Hermitage House in Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee is home to more than just the Grand Ol Opry. This is a southern city steeped in southern charm. One of the charms near the city is called the Hermitage House.

This was the Home of Andrew Jackson. It is a sprawling 1,120 acre estate that opened to the public in 1889. It is among the largest historic sites in the country.

Andrew Jackson was our 7th president. He occupied the home from 1804 to 1845. That is also the year that he died. Jackson was a slave owner and many of the slave log cabins can be seen on the estate,

You can tour the home, where 80% of the furnishings are contemporary to the time Jackson lived there. But I was more interested in the larger outside area of the property.

Here people dressed to the times and did many reenactments of the period. Below you can witness some of the dress and southern charm.

In addition they performed some civil war reenactments as well. This is the first time I ever witnessed a cannon being fired.

I remember as a youth there was an old cannon near my home town located in Weld, Maine. It seemed like every 4th of July some pranksters would find a way of firing it off without getting killed, but I never personally witnessed it. After watching these cannons fired, it seems miraculous nobody was ever hurt in Weld.

Here he is preparing the cannon for fire. And fire is the correct word to describe this as well, as you will soon see.

This was a place well visited by tourists as you can see others photographing. This is actually one of the most visited historic site museums in the country.

Most of the time all you see when a cannon explodes is the puff of smoke. With the naked eye not much more is visible of the ignition and firing of the powder.

But I got lucky. This one still shot was timed perfectly to see the split second visibility of the fire itself. When watching this live, and in real time you do not see the fire.

I did not catch a video of this and then capture an individual frame in the picture below. This was a still shot that I was extremely fortunate to get.

This gave me great appreciation of what actually happens when a canon is fired. And it makes me realize how fortunate the people were near my hometown who set off the canon every year, that they did not somehow get torched themselves. See the person below as he stayed away from the flames? It appears to be a flame from the ignition site and the actual canon barrel itself where the powder is ignited.

The cost of admission to this place is about US$27 per adult. A few dollars less if you're a senior and even less if you're a child. Other than the Grand old Opry, this is the most memorable site that I visited on one of my several trips to Nashville Tennessee.