Celebrating Fall in the heat

Yesterday was another great Nashville day. The three of us started the day at Cheekwood, a historic site that is now the home of an art museum and botanical gardens. This season they have decorated the grounds with a variety of scarecrows designed by various groups and artists. We only covered maybe half of the estate and it was beautiful. I would imagine that in the Spring when everything is in bloom it must be breathtaking. As for the weather we've been having, plants can't decide if they should blossom or die so there weren't too many flowers! But the scarecrows were fun and Hailey had a great time running up and down the pathways. We ended our morning there with a little adventure in the art room. Apparently every Saturday they do arts and crafts for kids, something different every week. This week was fish painting. And no, we weren't painting pictures of fish, we painted an actual fish. Yes, a dead fish. And then we used it as a sort of print to make our picture. Hailey thought it was a riot just to play in the paint, I think it was kind of gross, but the picture is hanging on the fridge either way :)

After that we headed to Centennial Park for the annual Celebration of Cultures. We expected something a little bigger, but it was still fun. There were a couple of stages set up with different kinds of music and dancing and an area where local organizations had booths set up with info and crafts of their respective countries. All that and international fair food too! Entrance to the Parthenon was also free for the weekend. The Parthenon is in the middle of the park and is supposed to be an exact replica of the original. Strange that it is in Nashville, I agree, but there it stands. Inside there are replicas of different statues and an ENORMOUS recreation of the goddess Athena as it stood in the Parthenon in Athens. By enormous I mean 42 feet tall and decked out in a gold robe flanked by a serpent. Even stranger I swear. I'm glad I've seen it so now I don't have to wonder, but I'm even happier that it was free.

The only downside of the day was the oppressive heat. I mean, we moved out of Miami, why is it 90 in October. We went through many popsicles at the fair and Hailey passed out cold as soon as we put her in her air conditioned car seat. Bring on the seasonal shift PLEASE!