Fun for Free! East Nashville Edition

Hi! 

Sorry for the unpredictable posts lately, but with school starting on THURSDAY(!!!!) we've been trying to soak up as much summer fun as we can. 

This means lots of doing things rather than photographing and writing about them. 

But, I did manage to snap some pics of a recent venture out east.  East Nashville, that is.  I have a very dear friend who just moved over there, and she's been showing us around that side of town.  Kind of silly, since we've lived here 5 years, 

but I blame the gestation and procreation stage of life that we're in. 

Anyhoo, our friend and faux relative told us about Shelby Bottoms Greenway. 

 (I keep calling it Soggy Bottoms.  Yes, I have the sense of humor of an 8-year-old boy.)  

I'd heard about it from another mom, but we'd never made it over there until last Friday. 

Though we didn't even cross a county line, we packed enough provisions (read: snacks) and changes of clothes to last 48 hours, plus fishing poles and swimsuits, etc.  

Somewhere along the way I got it into my head that there was a giant mud pit, so I also had towels and a tarp for the car.  

View from the sandbox

There wasn't any mud pit, but they had a killer natural play space with the awesome sandbox pictured above, as well as nooks, tunnels, and a kid-sized fort.  We determined that the paved greenway would be an excellent place to ride bikes, the only things we failed to bring. 

Next, we tried our hands at fishing. 

Turns out, fishing is a sport that works a lot better when Mom's not in charge.

And when we have the proper equipment.  A super-nice man took pity on us (and probably gave up on catching anything because we are LOUD) and advised us on a few critical pieces we were missing, like weights, a float, and bait. 

I told him I wouldn't actually know what to do if we caught anything besides a stick, 

and that I'd probably leave the fish on the hook. 

Since we were already in the area and nobody got muddy or wet, we decided to hit the splash pad at Cumberland Park.

This park is relatively new and located right by Titans' stadium.  

As you can see, there's a splash pad.

Plastic cups are essential for splashing fun and water fights.

              There's also a pretty cool sandbox with dinosaur "fossils" buried so deep under              t                     the sand that only the most tenacious mom has been able uncover it.

My littles were pretty excited to discover some dinosaur tracks.

Once you've gotten sufficiently waterlogged and sandy, it's time to hit the other play areas. 

Unleash your inner Spiderman on the ropes course, slide down the slides (if they're open),

Or stick your head through a porthole in the wall.

It's become something of a tradition for us to end every trip here with a ride up the glass elevator to the pedestrian bridge spanning the Cumberland. 

We check out the views

and try not to get anybody's head stuck in the rails.

Happy Wednesday!