Opryland

The Gaylord Opryland in Nashville is the largest hotel in the US. It features huge atriums with lush tropical gardens that are connected by rivers. One of the atriums has a New Orleans style street with restaurants and shops.

The hotel is next to the Grand Ole Opry, the stage that made Nashville the country music capital of the world. Live shows from the Opryland are blasted daily across the country on 24 hour TV stations like Great American Country and Country Music Television, radio station WSM, and YouTube.

Twelve

Greg turned twelve today. Hooray! Happy birthday to Greg. He got a huge Lego Star Wars ship, a telescope, a microscope, and some birthday money.

From the money, he bought a samurai sword at Third Monday Trade Days, Texas' oldest and largest flea market. It is located just five minutes from our house, but somehow we had never been there.

Ina found Indonesian pottery at a trader that buys stuff from Indonesia to sell wholesale to furniture stores.

Ike

After having made landfall in Galveston and having ravaged Houston, Hurricane Ike passed by east of us this afternoon. Ike brought lots of rain, but not too much wind. The cat 2 hurricane had already been downgraded to a tropical storm, but with a diameter of several hundred miles, it was hard to avoid the impact of Ike.

All soccer games were cancelled, and we spent most of the day inside. According to the forecasts, the rain will continue through tomorrow.