why they haven't expanded up here is beyond me: we Canucks love it and they'd do a brisk business. And the guy that rang us through (and ID'd us for buying beer) gave us a litany of restaurants to check out and we did go to one - Pharmacy - and it was awesome. I'd love to know if anyone coming out of Vancouver ever has such feel good stories.
ReplyDeleteI saw in a Sunday Morning segment a few weeks ago that there is a guy in Vancouver that would go into Washington State and buy thousands of dollars of merchandise at Trader Joe's and then bring it all back to Vancouver to resell for a slight mark-up in his store that only carried Trader Joe's merchandise. He would take special orders for people. The Gorgonzola Crackers flew off the shelves, just like they do here. He'd wear disguises because the manager didn't want him buying all the stuff. (Hey if he's selling stuff, who cares who he sells to?) Now days he has shoppers for the store. He said that he'd gladly close his store if TJ's would open a store in Vancouver. Everyone in our area wrote letters to them until one day they opened one in Dallas, shortly after that one in Plano (2 blocks from where I work, woo hoo) and now one in McKinney, the town just to the north of where we live. Their coconut oil is the BEST, and so cheap!!!! I've not ever gotten anything bad there. I did quit buying the 2buck chuck wine after they had their toxic chemical thing...
ReplyDeleteI think I've heard through the grapevine about that guy: gotta look him up. I love Trader Joe's. We don't have anything like that here.
DeleteI can't believe we were put up so (relatively) close to where you guys live! Too bad we got in so late.
And I haven't heard about the 2 Buck Chuck toxic chemical thing??? I've downed a few bottles on US trips in my day - are my children going to have webbed fingers?