June 28: Opryland Hotel

I had heard how beautiful the Opryland Hotel was and had seen pictures but nothing compared to seeing it in person. Parking is $16 so we parked at the Opry Mills Mall parking lot for free and walked. I couldn't get far enough back to get a photo of the front of the building. If you go on-line, you can see photos of this outstanding hotel.

The first thing we did was ride the Delta boat. The "river" of the Delta was formed when the hotel had its' grand opening. Gaylord Enterprises mailed out 1700 two-ounce bottles around the world. The first one back was the River Jordan in Israel. Water came in from 30 other countries - some sent several samples. Kansas sent 10 and most from places I'd never heard of--but the Arkansas is represented. On opening day, they combined all of theses 2 oz samples of water with 450,000 gallons of water from the Cumberland River and that's what's flowing in the Delta water system. They called this "The merging of the waters".

We thought this would take us around the area and then we would walk around to see the shops and restaurants. Boy were we wrong. The Delta boats take you around the Delta area only. Then there's the Magnolia, Garden and Cascade areas. They don't have boat rides but you can walk the entire area. In each of these areas there is a different hotel to step into and look at the shops and restaurants that each of these has to offer. We pretty much got lost but did a lot of looking while we were trying to find our way back to the Delta. There are maps every where saying "you are here" so that helped us. The center sky light was 350 tons of three 1/2" thick pieces of glass. Made to withstand golf ball size hail and around 150 MPH winds.





After we got back to the Delta area, we decided that ice cream was in order. Outside of the Haagen Dais store was Ms DeVine. This was really amazing. She strolls the area on stilts (on a schedule that we just happened to be on hand for) and has long arms and beautiful makeup. She formed an arch for everyone to walk under - that's Larry's back as he walked under her. Sometimes she would cling to the side of a building, other times she would cozy up to the hanging plants.

And speaking of plants, the entire area was beautifully landscaped. These purple flowers were growing out of some moss hanging from trees. There were many more and would have liked to tour with the gardener.






There are 5 Presidential Suites in this hotel and they go for $3500 per night. Dolly Pardon stays in the only one that has two levels, a complete dining room and a grand piano that plays by itself. You can see this particular suite in the picture (second one down on the left) with the boat in it - it's the bay window looking out over the Delta. These rooms are booked a year in advance.

After spending several hours here and reading almost all of the menus that are posted outside each restaurant, we determined that we really couldn't afford to eat there so we walked over to the mall and ate at a buffet. Then we drove back downtown to see the capital building.








Today, we stuck around camp. Took the jet ski out for a short trip. It was windy and way too many boat waves for me to be comfortable. I did sit around and take photos of the many birds that come to Larry's bird feeder. I haven't been able to get a photo of the Tufted Titmouse (that is one in the bottom of the feeder in the middle picture with the Chickadee) but I will because for some reason they like to fly at our window and cling to the edge and look in. Also saw a Cat Bird that I haven't seen when I had a camera. There's always tomorrow.