My June Vacation in September (Part 1) - Nashville, Tennessee

So I'm back from my June vacation with my sister.  No, we weren't vacationing for three months.  We had planned the trip for June, but because of my caregiving for That Knee, we rescheduled for September, and this time, we made it!

We met in Louisville and drove to Nashville.  We went to the Parthenon!

Yes, there's a Parthenon in Tennessee, a full-size replica of the one in Athens, featured in The Lightning Thief - the book, the movie, and now, the musical.  It was HUGE but didn't look it until we were right up next to it.  I read somewhere that the building's proportions are so perfect that it doesn't look as massive as it is.

The original Parthenon was built in the fifth century B.C.E. to house a forty-two-foot tall statue of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom.  The Nashville Parthenon was built in 1897 without the statue for Tennessee's Centennial Exposition.  In 1990 a gilded replica of the Athena statue inspired by nineteenth-century drawings and older descriptions was unveiled.

The figure standing in Athena's right hand is Nike, goddess of victory.  Just to give you an idea of the scale, this Nike is six feet tall!

In the end galleries are smaller-scale replicas of the east and west pediments, and plaster casts of some of the figures from the Elgin marbles which were removed from the pediments and are now housed in the British Museum in London.

The Parthenon is the centerpiece of Nashville's beautiful Centennial Park, the grounds of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition.  There is a man-made lake from the Exposition with a one-mile paved path that follows the lake's border and showcases some of the park's gardens and a brand-new tribute to the women's suffrage movement.

Even though it was hot hot hot (97 degrees!), there were plenty of people in the park running, feeding the ducks, and strolling around the lake.  There was also a quinceanera celebration, with the girls dressed in a rainbow of extravagant tulle and organza gowns.  The dresses were reminiscent of Civil War-era hoop skirts.  No wonder the party was outdoors - I doubt those dresses could have fit through most doorways, but the girls were beautiful!

This stop was just the prelude to our planned week at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.

Stay tuned for Part 2!