MORE SIGHTSEEING

Friday morning, we did more sightseeing before our flight leaves this afternoon.

First stop, the Parthenon in Nashville.  A replica, originally built for Tennessee's Centennial Exposition in 1897; it is amazing.  Inside is a small art museum, the replica of the 42 foot statue of Athena, plaster casts of the original sculptures and huge brass doors.  

Then we drove out to Andrew Jackson's plantation, The Hermitage.  It was raining still, so we didn't explore the grounds and outbuildings.  But what we did tour was splendid and in wonderful condition.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside, except in a few rooms.

Afterwards, we drove around a bit, then made our way to the airport and our flight home.

QUILTCON 2019

Here we are, finally at the main event, Quiltcon in Nashville.

Darrell dropped me off and went to do his own thing.  I waited in lines, first to get my entry badge, then the very long line to get it when the doors opened.

The event was held in the beautiful Music City Center

INTO NASHVILLE

After lunch, we left Chattanooga.  

We made a brief stop in Murfreesboro, mostly to stretch our legs, then it was on into Nashville.

We went to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.   It is in a repurposed Art Deco building that was originally built in 1933 as the main Post Office of Nashville.  The building is spectacular.  Made with Georgian marble and grey-pink Minnesota granite.  The inside features cast aluminum doors and grillwork, as well as colored marble and stones on the floors and walls.

We were lucky in that the current exhibit was "Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, and Their Times:  The Mellon  Collection."

Degas!

George Braque "Fruit Dish and Fruit Basket"

Roger de la Fresnaye "Still Life with Bottle, Pipe and Pot of Tobacco"

Pierre Bonnard "The Dining Room"

Edouard Vuillard "The Gilded Chair, Madame Georges Feydeau and her Son"

Camille Pissaro "The Royal Palace at the Hermitage, Pontoise"

This is the one I'd take home with me - a little Van Gogh "The Wheat Field behind St Paul's Hospital, St Remy"

Vincent Van Gogh, "Daisies, Arles"

Gustave Caillebotte, "A Man Docking his Skiff"

Edgar Degas, "At the Milliner"  (why is the face blanked out?)

Paul Cezanne, "Victor Chocquet"

Maurice Utrillo, "Street in Sannois"

BUSY WEEK

I've been busy all week working on my Carolinas quilt.  

I got somewhat bored and frustrated in the middle of the week.  I wanted to move on to something else until I realized that I was frustrated because I was not happy with one of the blocks.  Once I figured that out my enthusiasm level went back up.

I got a bunch of the blocks sewn together and re-did the bad block.

Nashville Capital Building

Darrell and  I in front of the Nashville Capital Building

The ceiling in a room at Biltmore in Asheville NC

Taking time out for our morning walks.

Jax doesn't really like rain, but he loves going to the park.

Jelly likes being off-leash.

FRANKLIN TO NASHVILLE

We left the Indianapolis area, specifically Franklin where he's been staying, and headed to Louisville.  Darrell has a client there and he wants to stop and visit with them - and visit his furniture.

Although we aren't drinking coffee at this time, we still stopped at Starbucks in Franklin to get our morning tea.

We had a great visit with his clients and then headed out to Nashville.  I had wanted to see more of Louisville, but we ran out of time.  I thought I would see acres and acres of thoroughbred farms, but was told, no they aren't in this area, the farms are more prevalent around Lexington.  

The conference table Darrell made for his client's business.

A lonely horse farm.

Between Louisville and Nashville, we stopped at Lincoln's Birthplace Memorial Park.

The little log cabin is enshrined in this huge neo-classical monument.

We arrived in Nashville a little after 4pm.  It's Saturday night - there were partiers everywhere.  There seemed to be a lot of people heading to concerts at arenas and other venues.  The traffic was heavy and the sidewalks were full of people in shorts and cowboy boots. 

We made our way straight to the capital building in the center of town.  It was closed, but we walked around the outside and admired it and the view.