Chihuly at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens

Our bunch all met at Cheekwood at opening time 9:30 (John & me, Allan & Tina, Kate & Wayne, Margaret, Jean and her friend Kay), got tickets purchased, and started following the map through the gardens. There were glass pieces everywhere - suited to the plants where they were placed. And with the sunshine, the light through the glass was wonderful. They have had night-time openings, but we didn’t make one of those (Margaret and Jean had seen it at nighttime.) My favorite, I guess, were the red slender cylinders among the bamboo thickets. I surely wish we had some of that with the bamboo in OUR yard - definitely not in our price range, though.

Cheekwood was built as a family home in the early 20th century (by the Cheek family, money from the Maxwell House coffee company), and has been a museum/garden/arboretum for many years. The house is tour-able and has lots of permanent art, plus special exhibits. It’s really an asset to Nashville.

Kate & Wayne’s son, Andy, his fiancee Erica, and her mom got there after we did, but we finally met up with them, and left for lunch. We ate at a place called the Calypso Café - Caribbean cuisine, mostly vegetarian, with some chicken - excellent food - plentiful, but not too heavy

Then we went to the Frist Center - an art museum in downtown Nashville - to see more Chihuly and a special exhibit of Impressionist and Pre-Impressionist art from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. Absolutely terrific! The Chihuly was better at Cheekwood, but the paintings were spectacular.

We left there, checked into the motel, and then headed out to see Don & Flo Jean. We had great fun visiting, plus going out to eat dinner at a local restaurant - another terrific meal. Got back to the motel about 10 and pretty much crashed. We all checked out of the motel this morning at about 8:30, ate breakfast at a Waffle House across the street, and headed for home.

All in all, a terrific weekend.