Franklin, TN

A few weeks ago we went to Franklin, TN, which is about 20 miles south of Nashville. We were there for the last soccer tourney of the season! We stayed in Brentwood, TN (which is about half way in between Nashville and Franklin) at the Hyatt Place. Love, love, love those bed and breakfast places! We got in around 10:30 and hurried to bed for we knew 7 am would come quickly.

We got up, enjoyed our Continental Breakfast, and got over to the fields in time for Teenager to warm up and prepare for his game. They pulled out a huge win over the first team, so we expected a nice time out together in between games. Wrong, oh how wrong were we! Although we knew about the street festival that was going on, we didn’t realize the herds of people that we were going to have to get through to find a parking spot. We were aware of the Street Festival, but we didn’t realize exactly how bad the traffic would be or that they would be charging $5 – $20 to park. We knew we would only be there for a short time, not all day. Additionally, we already had to fork over a five dollar bill to park at the tournament. (Nevermind, the fact that we and the other 15 people on our team paid 100’s of dollars in tournament fees…yet this is another soapbox that I will avoid right now!) So needless, to say we weren’t happy about having to spend more money just to park. We managed to find a place for $5 and then trudged back through the crowds to try to find something to eat. Well, since Rob had used $10 out of the $15 of cash, we knew the locals were going to require cash, so we had to find a restaurant.

Making kettle corn

Franklin Street Festival

Old Drugstore in downtown Franklin

So many pretty houses we saw while walking back to our car

We ended up at McCreary’s Pub, which was recommended by a friend of ours who used to live in Franklin. We scarfed down Genius and Beef Stew, shrimp skewers, and fish and chips. We still had some time to kill, so we walked around a bit and stopped to watch some dancing.

Got chills watching this team dance. WOW! Brought back so many memories.

Then, we headed back to the fields for the 2nd game of the day. Teenager’s team had another successful game that ended in a 6 to 1 victory.

We skedaddled back to the hotel, so that Teenager could get a shower. Then, it was off to see Nashville! I found Nashville to be a city that I really want to come back to.

As soon as we got off the interstate, we saw White Castle and decided to stop there for dinner. Never really knew about White Castle till I moved to Alabama. I would see them in the grocery store. Then, I watched a show about their burgers on Food Network.

It was so nice outside that we ate out there. Here are the boys with a view of downtown Nashville in the background.

After finishing our burgers, we drove around downtown and managed to find a very small part of Vanderbilt. For some reason, we could never find the bulk of the campus, which was aggravating.

We made our way over to the home of the Tennessee Titans‘ LP Field, where we parked and walked across the pedestrian bridge (pictured directly below). I started to get some really awesome pics, when my camera battery DIED! I had left my spare battery in the car. grrrr!!

After that we got back in the car and drove around a bit more before heading back to the hotel.

Sunday we got up and started to head down to eat, when we saw that Teenager’s game had been postponed. We went ahead and grabbed breakfast, then about an hour later, we found out that the game was canceled. I was bummed for many reasons, but mainly because I had put off taking pictures the day before. 🙁

So then, we decided to make the most of our day and drive back up to Nashville. We first went to the Grand Ole Opry, just to see it, and walk around a bit. I was a little upset that the free Museum was closed due to the floods last year. It would have been nice if their website made that clear!

Teenager is not fond of country music!

After leaving there, we went back to Vanderbilt and due to Rob’s research, we were able to find the campus. We ate lunch at P.F. Chang’s near campus before going to the the baseball game, Vanderbilt vs. University of Tennessee.

I loved how the basketball coliseum, football stadium, and baseball stadium all back into each other making the most of the valuable downtown space.

On the way home, we saw convoys of National Guard, trucks hauling water to Tuscaloosa, and some minor damage.

See all the pictures from our trip here.