Gaylord Opryland Nashville Recap

Hello! How is your week going? I’m not going to lie…re-entry back into reality after a week of Spring Break has been a major adjustment. On top of school and work, Hayden has had two back to back late baseball games! Only a couple more days until the weekend!

Today, I’m sharing about our Gaylord Opryland Resort trip. We’ve had this place on our “to visit” list for a couple of years. As I mentioned in last Friday’s post, we typically plan a Spring Break trip for a few days of break rather than going somewhere for an entire week. Spring Break has been the perfect time to visiting some place new for a few days. This year, we headed to Nashville to stay at the Gaylord, have fun at Sound Waves, and experience some of what Nashville has to offer.

Travis and I have friends in Nashville, so we’ve been there quite a few times, but this is the first time the kids had ever been there. We left Tuesday morning after breakfast, and arrived around noon at the Gaylord. We were able to secure an early check in, and this was our view when we exited the elevator:

I checked out our balcony view while the kids got ready for the water park.

Funny enough, in our 48 hours at the Gaylord we ran into three different families we know…but rarely get to see! One of the families we knew would be there, and my kids had fun playing with their kids!

We spent most of Tuesday afternoon at the Sound Waves water park. The kids swam, I enjoyed the lazy river(s), and Hayden tried the FlowRider body surfing. He had lots of fun giving that a try. While the dads kept an eye on the kids, my friend and I hit up the water slides. Eventually, Hadley and our friends’ daughter joined us for the four person water slide. We had lots of fun.

We went back to the room around 5:30, cleaned up, walked around some of the property.

Nothing says Opryland like guitars hanging from the ceiling.

We stayed in the Cascades Atrium, and the waterfalls were amazing.

The main restaurants (sushi, Mexican food, steak, etc) on the property rotated being open for dinner while the market and smaller “grab and go” places like Cinnabon and Starbucks were open daily. Tuesday night, we decided to see what was nearby and stumbled upon Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen. There was a bit of a wait, so we had a later dinner than usual. It was “family style,” so we shared the fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, green beans, mac and cheese (and more!) between the four of us. The desserts were amazing, and I even picked up a couple of boxes of the gooey cake on the way out. The restaurant was super cute, and I had to show great restraint at the gift shop!

Once we got back, we walked around the resort a bit. The waterfalls and the seating areas were so pretty at night. We headed to bed around 10:00. (Hayden stayed up a bit later than the rest of us watching the basketball game.)

Day 2

The kids slept in until about 9:00 on Wednesday morning. I enjoyed my coffee and quiet time on our balcony while they snoozed.

Then, we walked to pick up breakfast while checking out some of the Easter decorations.

After that, the kids and Travis changed for the pool. We got two day passes for the Sound Waves Water Park. While they swam, I went to Landyn’s store! This was a “must” for me this trip as I love following her on Instagram …

and her…cream and white color palette is just my style!

Her shop is in L&L Market and there were other cute shops restaurants there as well. At Landyn’s store, I purchased her “Morning Announcements” mug, a pair of fun gold earrings with my initials, and a cute white bunny (bottom of the photo above). I actually asked one of the girls working if it was for sale…and they weren’t sure. She looked it up, and it was only $5! Uh…sold! I will remember my trip to her store every Easter when I put out my decorations.

I also stopped by Marigold Popcorn which is in the space across from her store. She shares them on stories sometimes. I picked up some churro flavored popcorn as well as white chocolate drizzled popcorn.

It was only a 20 minute drive from our hotel, so I’m glad I made the trip!

I got back to the hotel around 2:00, and read my book until about 3:00 when the kids and Travis got back from the pool. We lounged around for a bit, and then got dressed for Wednesday night activities. Before heading out for the night, we walked around for a few minutes, and a sweet family offered to take our photo (and then I took theirs).

We got in the car and headed to downtown Nashville. I have such fond memories of trips to Nashville with Travis and friends to visit our friends who live here and also to see the football CATS play at Vandy a few times. We’d always end up at Tootsies or Legends. We walked around for a bit, but as we walked by Legends, there were some people (and families) in there listening to music, so we stopped in for a bit.

Listen, when you hear Dixieland Delight being played, it’s hard to resist hanging out in Legends for a few minutes.

The band was really good and so sweet. They asked Hayden and Hadley for requests, and they obliged with an Eric Church song (Hayden) and Maren Morris song (for Hadley). While out an about in Nashville, people were wearing masks, we we kept ours on until we sat down, and then we stayed seated until we left.

Hayden loves American Idol as much as I do, and was excited to spot the Lionel Richie album on the wall.

After Legends, we walked passed Ryman Auditorium on the way to…

Assembly Food Hall. I’m assuming this is new since the last time I was there, but it was a good quick option for us. It was basically an upscale food court with live music. Travis and Hayden got pizza while Hadley and I got chicken (chicken pita for me) followed by cookie dough for dessert.

Then, we headed to Top Golf Nashville. (We were going to go to Top Golf Cincinnati the first weekend of break, but a friend told us there was one in Nashville, so that made more sense to just go there rather than drive to CInci and back)

We had such a good time. We had our top level golf bay for an hour, but ended up adding an additional 30 minutes on because the kids were having so much fun.

While Hayden is definitely the golfer in the family and can drive the ball far, Hadley wins for most accurate!

I’m glad we went around dusk and stayed until dark. The atmosphere was so pretty.

Then, we headed back to the hotel and checked out the fountains and waterfalls at night.

We headed to the “Delta” area for ice cream for the kids and then a glass of wine by the waterfalls for me.

We were all fast asleep by 10:00.

Day 3

I had to wake the kids around 9:00 on Thursday morning, so we could enjoy our last few hours at the Gaylord.

We packed up, got a quick breakfast in the Delta area…

and then the kids tried the rock climbing wall. Hadley scaled the wall in a minute and 37 seconds. Hayden took a couple of tries, and then made it to the top.

We headed back to our room, checked out around 11, and then made a stop at the outlet mall. We hit up Nike and Vineyard Vines before heading home.

We had such a great time, and I’m sure we will go back there some day. I’d love to see it at Christmastime because I know the decorations and lights are amazing as well as their winter activities.

Of course, we planned this trip knowing there were Covid precautions in place. Everyone wore masks on the property, limited tickets were sold for the water park, only some restaurants on the property were open each day, among other precautions.

So that’s a little look at our trip. It was a great three days away, but we are always happy to get back home…and the kids are always excited to be reunited with Homer.

Thanks so much for reading!