Nashville, TN - Part 3 - Opryland Resort

When I was researching things to do in Nashville, I read on several sites that the Opryland Resort and Convention Center is a place you must see even if you don't stay there. We had several hours to kill in Nashville that day since it was only a 4 hour drive from there to our destination in Mississippi, so we decided to go ahead and see what this place is all about. The reviews I read did not do it justice, nor do my pictures below. I'm not sure I can even describe this place accurately, but first of all, it's huge. The amazing thing about this hotel that makes it such a must see place, is that it has 3 very large atriums with glass panel ceilings, water running through it, waterfalls, an unbelievable amount of plants, along with stores and restaurants all throughout. The place is so large that there are signs every where to point you in the right direction, and thank goodness for those signs because there were different atriums with different names and different names for the places within the atriums, and different levels within the atriums. It was just beautiful though, so I tried to capture what I could.

Every atrium has tons and tons of beautiful plants and trees, and they were constantly working on them while we wandered around, and we were there for over 3 hours.

Don't you love those Dora crocs? I have never worn crocs and never imagined buying them for my children, but out of no where Mykenzi actually asked for them. The first pair we bought her earlier this summer broke when she was pulling on the strap, and she was soooo upset that when we finally found another pair in her size, we got them. I don't care for characters on shoes, and have only bought her one pair of tennis shoes with characters on them and they are her play shoes for at home, but I felt bad for her when her first pair of crocs broke (although they are not real crocs, I never knew there was a difference and I really don't get it).

Camden doesn't look happy because he's sitting for a picture. We let him walk through most of the place, so he wasn't happy about stopping to pose for a picture with Mommy and his big sister.

These little water spouts were neat. They were shooting from several different places, and then stopped, then switched direction so that it shooting from the side that was being shot at. It was interesting. Just something we stopped and watched while we were trying to figure out which restaurant we were going to eat lunch at.

This was one of the places we could have eaten at for lunch, where you had to order from a menu and we decided that since we were running out of time before we needed to get back on the road and it was getting close to Camden's nap time, that we should just go eat at the buffet, which was by far the best buffet food we've ever had! It was absolutely, unbelievably delicious. I don't normally like buffet food because it's all mass cooked and tasteless in my opinion, but this was like a gourmet buffet.

The rest of these pictures are from the river cruise inside the hotel. We just took a little 15 minute boat ride through the atrium, where we learned some interesting things about the Opryland Resort.

They even have orange trees in this atrium.

Doesn't Mykenzi appear to be enjoying the tour guide?

This window is to a two story room where 3 presidents have stayed and where Dolly Parton likes to stay when she's in Nashville.....for $3500/night.

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Next stop, our ultimate destination, the whole reason for the trip: Kelly's House! I keep using destination because Mykenzi has learned that word from the lady on our GPS.