Mike's Surprise Birthday Weekend Getaway!

*Warning: this post is really long and packed with photos. Settle in!*

As you all know, Mike's birthday was Friday, July 20th and in keeping with our now four-year-old tradition, I took him on a surprise birthday weekend trip! This year I concocted a plan to spend the weekend at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville to explore the vast hotel and relax. Before we left on Friday, I managed to snap a quick picture of our very skittish feral cat. Apparently, there are a few of them that live in the brambles behind our house and this little kitty loves to sleep under my car when it's hot out. It is absolutely terrified of me (and Mike, which is good, since he's allergic), but I'm trying to become friends with it - I also wish I could figure out if it's a boy or a girl... I'm pretty sure it's a "she-cat," but it remains unconfirmed.

Okay, back to the weekend. We arrived on Friday evening, explored part of the hotel and ate dinner at Jack Daniel's. Food was pretty good, my favorite part was the mason jar my drink came in, haha. After dinner, we spent the rest of the night at a cozy table in Findley's Pub listening to the hilarious band, Def Leprechaun.

Saturday was chock full of excitement - we had breakfast in the Cascades canopy restaurant, which overlooks a giant coy pond and waterfall.

After breakfast, we explored some more and took a flatboat ride on the Delta River in another part of the hotel. It was really relaxing, and we learned all kinds of information about the hotel. My favorite Fun Fact was that their indoor river, the "Delta" is a combination of water from seventeen hundred different waterways from across the country and the globe mixed with water from Nashville's Cumberland River. Pretty cool stuff!

(Dome over the "Delta" section... so pretty!)

After our river cruise, we headed to the pool for some sun. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon floating and sun bathing. After the pool, we took the Gaylord Shuttle to Opry Mills Mall, speed walked through it, and wound up at the Grand Ole Opry - where we took an afternoon tour. It was really cool to walk through the artists entrance, be backstage, and see the dressing rooms. We got to stand on stage and the tour guide made us all sing "You Are My Sunshine" so we could say that we had sung on the Opry stage. It was pretty cheesy, but still fun. When we got back to the hotel, we had a little snack - Mike had these amazing Sprinkle cookies and I had vanilla and chocolate gelato. So. Yummy.

(hehe, you can see Mike in the mirror... photobomb!)

After the Opry we walked back to the hotel (turns out, it was WAY closer than we anticipated. Didn't even need the stupid shuttle) and got ready for our fancy dinner reservations. Since it was Mike's big 2-5, I wanted to make it super special, so we went to the Old Hickory Steakhouse in the hotel. I made the reservations in advance and told them that it was Mike's birthday, so when we got there, the menu said "Happy 25th Birthday, Mike!" It was very cool and he was very surprised. Also, they gave us a free brownie dessert with Happy Birthday written in Chocolate. The food was amazing. We both had caesar salads, I had the New York Strip and Mike had a bison steak and we shared a side of garlic truffle macaroni and cheese - which was heavenly. After dinner we walked down to the water fountain and watched the twenty minute water and lights show set to music. It was crazy, that water fountain shoots water up to forty feet high!

Look at the motion blur I achieved on the water! This is straight out of the camera - no editing at all!

On Sunday we checked out of the Opryland and made our way to the Gaylord Dock, where we embarked on a river boat cruise on the General Jackson Showboat. We had a buffet lunch (which paled in comparison to our fancy feast the night before) and watched a super cheesy music and comedy show. Like, SUPER cheesy. It was almost impossible to stay in my seat haha. The best part was when we escaped to the deck of the ship by the paddle wheel to see the Nashville skyline and watch some jet skiiers take advantage of our wake. We docked a few hours later and Mike and I were on our way home, where we ordered Crosseyed Cricket Pizza and watched the Braves game.