Grand Ole Opry House Tour, Gaylord Opryland etc

I've been in Nashville a couple of weeks now and I've really liked the places I've visited so far!

I had off of work on Monday for Memorial Day. I went back to the Grand Ole Opry House and took a backstage tour. I also visited the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Opry Mills which are all in the same area.

 

If I were to go to a concert at the Grand Ole Opry House, this is where I would enter! We did not go through these doors for our tour, though.

This is what you would see soon after walking in for a show! Look at those beautiful guitars on the ceiling. Our tour guide said that that row of guitars was worth a lot of money (and you can't even see all of them in the picture). (I can't remember the exact amount of money she mentioned but a lot.)

 The entrance was beautiful!

This is our tour guide.  She was really good! Where she is standing is the side door where the artists enter the Opry House.

This is Studio A where the Hee Haw show was filmed before a live studio audience. Also they have events for the artists in this room.

The seats where the audience would sit in Studio A when filming.

 

Apparently when you write to an artist who is a member of the Grand Ole Opry House you can just put their name and the Grand Ole Opry House and a stamp on the envelope and it'll get to them. But the members of the House do have P.O. box numbers. The picture shows the boxes. Our tour guide said that Dolly Parton gets the most fan mail by far!

Some of the past and current members of the Grand Ole Opry House!

Our tour guide mentioned Minnie Pearl on our tour. I had never heard of her before. She said that one time Minnie bought a new hat for a show and right before she got on stage realized she hadn't taken off the price tag. She just tried to hide it in her hat but during a part of the show the tag came down. She was really embarrassed but continued to sing with it like that until the end of the show. 

From that point on, she ended up putting a price tag on all of her hats before a show and it became her signature look.

This dressing room was especially decorated for Minnie Pearl.

Wagonmaster dressing room! Some famous people have used this dressing room.

And we're about to go on stage and stand in the famous circle on the stage! The circle was brought from the original Grand Ole Opry located at the Ryman Auditorium.

And I got my picture taken in the Circle on the stage! They said we could sing into the microphone if we wanted but I was not brave enough. ;)

The view from the stage!

If you're ever in Nashville, you should definitely take a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry House. It's worth the money it cost to go!

After my tour of the Grand Ole Opry House, I walked to the Gaylord Opryland and wandered around there.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this place but I saw online that if I'm at the Grand Ole Opry House that I should also visit the Gaylord Opryland. Can I just say that I loved this place?! It was so cool! I probably didn't even see all that I could see but what I did see was awesome!

There were massive indoor gardens in the hotel and it was so cool! Look at the waterfall!

The pictures don't really do the place justice!

After I finished exploring the Gaylord Opryland, I walked to Opry Mills (a large mall right across the street from the Grand Ole Opry House) and went to the Lindt Chocolate store to buy some Lindt truffles. 

I've only been to a Lindt store one other time but I love it because you can get unique flavors of the truffles that you can't buy in a grocery store.

After I was done at the Lindt store, I had done all that I could do within walking distance. So I hopped in my car and drove a couple of miles to Cumberland River Pedestrian Bridge. The view from the bridge was gorgeous!

There wasn't much to do around the bridge so I just walked across it and back and enjoyed the beautiful scenery! 

It was a really nice day on Monday and I'm glad that I was able to do some exploring!