A Conference at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center

I attended a conference in the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention center the first week of December 2009 for the new updates for Federal Student Aid. Although my co-worker and I didn't get to stay in the hotel, we did have bus service to the convention center every day.

I must say that this convention center is the most fantastic place to go if one has to attend a convention. There is so much to see and do while at the convention and afterward if you are willing to stay up and walk a lot (good comfortable shoes are a must!). While attending the conference, it's just not in one big room, it is actually three levels and five sections that contain meeting rooms: Magnolia, Tennessee, Presidential, Governor, Delta and Delta Island. The conference I attended broke up into different sections so that you have a choice of which meetings to attend. To get to some of these meetings you will be walking, but once there at your destination there will be plenty to drink and every break they deliver the most delicious deserts and provide more to drink at stations that are set up in the wide hallways.

Afterward you will see the most wonderful gardens throughout the resort under "nine acres of atrium covered gardens and walkways" also being that the conference was in December all the gardens were decorated for Christmas with a variety of poinsettias, giant nut crackers, huge gold and silver ornaments hanging from the ceilings as well as hot air balloons. There are four gardens: Magnolia, Delta, Garden Conservatory, and the Cascades. Each one holds many exciting things to see including lots and lots of bushes, flowers, trees, waterfalls and secret pools that have fish. There is even a river where you can take a boot ride, Mississippi style, on the Delta river boat. Little surprises are hidden within the gardens as you walk along the paths, little elves, topiaries of various animals, a giant Christmas tree where many visitors will take their family picture to use as their Christmas card, and throughout are a wide variety of expensive and inexpensive food places.

For breakfast and lunch we stopped at the Water's Edge Market Place where they offered a buffet style meal that was really tasty and reasonable. For dinner one night it was the old hickory steakhouse, located in Delta Island it was very expensive but the steak was really ,really good. Another night we dined at the Jack Daniel Saloon located in the Garden Conservatory, the steak meal with the garlic mashed potatoes was excellent. In our travels around the gardens we located several places that let you take out coffee and deserts, Christies Cookies was a real delight after walking, they offered good coffee and the best selection of cookies I have ever seen. The Java Coast Coffee offered the most decadent chocolate cakes that were too good to pass up and more than satisfied my love for chocolate.

This place also offers "25 distinctive boutiques, fashion stories and retail shops" all throughout the place. The Book Nook located in the Garden Conservatory was a great place to see what the latest best seller is and also I got a game for the grand kids that came in the shape of a bananas and it is sort of like scrabble. Another shop, Bushels and Barrels was one shop where I wished I had $1000.00 to spend, on all kinds of country items. One of the most memorable shops was Cowboys & angels I never saw so much glitter on cowboy/girl items, it even boasted a long mirror that glittered with diamonds and had a price tag that is not worth repeating. The perfect 10 was a very nice shop that offered a wide variety for the grandkids, this is located on the Delta island Bridge.

The Magnolia entrance to the convention center is transformed into a winter wonderland with over "two million lights", every tree and shrub is literally covered in lights and at night it is really a sight to see. They even offer a horse drawn carriage ride at a really good price that takes you around the whole display and even around to the giant white nativity scene. In my opinion if one must attend a conference hopefully it will be here at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Conference Center, most of the entertainment is free, it's just a lot of walking so make sure you.