FRANKLIN

As most of you all know, Mother Dear, Marissa, and I were able to fly to Nashville TN this past weekend. We went to visit New College Franklin. Our time there was delightful. Both of us girls decided that NCF won't be the place for us, but in spite of that we had 3 full days of "girl time"--and we loved every minute of it. Here is some of my photography:

We flew into the Nashville Airport and directly made our way to a tea shop =)

We each picked out tea cups and our own flavors of tea. Mom picked "Lady Londonderry" (a strawberry-lemon earl grey--this was the best one!!), Marissa picked "Georgia Peach," and I chose "Afternoon in Mansfield Park" (jasmine and earl grey blend).

our room

dessert: the best part (right?)

Apricot Crumb squares, Chocolate-dipped Strawberries, and Red Velvet cake

There were hats everywhere, so we had fun trying them on. Marissa and I actually wore them for most of our time there =)

Mommy

Talking to some of the locals, we found out that the town of Franklin was actually very historic. Among other things, it was the site of one of the most bloody battles of the civil war.

Throughout town there were signs telling of particular facts that were so interesting. Most of them were further off the road than we could see from the car...it would be really neat to go back sometime just to walk the entire town reading the signs (yes! there are THAT many!!).

All three of us found the architecture fascinating (it's not stucco =) and the autumn colors were stunning!!!

the center of Franklin:

Mom's favorite

one of my favorites. you can't really tell, but the house is an olive/sage green with dark plum shutters and gold/buttercup trimming =)

We were enthralled with the beauty surrounding us!

Parish Presbyterian, pastored by Dr. George Grant (where we attended on Sunday)

Isn't the yellow just happy?

The buildings downtown were really pretty too. this is just a business

the spectrum of color:

Driving the back roads from Nashville to Franklin, we were able to see a lot more of the countryside. One of the major distinctives of this area is the number of churches we saw ("natives" say that they are the buckle of the Bible Belt). Also on the side of us there were huge mansions lining the road. The speed limit was fairly fast and it was starting to get dark, but here is one that I was able to get:

The last night Mommy took us out for pizza and then dessert. We chose Naticakes, and it was yummy! It was a small shoppe, but it was was decorated beautifully and had really happy music playing softly in the background.

Vanilla Bean and Carmel Apple

mother & daughter

sisters

some favorites from the weekend:

our hotel

I love the contrast here!