The Trail's Our Thing

I posted yesterday about our experience at the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night, but we did a lot more in Nashville this weekend, and I need a few more posts to tell more about this great city.

We stayed overnight at the Marriott Courtyard near Opryland, arriving about 2 pm Central Time. I've stayed in many Marriott Courtyards for business travel, and they are pretty much all the same. The front desk people at this hotel were very helpful, and it is always nice to have a free hotel! We checked in quickly and decided to drive over to see the Opryland Hotel, about a mile away. The two people at the front desk had warned us that parking at the Opryland Hotel was $18 and recommended that we park at the edge of the Opry Mills parking lot. We only had to walk about five minutes to get to the hotel.

The Opryland Hotel is absolutely amazing!! It's a huge resort/convention hotel (the largest "non-gaming" hotel in the continental US), with nine acres of gardens enclosed in huge atriums. The landscaping was just beautiful! I especially loved the huge orchids.

There are 2,881 guest rooms (including 174 suites), 5 fine dining restaurants, casual dining spots and nightclubs, and 25 shops. Some things we didn't see: a 27,000 square foot spa that we didn't see, a fitness center open 24 hours a day, three swimming pools, and a 600,000 square foot convention center. Wow.

Kelly and Sophie at the Opryland Hotel

The hotel is organized around four main garden areas: Cascades, the Garden Conservatory, Magnolia (which we really didn't see), and the biggest area, Delta. There is actually a river circling Delta with a riverboat ride.

In the Cascades

We spent at least an hour at the hotel, wandering through the beautiful gardens. We had drinks at one of the casual eating places overlooking the river.

Riverboat in the Delta

It's possible to get a room here for less than $200 a night (view to the outside, not into the atrium). I also took a quick look at the packages, and they are offering a package with a Grand Ole Opry ticket for $121/person, plus tax. Their "Romance Package" also looked pretty interesting... champagne and strawberries!

After leaving the Opryland Hotel, we decided to check out Opry Mills. We only had about an hour, as we needed a little time at the hotel to get ready for the Grand Ole Opry. Charley went off with Kelly, and I went with Sophie. Opry Mills has about 200 stores as well as a number of restaurants and a 20-screen Regal Cinema movie theatre. Sophie and I circled the entire complex, and ended up spending about 30 minutes in a Barnes & Noble. I bought Charley and Kelly some candy for Valentine's Day at a Harry and David outlet. We checked out a few other stores, and Sophie found the "Build A Bear" store very interesting. Kelly arrived back at the car with a couple of bags; she found a couple of tops. She loved the shopping there, and I told her I'll bring her back to shop sometime. (Hmmmm... could we stay at the Opryland Hotel??)