Duck Parade is on the list already!
Oak Ridge would be interesting to 1 of the 4 travelers. Me.
Yes Please!
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that was the post office when I went to high school on the next block. but the most beautiful post office. and since it was built as a WPA project, they built a twin of it in downtown Knoxville, which is still a post office AFAIK.
But anyway, speaking of art museums, I really dropped the ball by not mentioning the one at Fisk University. It’s the Alfred Steiglitz collection. Nobody seems to know it’s there, but it;s full of priceless modern art treasures. Picasso, Cezanne, O’Keefe… check it out.
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Amen, brother. also, Hog Heaven BBQ is great (well., I can’t imagine it’s changed much; at all, really) and it’s right on the corner of the park with the Parthenon: Centennial Park.
Sylvan Park Cafe is the cornerstone restaurant of my old hood, and it’s the bomb. A true southern meat-and-three. god, I wish I still lived near it.
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Before my father retired he ate at the Swett’s location at the Farmer’s Market at least once a week. I’m pretty sure he’s the only reason they kept serving boiled okra because not many others would eat it. One of the cooks would yell “Here comes the slick okra man!” when she saw him.
One of these days I have to try Monell’s. Many people rave about it and the communal dining style looks fun.
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He sounds like my grandfather (who lived in Donelson).
Well, actually, he would’ve cooked up some fried okra himself, but I can imagine him boiling okra and offering it to us, as follows:
Him (jokingly): “Here, you don’t like boiled okra, do you?”
Me: “Actually, I don’t care for it, but tha–”
Him (aghast): “You don’t like boiled okra?! Awwww…”
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My grandparents lived in Donelson too! Although now that I think about it that doesn’t seem like too much of a coincidence. They lived on a street where it seemed like everybody was 65 or older.
I briefly wondered if we were related but my grandfather never cooked. He did, however, have a steady business making grandfather clocks in his basement.
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Whiskey. Happily, they export that.
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Oh wow! I might’ve formed the impression that everyone in Donelson was over 65, if only because those were the only people we ever visited. And it didn’t seem like any of their neighbors were any younger, either. But anyway, my grandfather lived on Stinson Rd. (and Graylynn before he remarried), and I had a great-aunt who lived on Lakeland (I think).
Just to keep things on-topic, I’m going to throw in another suggestion here, only because Donelson reminded me of it. Whenever I’m in town, I always order several Krystal burgers, although I figure it’s purely junk food. I love them things (I believe it’s exactly the same as White Castle, which I have not ever visited). I know Krystal’s not a Nashville company, but that’s where I used to eat 'em. (They briefly made it to Ft. Worth, TX, while my sister was living there, but I don’t think they (Krystal) lasted even a year).
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If you hurry you can still catch a tour of United Record Pressing in Nashville. Not only is it awesome to see how records are made but they are also related to civil rights history.
For Jews the historical archive at the Nashville JCC has some great stuff on Tennessee Jewish history. I’ve even got ancestors buried there.
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I’d argue that a few BB fans might appreciate Dollywood.
The park is near and dear to my heart, partially because I very nearly ended up growing up there. My parents grew up poor, so it wasn’t so much that they were part of the “back to the land” movement of the 70s as it was that they retained it. They were both woodworkers and wood carvers, and while it didn’t sell well, it was good enough to attract the attention of a recruiter from Silver Dollar City. Back then, one of the attractions to the parks was that they had artisans working during the day; when you got tired of riding rides, you could watch someone build wagon wheels, or something.
Back in the late 80s, though, the original Silver Dollar City went broke. An unlikely buyer stepped up: Dolly Parton. Nowadays, there’s still a Silver Dollar City park in Branson, MO, but it just retains the old-timey theme. Dollywood, though, still has craftsmen.
I don’t have any affiliation with the themepark. I am, though, pretty amazed that a female country music artist was able to go from being a poor woman from the Appalachians, to being a pretty savvy businessperson, and managed to help our her old home turf to boot.
If that’s too corny for you, well, I’ll warn you to stay away from Pigeon Forge altogether, because the whole town’s like that. Pigeon Forge and Sevierville damn near meet Knoxville nowadays.
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I genuinely love Dollywood. I expected it to be corny or chintzy. It’s not, it’s a heartfelt look at Dolly’s childhood and where she came from. Dolly Parton is so often a punchline that it’s easy to forget how talented and smart she is.
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Not for some of us! She’s wonderful, talented, and smart, always has been! 
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Dolly is awesome, One of my roommates used to drive to Dollywood from Knoxville to throw pots.
Really, the star of the show in Tennessee is not the cities, its the country. Smoky Mtns, Savage Gulf, Raven Point, wherever. It’s beautiful there.
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It really is… North GA is really lovely too. Especially around the state line.
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yeah, the whole region. just over the line in NC is Joyce Kilmer, Calderwood Lake. Absolutely stunning.
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I know, right. I wish I had more time to spend up there… Life gets in the way of doing things that are good for the soul!
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I will never forget going to Dollywood with my extremely skeptical dad, who only knew Dolly from “9 to 5”. After all the cheesy hillbilly stuff on the Pigeon Forge strip, he expected more of the same. But there’s a train ride through her childhood, and I can count that as one of the only times in my entire life that I’ve seen my father shed tears.
The Smoky Mt Nat’l Park is truly beautiful and worth seeing. I saw a black bear mother with her cubs, eating huckleberries.
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It sounds like Dollywood is what Silver Dollar City was when I was a kid. We went there 2-3 times a year when I was growing up. They did have rides and stuff but the best part was all the crafty bits. I watched the glass blowing, paper making, and mill-based wood working pretty much every time I went. Oh, and they had old school candle making by the dip process. Way too meticulous for my candle making needs but nifty all the same.
They had lots of other stuff too but those are the parts I remember. 
If you do find yourself across the NC border, a visit to the Cherokee Museum should be on your list. “Story of the Cherokees: 13,000 Years” is mandatory. I don’t have any other recommendations for Cherokee NC specifically.
If I was going to stay in NC long term, I’d move to Asheville. Plenty of interesting things to do in and around there for a day trip but for a day trip, I’d probably do some hiking instead of Asheville proper. 
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That song genuinely gets to me. I saw her live a while back, and I welled up in a crowd that probably mostly frowns on grown men welling up. It’s just such a heartbreaking song.
A lot of her early stuff is so good.
If you do find yourself across the NC border, a visit to the Cherokee Museum
should be on your list. “Story of the Cherokees: 13,000 Years” is
mandatory. I don’t have any other recommendations for Cherokee NC
specifically.
My kids got to meet this man this summer: JERRY WOLFE NAMED BELOVED MAN - The Cherokee One Feather
Jerry Wolfe is the first Beloved Man of the tribe in about 200 years.
The drive between Gatlinburg and Cherokee is a beautiful one, too. The whole region is gorgeous.
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I almost hate to say it, but Graceland is worth seeing. We visited ironically, but actually enjoyed it quite a bit.
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