Wonders from the Opryland Hotel

Since I am behind and just to make sure you don't get confused, we were in Nashville October 2015 to January 2016. I plan to get things up to date...one day.

The Opryland Hotel or as it is known today, The Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, is worth a visit. Many people over the years have told me if I ever made it to Nashville that going here was a must. After my first visit I certainly agree! The hotel was originally built in 1977 with 580 guest rooms and a ballroom. As the Grand Ole Opry became more and more popular, the hotel was soon busting at the seams. In 1984 they expanded adding 480 more guest rooms and facilities. This I guess was when the atrium's began. Two more additions were made, one in 1988 and 1996. Each addition included a large atrium with thousands of plants, restaurants, shops and even a river. May 2, 2010 was a terrible day for Nashville; a lot of the town was flooded including the hotel. In November of 2010 all the renovations were completed and the hotel reopened. Today it is comprised of 2,881 guest rooms, beautiful gardens, many restaurants, dozen of meeting rooms, and a convention center. It is only a 10 minute walk to the new Grand Ole Opry and the mall. Now that I have given a little history, enjoy the pictures from our first visit.

Can't even get the whole place in one picture from here

One very small section of the river

One of the many places to eat

Autumn makes my heart happy

We got to see the Autumn decorations and returned for the Christmas one. What an amazing site to see during Christmas. I love Christmas and walking around that place all decorated was fantastic. I was like a kid in a candy store!

One of the many trees donated by country music stars for a charity auction. You get the tree and all the decorations on it plus a vacation package or autographed guitar or some other type fancy stuff the stars donate.

Marcia and I

Tree by Little Big Town for charity

This is just a small sampling of all my pictures. I will not bore you with any more. If you ever find yourself in Nashville make plans to visit the hotel. Or if you can afford it, book a room for a few nights!

And as I said earlier, the Grand Ole Opry is a short walk away.

We had to prove we were really here!

Beautiful wooden door

2 wild and crazy people

We did not go on the tour of the inside of the Opry but I hear it is as pretty as the Ryman. We enjoyed walking around the outside and in the gift store. Unfortunately I didn't find Tim or Darius for sale in the store!!!

                                                               Back with ya soon,
                                                                                     
                                                                                           Lane

Tim McGraw, Hootie and Family

Nashville is a great place to visit even if you don't like country music. The city is alive all the time. All kinds of wonderful music can be heard while you stroll down the streets. And there is plenty of great food and drink to be found. 

Lovely views from the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge which runs crosses the Cumberland River and joins downtown with the football stadium area.

The "Bat" building

And EVERYBODY can find ELVIS!

Marcia and Elvis

We spent one evening at Tootsies Orchid Lounge. It is 3 floors of food, fun and music. We enjoyed some good drinks and several local singers/groups.

Found Taylor Swift on the wall at Tootsies

Sadly on this particular day I missed seeing Tim McGraw by an hour at his Big Machine records store. Guess my stalking instincts were off this day!

After a night at Tootsies we headed for some ice cream

 After ice cream we strolled around town some more. Beautiful white carriage and horse.

We walked over to another area called Printers Alley. It has some other bars and food places. By the time we got there it was not much going on.

Ryman Auditorium

One of the highlights of the entire Nashville assignment was getting to go see the Grand Ole Opry. And we got to go see the show at the Ryman! What a beautiful place inside and out. The show was amazing. I love Darius Rucker aka Hootie from Hootie and the Blow Fish. Everyone else on the show were great too.

Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl

Connie Smith

Craig Morgan

Lori Morgan

Darius Rucker

We were able to go to my daughter and son-in-law's house for Thanksgiving. Jen and Zac were gracious enough to open their new house to family for a great get together. So many of us don't get to see each other very often.

David and Kathryn

Trying to gather the troops for a picture...hard task

Family 

Our little clan
David, Lane, Jennifer and Kathryn

We had a great trip even though it was short. I think that was the first time in a long time we have had that many family members able to get together on short notice. Love my family and miss them!



Next up will be our trips to the Opryland Hotel; that place is amazing in its self.

                                                                                         Until we meet again ~~~
                                                                                                                                Lane

Wow, where have I been?

I didn't realize that January was my last post! So I guess I have some serious updating to do. When we last came together David and I were leaving Myrtle Beach and heading to Nashville, TN. Being a country music fan I was so excited to get to Nashville. 

Our apartment

We had a small little apartment in the Hermitage area of Nashville. When I say small I mean SMALL. We had to tell the furniture company to come get some of the furniture they left because we had nowhere to put it. We were glad that we had a ground floor apartment, makes moving in so much easier. 

Nature trail

David and the girls had plenty of walking and exploring to do along the nature trail that ran in front of the apartment complex down to the nearby dam. 

Percy Priest Dam

 David and the girls enjoyed many walks along the trail while I worked. And speaking of work, it was a small 17 bed ER in the Hispanic part of town. The staff were great and I really enjoyed my time there. I met another traveler (Marcia) who was in the cath lab and we got to hang out some. 

First outing with Marcia

Marcia had already started her assignment about 3 weeks before I got there. She had not done any site seeing or eating out because she was either on call or working. The cath lab was very short staffed as well as the ER. Anyway, Burger Republic is fantastic if you ever have a chance to eat at one. We enjoyed our yummy burgers, homemade chips and chatting. Enough blabbing for now. Next up will be some of our adventures around Nashville.

So until then...

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta