I had been hoping to go to Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage for a while (Hermitage is the name of his mansion, like Jefferson’s Monticello.) Prior to going, the three older kids and I watched a 45 minute documentary about Andrew Jackson, so that our visit would be more meaningful. And it totally worked. They were pointing stuff out left and right. And it wasn’t just some random historical dude.
Our first point of order was the gift shop, so that we wouldn’t have to worry about it being closed later. We have our priorities straight.
And then we headed off to the Hermitage mansion, which was about a 10 minute walk from the Visitor’s center.
We got there a little bit early and so we wandered the gardens for a few minutes while we waited.
And then we did the mansion tour. Alas, we were not permitted to take any pictures in the mansion itself. One of the amazing things about AJ’s Hermitage is that 90% of the artifacts inside the house were actually there at the time that Jackson lived in the home (this is a greater percentage than Monticello and Mt. Vernon combined). So, pretty cool.
To be honest, the boys weren’t that into the tour. Part of the problem was that it was pretty regimented: we basically went from one station/docent to another, learning mostly about the house and only a little about Jackson. So you know, not that interesting to a pair of little dudes.
After walking through the house, we were able to go see the rest of the grounds, which included the original Hermitage before the mansion was built, several buildings where enslaved people were quartered, and a little nature walk.
Tennessee is a beautiful part of the world. We really enjoyed the nature walk. It was one of the best parts of the day.
After we’d seen all there was to see, we wandered back to the visitor’s center which houses the museum.
We really enjoyed learning about the Battle of New Orleans. Fascinating. This battle was the making of Andrew Jackson. 
A blow by blow account of the battle. 
The front entrance to the Hermitage. It isn’t generally in use anymore. Just for special occasions. 
Seriously, the entire area around the Hermitage is just gorgeous. 
We saw a wild turkey. This was me taking a picture on my phone through some binoculars. So, not a great pic. But our little bird nerd was delighted. 
An actual quote from our resident ornithologist: “He’s doing a courtship display for the females” And she wasn’t wrong.
And we watched the video about Jackson. The children and I were very pleased to discover that we actually already knew a lot of the information in the video. Our little YouTube video had done us proud.
We then wandered the museum and then we headed on back home.
JAMIE!!
By a crazy twist of fate, my sister, Jamie, ended up coming to Nashville. (She is currently studying to become a nurse anesthetist and had an event in Nashville of all places.). We were absolutely delighted that we overlapped and that we got to see her.
With her, we had a quintessential Nashville experience: Hot chicken with various soul foods as sides. I ordered mild chicken, cause I’m a spice wimp. And it was definitely the spiciest mild thing that I have ever eaten. Fortunately, it wasn’t beyond my tolerance levels. It was delicious.
We ate and chatted and then we had to get Jamie back to her event. Sad. But it was really good to see her.
It was a great day: a little outing and a distinguished guest. Diem Carped.
