Pennington Bend

5.30pm
I had a good nights sleep & was awake by about 7.30am. We didn’t rush to get ready as the only plans we had were for this evening.
We caught the complimentary shuttle over to the Opry Mills (a huge shopping mall!), we went to guest services first to pick up our passports of offers, looked like there would be a few we would be able to get use out of!

We decided to go to Madame Tussauds first (it only opened earlier this year) & as we are staying at the Opryland we got free entry - bonus! It was quiet which meant we had plenty of time to pose & do stupid poses with the waxworks. We went into a recording booth & now have 2 songs of us singing on CD. We had fun! As we got in for free we decided to buy the photo package.

After leaving Tussauds we were hungry so went to the food court for lunch, i’m somewhat ashamed to admit we went to Burger King! We then wandered around the shops some more but didn’t actually buy anything (we are saving that for tomorrow/Sunday!). Mel bumped into her friend from back home who is also on holiday in Nashville (small world!). We then came back to the hotel to chill for a few minutes before getting ready for the Opry tonight.
We are currently waiting for the shuttle, it better hurry up as we have the VIP tickets for before the show!

11.20pm
Been back at the hotel a while now. Wow, what a night at the Opry! Thankfully we got there in time to pick up all our tickets, we then had to wait in the designated place for our VIP ‘Behind The Curtain’ tour. Our guide Judy was great as she took us back stage & explained what happens before a show. We got to see some of the artists arriving & in their dressing rooms getting prepared for the show. Just before 7pm we were ushered onto the stage, it was an amazing experience to actually be on the stage & witness the red curtain rise, to look out & see the audience and see an artist perform.
We got to be on the stage for the first couple performances, then we were escorted back to our reserved seats where we watched the rest of the show from the audience.

There were a lot of acts on the line up, if i’m honest, Mel & I weren’t particularly impressed before hand as there weren’t really any contemporary acts like last time, however, it was a great night. Admittedly there were several bluegrass & older artists but they were all so talented & you could see they loved being up on the stage.
There was even a comedienne called Jeanne Robertson who was very funny, she had spoken to us all backstage & seemed really nice & down to earth. The artist I really liked & would check out is Mark Wills, I loved both songs he performed.

We left the Opry to find that the heavens had opened & it was pouring down with rain (it was just like being at home!!), we got soaked walking to the shuttle.

It was a fantastic night, now looking forward to sleeping & seeing what tomorrow will bring.Lue lisää