Cheekwood

Why is it that a person will travel hundreds of miles and spend lots of money to see other parts of the country but fails to visit what's available in their own town? I've lived in this area since 1995 minus 4 years for college and have experienced very little of the historical and interesting sights it has to offer. I hope over the next few years to fix that. As of last week I am now one step closer to that goal.

We went on a family field trip to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Mansion. John took the day off and we all went. It was coordinated by our local homeschool group. We started with a garden tour, had a picnic lunch and then toured the mansion and some more of the grounds. I wasn't too thrilled with the mansion. It was a big house with a lot of big rooms. The art they had displayed though was beautiful. I wish I could have taken some pictures to remember. There was a lot of nature scenes. John was captivated by a few of them.

The gardens were spectacular. I'd like to go back in the spring and see more of what they have. We walked through these amazing herb gardens. Everything smelled delicious. I was very jealous. They even had a lime balm plant that smelled like fresh limes.

One of the displays they have up now is a small collection of model trains. There is probably only about 5 trains but their tracks pass by models of different historical buildings throughout Tennessee. All of the model buildings are made of found, natural substances. Acorns, sticks, leaves, bark, etc. It was very remarkable to see them all.

It was a fantastic day. The grounds are very large and we didn't get to see all that we wanted. I'm excited to go again and see more of what they have to offer.

The sun was shining just right there and the weather was gorgeous. I was able to get some great shots off there.

Water Lily

Morning Glory seed pods

Japanese Dogwood

The Model Train Exhibit

Family Pictures