On our way west from Virginia, we were able to drive through Tennessee. One of our stops was in Nashville. We were racing the weather, and our stop was a Boondockers Welcome spot, so we only stayed two nights. This was not nearly enough time to explore Nashville, and we’ll have to come back, but it was really cool.
Nashville: More Multilingual Than We Were Expecting
One thing that really surprised us about Nashville was how many signs were in Spanish. Having spent the previous winter right next to the Mexican border in Brownsville, we’re still pretty used to numerous business signs in Spanish. However, we weren’t expecting this much Latinx representation in Nashville. It was slightly disorienting, as we weren’t in Texas!
Adventure Science Museum
The full day we spent in Nashville, Mom and the kids went to visit the Adventure Science Museum, while Dad stayed home with our dog. This museum was really cool, and we were so appreciative of The Boy’s EAA membership (with ASTC reciprocity), which got us in for free.
Our first stop was to see if we could sign the kids up for the Kinetic Climbing experience. We read about it online, so knew both kids needed to wear tennies and shorts (no skirts!). Mom was worried we’d get there too late and they wouldn’t have any openings, but they did! Both kids enjoyed climbing, and The Girl climbed to the top twice!
Next, we hit up the Adventure Tower. This was a super amazing play space! There was a piano you could dance on to make music, a giant guitar you could stand inside as you plucked the strings, and a shadow room.
On the second level, the kids experimented with lights, solar panels, and pulleys. It was accessed by a tunnel. Both kids (and mom) thought that there was a slide from the second floor down to the first, but it turned out there were climbing grips inside, and you were supposed to climb up!
On the third floor of the Adventure Tower, there were climbing structures, a pole to slide down, and a giant slide to slide down. At the very top, there was a lookout and a globe, both of which were really warm up there in the sun! However, the view was spectacular (as reported by the kids; Mom did not go up).
The Tinker Garage at the Adventure Science Museum
Next up, we spent some time in the Tinkering Garage. Both kids enjoyed hammering and hot gluing creations. This was a pretty cool space, with lots of materials, wood, nails, hammers, saws, and hot glue guns. We were given a half hour to play, which ended up being more than enough for us, and could have kept our creations.
After we went outside to eat our sandwiches, we came back to explore the Human Body exhibit. This was quite large, with different spaces for each bodily system. We had so much fun learning about the immune, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and musculoskeletal systems! There were some pretty unique representations here, as the kids attempted to create a circulatory system (before other kids came over and started rearranging things), practiced peristalsis on an esophagus, and manipulated a “hand.”
The Infinium Room was a fun room of mirrors and lights, and our kids had fun playing in it.
There was a really cool exhibit on sound; one of our favorite parts was being able to see the sound waves!
Behind the exhibit on sound was the Innovation Incubator. This was a really cool space. The only thing they were doing the day we were there was making masks for Halloween, but there was a lot of evidence of much cooler activities taking place, perhaps during a camp of some sort. They also had 2 3D printers that we enjoyed taking a look at.
Nashville: Too Much to See in One Day
Overall, this was a super fun museum, and we already want to go back! We’ll definitely need to visit Nashville again to take in more of the sites (there was a Civil War Fort right next door to the Adventure Science Museum that we didn’t get to visit) and hear the music. If you’re looking for something fun to do with your kids in Nashville, and especially if you have a membership with an ASTC museum, we can’t recommend the Adventure Science Museum enough!