It Only Hurts When I Blog

Greetings, Bloggy Vacationers!

We had the most wonderful day yesterday. I left work at 11, and when I got home - nobody was here! They returned shortly after - Charlie, Mom & Gil were out walking around the 'outback'.

We chatted for a bit, we got ready, and headed to the Opryland Hotel. Temperature around 74 degrees, sunny, warm and beautiful.

We walked around the Delta and Cascades atriums, and enjoyed viewing the blooming and exotic plants, flowers, and waterfalls.

If you've never been there, you can't imagine how all of it can exist indoors, with streams flowing, and fish swimming in them.

We had lunch in the Cascades restaurant, we split an appetizer of shrimp and chicken quesadilla and each ordered a bowl of crabmeat soup (which we always get when we go there). The crab soup price has stayed the same ($8) for several years, but we noticed the BOWLS continue to change periodically to a smaller capacity. The soup and quesadilla were delicous.

We then 'meandered' back through the Cascades and Delta atriums and back to our car, and reparked close to the Grand Ole Opry (we got a good spot near Dave and Busters). We walked around the mall, and the men spent some time in Bass Pro Shops while my mother and I were shoe shopping (no luck).

There were some wonderful bargains on Harry and Davids gourmet clearance shelves, but thanks to a hot car, I was able to resist.

We then walked to the 'will call' office at the Grand Ole Opry, got our tickets, went through the gift shop, and hung around outside. The little museum had had a power outage that day, and unfortunately was closed. We didn't mind - it was SO beautiful outside.

The Grand Ole Opry show was the best one I have ever seen (heard?), AND we had great seats close to the stage. There were many acts, all excellent, and LOTS of wonderful bluegrass and western music. Also, Darius Rucker, formerly 'Hootie' of Hootie and the Blowfish, sang two songs in his unmistakable style.

Both the Riders in the Sky and the Sons of the Pioneers sang cowboy music, which was just incredible. (Cool Water, Tumbling Tumbleweeds). The Sons of the Pioneers were originally founded by Roy Rogers, and the Smithsonian has acclaimed them to be National Treasure.

My mother wanted me to tell one of the jokes from the performance - Little Jimmy Dickens (who has been on the Grand Ole Opry for over 60 years) said woefully - 'if you take Viagra, you'd better swallow it fast, or it'll give you a stiff neck!'

After the show was over, we walked across the street, back into the mall, and had dinner (yes, eating dinner at 9:30 at night) at Romano's Macaroni Grill. It was excellent!

Whew - I'm tired just writing about all we did yesterday! We'll go a little slower today, I promise.

TTFN!