Hike and The Hermitage

Today was a good day! This morning, my brother and I went on a hike about 30 minutes from where he lives, Henry Hollow Loop trail. It was a nice hike! There were some ups and downs on the trail, the trees created shade from the sun (although we were there at around 8 in the morning so the sun wasn't too bad yet) and it was a beautiful area!

The water seemed low in the river or stream but it was still pretty!

It was beautiful!

The trail wasn't always this wide but it was a nice well traveled and well marked trail!

In the afternoon, I went to The Hermitage, the home of former U.S. president, Andrew Jackson. It was really interesting. The grounds were beautiful and the house was lovely!

I took a mansion tour but I couldn't take any pictures inside. It was cool because there was a lot of original stuff in the house from Jackson's time. This is the back of the house after the tour was over.

There were some really cool trees on the property!

This is called the First Hermitage and is the place that Andrew and Rachel Jackson first lived when they moved to the property before the mansion was built. Once they built a little bigger place (not the mansion at that point, that came later), they turned this into a slave quarters. (The Jackson's owned slaves and grew cotton).

This is where Alfred Jackson lived. Alfred was a slave born at the Hermitage. He had many jobs on the plantation but ended up mainly taking care of the horses and keeping the farm equipment running. He also lived at the Hermitage longer than anyone else (even members of the Jackson family) and when he died was buried in the Jackson family plot.

The grounds had a garden and it was beautiful!

So many pretty flowers!

The Jackson family cemetery in the gardens on the grounds. They're currently cleaning and repairing the tomb of Andrew and Rachel Jackson hence the scaffolding in the picture.

I loved the flowers in the garden!

The trees were cool too!

The road leading up to the house is shaped like a guitar. Seriously. Overall I enjoyed my time at The Hermitage and learned a lot about Andrew Jackson and his life. 

Today was a good day and I'm grateful for the things I was able to do!