The Grand Ole Opry & Opryland

Today we visited The Grand Ole Opry and Opryland. This picture shows the auditorium that replaced the Ryman as the home of the Grand Ole Opry. We chose not to take the tour as we had toured the Ryman yesterday and that's the place we really wanted to see.
There is a museum as well as extensive gift shop in the auditorium.
What we really wanted to see was Opryland. This place is beyond huge. In one building is 6 major hotels, with 2881 rooms overlooking a series of lush garden courts with restaurants and shops. It is very easy to get lost in here. All of this is under one roof. I tried to get a decent picture of the outside but its so big I never found a place I could shoot a decent picture of it. This was taken from about 1/4 mile away across the freeway, from the parking lot of the Two Rivers Baptist Church, which is almost as big as Opryland. What you see is maybe half of the main complex.
There must be a dozen waterfalls. Notice the balconies of the guest rooms in the background.
It has its own indoor (1/4 mile long) river that features boat tours.

This complex, which covers hundreds of acres, is owned by Gaylord Entertainment and also includes the largest Mall we've ever been in as well the the riverboat we had our dinner cruise on. The grounds surrounding all this is maintained by hundreds of people. They even have their own Hospitality University here.

This is our last full day here. Tomorrow we head up to Lexington, Ky to visit Jim & Patti. This was the real reason we chose to visit this area. We look forward to the visit and the sites to be seen up there. I plan on continuing the blog from their house.