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Opryland - Part 5
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
True, 'down home,' southern hospitality at its finest can be found in one of Country Music's oldest living legends, Opryland. Just don't ask them for Iced Tea, or expect to have the last word. But they do it with a smile, so you may get used to it!
Day 3
We woke up this morning and ordered breakfast in bed. We, however, broke the rules, and were quite awake and dressed when the breakfast came. I really had no interest in a complete stranger seeing me in my pajamas.
Anyway, this was something we should have done the first night. No, I’m not suggesting that we should have fallen asleep quickly, and woken up and ordered room service. Why? We went to the balcony overlooking the atrium and had a better view than from the Cascades Restaurant. Here we were, sitting on the balcony eating our breakfast, and people were very thankful I wasn’t sitting out there in my pajamas.
There were two more tours we wanted to get in today, so we met in the lobby to tour the atriums from a horticultural perspective.
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One of the many flowers in the Atrium | |
From a horticultural perspective, the environment in the atriums is so unique, it creates its own rules. For example, there are no birds to eat the insects, so like in a greenhouse, you’re constantly spraying. But you have a few thousand people walking through a day, so unlike a greenhouse, you’re cleaning up after them, and they’re constantly picking flowers. Or, you have palm trees growing indoors, and how do you cut down a tree without it crushing a few guests?
Don’t walk through the atriums just looking at the trees, but actually wonder how, what, and why they did what they did. Like palm trees. When they get too big, they have to take them down. To do so involves a big pulley system they had to invent there.
Or you have issues of temperature; the upper level of the garden conservatory (while only 30 feet higher) is noticeably warmer. In addition, you have landscaping issues because some plants are blooming at times of the year when you don’t expect.
This is a gardener’s dream, and a landscaper's challenge, being forced to constantly play catch-up and clean-up to keep the gardens going, while figuring out new ways of gardening.
After the horticulture tour, we rode over to the Springhouse Golf Course. The timing wasn’t good as the course was all covered with snow, and I didn’t get a chance to learn to golf. The timing was good for two other reasons. First, the course looked beautiful covered with snow. It’s lying on a peninsula between a bend in the river, so all you see are trees on either side, and a big blanket of snow with the river rushing around it.
The other reason the golf course was good to see was they were trying to explain this was a place for weddings. I’ve never been one for getting married at a golf course. Seemed too sporty for me. But, in leaving, a woman got out of her car and said she was looking for a place to get married, had attended a wedding here, and loved it.
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The garden-packed Delta Atrium | |
It was then off again, and we were to pack up and get ready to head out. We did a final walk-through of the grounds, and then prepared to grab the first shuttle to the airport
Needless to say, we loved Opryland, but not as much for what there was to do, but the idea of it.
The idea that you can lock yourself within these atriums and go out to a different restaurant every night, walk around at night, and still not get bored. The idea that you can sit indoors while it is snowing outdoors, but yet feel outdoors. The idea that they run it as efficiently as they can, and the guests don’t notice a thing is incredible.
And, no, Opryland is not all about country music; it’s about a neurotic level of efficiency just to make sure their guests smile.
Read Part 1 | Read Part 2 | Read Part 3 | Read Part 4 | Read Part 5
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