Day 1: New Year in Nashville

For the New Year holiday, we decided to head back to Nashville to spend it with John. Now that we've been there a few times (and John lives there), we're starting to get the feel of Nashville from the local perspective, which makes us appreciate it even more. Of course, because our previous trips there have been so short, we still have plenty of touristy things still to do.

We decided to stay at the Gaylord again. It was an easy choice, actually, since it wasn't as expensive as we thought it would be.

We stopped in Asheville along the way to finally see the Gingerbread Houses at the Grove Park Inn. It was almost the very last day. We usually get there earlier, but it just didn't work out. I was worried for a while that we might not make it at all. Some of them had already collapsed.

I was stunned at how many fewer entries this year. A good half as many as they usually have. I've toyed with the idea of entering myself a few times; this would have been a good year to do it. As usual, I saw lots of entries where I said, "I could do better then that." Then several where I said, "There's no way I could do that." Very impressive work. We were surprised though, that some of the more impressive ones we saw didn't even make it into the Top 10.

Got to Nashville at a reasonable hour and checked into Gaylord. Unfortunately, we were placed next to some very noisy neighbors, who were already getting a head start on celebrating. Luckily, though, the hotel was able to move us from Cascades to Magnolia. It was great finally getting to see more of the hotel in daylight, especially the Delta section, which is easily our favorite part (and the most Disney-like).

John joined us for dinner. Long waits at the two most popular, Jack Daniels and Findlay's Irish Pub. Ended up at STAX build your own burger (you don't actually build it; you give them a checklist and they build it for you). Burgers seem to be the theme this week: we have two others on the list, including a return trip to The Pharmacy, which we discovered at the end of our road trip this summer.

After dinner, we did the boat ride again, which was just as much fun. This was John's first trip to the Gaylord, and he also remarked at how much it was like being in Disney World. It's already become our go-to hotel in Nashville.