Chihuly at Cheekwood

In front of a Chihuly sculpure at Cheekwood
Botanical Gardens in Nashville, Tennessee.

I'm finally catching up on some of my blog posts!  This past week Mom and I had a chance for one more trip before school starts, so we visited my brother and sister in law in Nashville, Tennessee for a week, getting back to Kent this past Thursday (August 26).  Really we didn't do a whole lot.  Mostly we hung out at the house, but that was OK by me!  Usually when I go visit friends or family, I'm not there to be entertained, so it doesn't bother me at all to just hang out, though that's not to say we never went out.  I was able to see a few friends and get out when I wanted to.  Mom and I also watched all 3 of the Lord of the Rings movies on my brother's snazzy huge LED TV.  :)  One thing we were able to see was the display of Dale Chilhuly glass works at the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in Nashville.  For those in northeast Ohio, Cheekwood is very similar to Stan Hywett Hall in Akron; a large estate that is now used for educational purposes with gardens and other programming.  Chihuly is a leading glass artist who has had work shown all over the country.  His style is pretty recognizable (I remember a large sculpture of his in the lobby of Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City) but still interesting.  Cheekwood put many of his works outside in various locations in the different gardens, plus they had a few in their gallery in the actual Cheekwood mansion, which now functions as an art museum.  We both enjoyed seeing everything and the weather wasn't too bad at all!

The car waiting to be towed with a trail of
brake fluid behind it

We actually went the day before, but just as we were coming in, I was driving and the car went over a speed hump too fast and the bottom of the car got scraped.  It ended up ripping a brake line and we pretty much lost braking instantly.  It wasn't like I was flying over the speed hump (like 15mph maybe) but enough the bottom got scraped on the speed hump when it went over.  Because of rust, it ruptured the line.  From what the tow truck driver and repair shop guys said it sounded like the rust played a major role and likely wouldn't have mattered if it had just gotten scraped without the rust.  The rust on the bottom is a common problem for cars from the North where we are subject to salt during the winter.  Of course, that was the ONE day I forgot my cell phone, so I had to use a phone in the visitors' center later at the repair shop.  Well, thankfully we have AAA and my brother was able to come get us.  All in all, it cost about $300 to get fixed (not too bad!) and it just delayed us one day.  We extended our stay in Nashville an extra day and went the next day.
One of the BEST parts about the visit to Cheekwood was that my brother let me borrow their camera.  It's a Nikon D90, so it takes WAAAY better pictures than my camera.  I really enjoyed being able to use it and was happy how well the pictures came out.  The big negative is that I want one of my own even more now!!

Mom waiting for the tow truck to come...

Me not happy and waiting for the tow truck
(See Mom in the tree?)

View of a sculpture from the parking lot while we waited for the tow truck to come

Car getting dropped off at the repair shop.  Yeah for AAA!

Sculpture I photographed the day before
from the parking lot.  

Example of some of the glass sculptures (red things) in amongst the plants

Next to the sculpture seen in the background of the picture at the top of the page

I love waterfalls!

This was in the pond in above the waterfall.  I called it "boat full of rockets"

Did I mention I love stonework too?

Set of sculptures near the mansion

Sculpture called "The Sun" with the mansion in the background