Nashville- Friday Part II

Where does the time go?! Updating this blog is hard work :)

So...The rest of Friday in Nashville was spent at the Grand Ole Opry, The Mall at Green Hills, and the Cheesecake Factory.(Delish!)

Scott's favorite part of the trip, or so I think it was, was the Opryland Hotel. Surprisingly enough! We arrived at the Grand Ole Opry, got a few pictures and checked out the concert schedule for that night. There was nothing inspiring listed, so we headed over to the Opryland Hotel to see what that was all about. The only disappointing part is that the outlet malls there were still closed from the 2010 flood.

So...we walk into the Opryland expecting to see a nice hotel, perhaps some historic details, but mostly I'm just thinking that all the hype is because it's part of the Grand Ole Opry. It's riding it's coat tails. I was wrong, kind of (I still think it rides it's coat tails!).

When you walk into the hotel you're in a series of hallways, but it opens up into a large conservatory type room. The entire room is full of live gardens, complete with gardeners working on their plants as you walk around. There are palm trees, streams, waterfalls, tropical flowers...the whole works. There are small shops, shops built to look like you're in New Orleans (or Cuba...), restaurants, etc. It was pretty cool. Scott was blown away!! The hotel rooms had balcony's that opened onto the conservatory room. Would be nice. Mom and dad: it reminded me of the Sheraton in Calgary when we had the room with the balcony that opened onto the waterpark.

Mom- these totally remind me of the arrangements you and Kris used to have in the early 90's. Hilarious (and quite hideous, as I'm sure you would agree!) I'll give you one guess as to who still thinks these types of arrangements are still in....teeing off :)

These buildings looked like Cuba to me, although I think they were aiming for New Orleans. 

After we had strolled around the Opryland Hotel for quite some time we headed out to do the Belle Meade Plantation tour. It was fantastic!!

At Belle Meade we did the guided tour, and our tour guide was great. She was dressed in period costume and had lots of personal details about the family to add to the story/history of the home and family. 

The Plantation was owned by the Harding family (passed down down 4 generations, I think. Somewhere around there). The tour was about each generation, what they did to grow the plantation and how Belle Meade (the name of the plantation) grew to be the most famous thoroughbred horse farms in the United States. In fact, all of the winners of the Kentucky Derby (don't know about the 2011 winner though) can be traced back to Belle Meade. The tour was great and we both agreed it was money well spent.

The Mansion. This wing on the right side was added when the 3rd generation inherited the home. The second generation added the shell motif that sits on top of the house in the far left of the photo.

The playhouse that was built for the grandchildren

The building in the foreground was the smokehouse I'm pretty sure!)

The gardener's quarters/storage shed

The smokehouse again.

The Carriage House where the horses and carriages were kept.

The slave's quarters. The number of slaves that lived in each 10x10 room (2 shown) was staggering. Either 4 adult males or an entire family. Now there are only these few standing, but back in the day there were over 40 rows of cabins for all the slaves.

We spent time on the grounds taking pictures after the tour. The plantation covered 5400 acres, and there is a HUGE retaining wall built from layered stone (aren't they all, I guess!) that was built by the slaves that were employed at Belle Meade (Scott says it's technically "owned" by Belle Meade...I was just trying to be a bit less harsh!). Most of the plantations acres have been turned into a neighborhood (Belle Meade), but the stone retaining wall still stands and wraps around the community. It was so surreal. Being down here definitely makes slavery and the civil war seem so much more real. You just don't hear too much about it or experience the history of it up anywhere else. 

The wall built by the slaves. It outlined the 5400 acres that the Harding family owned.

After leaving Belle Meade we headed to Green Hills were they have a fantastic mall complete with a Tiffany's and Restoration Hardware. I was in HEAVEN at that store. I wouldn't complain one bit if my whole future house was furnished in Restoration Hardware products. Also, it was much more affordable that I previously thought, since I had never actually been/looked around one. A pleasant surprise!

The Cheesecake Factory was at the mall as well, so we enjoyed dinner there and got 2 pieces of cheesecake to take back to the hotel. Unfortunately, due to getting lost on the way back to the hotel, and because they didn't give us plastic forks we had to wait a really long time to eat it and it was warm. Not as good as it could have been :(

That wraps up Friday!! Here comes Saturday...