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During your Nashville vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
The Frist Center for the Visual Arts
Opened in April 2001, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts brings world-class art exhibits to the historic downtown post office building. The nonprofit center does not maintain a permanent collection but rather presents exhibitions from around the globe. Upstairs, the ArtQuest Gallery encourages visitors to explore a range of art experiences through more than 30 interactive multimedia stations. Creative kids and likeminded adults could spend hours here.In addition to the high quality of its exhibitions, the Frist is free to visitors 18 and under, making it an excellent value as well. Coming exhibitions in 2004: Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series from the Phillips Collection, featuring the 20th-century American artist's works tracing the movement of blacks from the rural South to the industrial North between the first and second world wars. Running concurrently will be an exhibition of European masterworks from the same collection, by artists including Cézanne, Monet, Degas, Picasso, and Gauguin. Looking farther ahead, the Frist's next blockbuster exhibition is slated for June to early October 2006. Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt is being billed as the largest group of antiquities ever on loan from Egypt for North America.Constructed during the Depression, Nashville's main post office is home to the Frist Center for the Arts. Classical and Art Deco architectural styles are prominent within the marble and gray-pink granite building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Intricate grillwork celebrates icons of American progress: an airplane, a locomotive, a ship, and an automobile. Among other achievements represented in the icons: scientific research (a microscope, test tube, and flask), harvesting (a sheaf of wheat and sickle), industry (cogwheels), publishing (a book press), sowing (a hand plow), metalwork (a hammer and anvil), the pursuit of knowledge (the lamp of learning resting on books), and nautical endeavors (a dolphin and propeller).
Wave Country
This water park is located just off Briley Parkway about a mile from the old Opryland USA and is a summertime must for kids of all ages. There's a huge wave pool and plenty of water slides. Kids will have no objection to spending the entire day here.
Travellers Rest Historic House Museum
Built in 1799, Travellers Rest, as its name implies, once offered gracious Southern hospitality to travelers passing through a land that had only recently been settled. Judge John Overton (who, along with Andrew Jackson and Gen. James Winchester, founded the city of Memphis) built Travellers Rest. Overton also served as a political advisor to Jackson when he ran for president. Among the period furnishings you'll see in this restored Federal-style farmhouse is the state's largest public collection of pre-1840 Tennessee-made furniture. Allow an hour to tour the museum, and more if you want to wander the grounds and outbuildings.
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