On Saturday, day 2 of the family visit, we began with a nice breakfast at Meridee’s in downtown Franklin.  Apparently we weren’t the only ones with that idea because the place was packed.  But, it was delish as usual.

We then headed out for a little shopping around downtown Franklin.  Eugene and I had some luck at a cute boutique.  Here we are sporting some of our finds:

Sorry for the strange photo.  Our cameraman was having some technical difficulties.

I was able to correct 1 out of 4 red, crazy eyes, which I think turned out looking even weirder than 4 crazy eyes.

Please take my word for it that my sister and I don’t have creepy rat eyes in real life.

Ok. Enough about that.

I also wanted to stop into an antique shop where I had spotted some interesting Blue Willow pieces:  a tea canister, creamer and sugar(er?).  I had been thinking about them since I saw them a few weeks back so I decided to go ahead and get them, adding to my two plate collection of Blue Willow.

I haven’t taken the tape off yet.  My Dad will most likely have a word with me about taking a photo with tags/tape/packaging still on the item for the 142^nd time.  Old habits die hard.  Sorry Daddy. 🙂

With my family in town, I thought it might be a good idea to check out some of the sites in the greater Nashville area.  We only had enough time for one adventure in the blistering heat, so we went to Cheekwood.

Like a dufus, I left my camera’s memory card in my computer.  My Dad was kind enough to let me use his iphone to take pictures AND to hold my clunky DSLR that was useless without its memory card.

What a beautiful place.

This estate, former home to Mr. Cheek, who was a co-founder of Maxwell House coffee, is full of beautiful gardens, tree houses, and a lovely art gallery.   Mr. Cheek was also originally from Burkesville, KY, where my family is from, which made it extry special.

This was an enormous fish sculpture that I believe was made out of CD’s.  Very crafty use of materials.

One of many tree houses.

On our way up to the mansion, we stumbled upon a turtle so desperate for water in the intense heat that he was drawn to the sprinklers for a draaank.  Poor guy.

Aren’t we precious?

I was wearing some very tall wedges to have a vertical edge on Eugene that day; however, approximately 12 steps into our tour, I decided to change into my flat sandals to spare my feet some blisters and my family some whining.

All of the art was in here.  I was not allowed to take any pictures inside the home so you will have to go check it out for yourself.  There was a Warhol painting, a Chihuly sculpture and many other super neato pieces of art.

After checking out the art, we walked around the grounds a bit more.  There was a lot to see.

Including a bamboo forest!

And a Japanese garden.

And, finally, a very smelliferous place: the herb garden.

There were several other gardens that we didn’t get a chance to explore, but I have made a note to go back in the spring when the property is covered in spring flowers and when it is not 9,000,000 degrees.

After nearly dying of a heat stroke walking around Cheekwood, we went back to my apartment for refreshments before our fashionably late dinner.  That cutting board was my Aunt Anna’s.  I think it is so pretty and it was perfect for our cheese and cracker occasion.

Y’all hurry back,

Sugarlump