Thursday, August 28, 2008

Birthday Celebration In Nashville

Jim and I celebrated our birthday's in Nashville. We stayed at the BEAUTIFUL Opryland Resort. We shopped at Opry Mills, toured historical sites, took a showboat cruise, visited the Ryman Auditorium and went to the Grand Ole Opry. View's from some of the many walkways.

There were fountains and waterfalls everywhere. I've never seen so many beautiful flowers. It was truly a paradise - all indoors.

The Ryman Auditorium

The Ryman was originally a church - the Union Gospel Tabernacle, built in 1891.



We took a walking tour of the Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson.
These are some of the small log houses the slaves lived in.

This is where Andrew and his wife Rachel are buried.

Taking a buggy ride around the grounds.
This is the back of the house - just as pretty as the front.
Since we have a pool at home, I normally don't care about going to the pool while on vacation, however this was so nice and refreshing plus it was wonderful having someone wait on you - "charge it to our room please" ;)~
We enjoyed dinner and a show on the General Jackson Show Boat.
My sweetie on the back of the boat enjoying all the wonderful scenery.
It was daylight when we boarded, then when it became dark the city lights were beautiful!
Dinner was fabulous and we met some wonderful people while eating. The show began with the queen of pop - Tina Turner!
Of course the other "queen" of pop had to do his thing!
The show had to end with a bang...Elvis!
Actually, this guy was pretty good!

This is the AT&T building but Nashville residents call it the Batman building.
It does look like Batman.
Fort Nashborough was in the middle of town.
On one side of the street was the fort and the other side were large buildings.
There was always something to do. We walked to the Riverfront Park one evening and enjoyed watching dragon boat racing and listening to an awesome local band.
Of course we had to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe.
Down town had so many pretty buildings.
The Parthenon
This was in the middle of yet another beautiful park. It was surrounded by ponds, walking paths, benches and beautiful landscaping.

Look how big this place is!

More photos at the hotel. This is one of the beautiful statues surrounded by flowers.
There was even a wedding which I thought was so pretty. She definitely picked a beautiful place to be married.
You could get lost inside this place. This area reminded me of our trip to New Orleans a few years ago.
Taking a break to eat a little Haagen Dazs -yummy!
This lady was amazing. You would walk by not paying attention to the vine grown up the side of the wall - but then it would move. She was on stilts and could move in more ways than one could imagine!
Do you see anything odd about this photo? Inside the resort all the speed limit signs read "24" miles per hour - not 25! What would a trip to Nashville be without going to the Grand Ole Opry! There were at least 10 different entertainers with the star attraction being Martina McBride.
Trace Adkins was really good - gosh he is tall!
Wynonna sang one of my favorite songs "I Can Only Imagine". She received a standing ovation and you could see the tears glistening in her eyes - it was awesome!
Even though Lee Greenwood hasn't been a top artist for several years, he actually put on a good show. He also received a standing ovation.
This was a wonderful mini-vacation. Everyone should stay at the Opryland Resort at least once!