Mini Trip Report - Opryland Hotel - June 2004 TSA Nationals! About This Page:

[CRCrazy]

Hi Everybody!

Everyone told me that staying at the Opryland Hotel was the next best thing to being at Disney - and they were right! There were so many things on this trip that just felt like they had been copied from Walt Disney World! I wanted to be able to share some of the pictures and things that we did - I'm really proud of all our kids - it was an incredible trip, and they did a great job!

Thanks for reading - here goes!

[CRCrazy]

2004 National TSA Conference

Gaylord Opryland Hotel

Nashville, Tennessee

June 20-24, 2004

TSA: Visualizing the next 25 Years of Excellence



Attendees – 4000+ TSA Members and guests – TSA stands for Technology Students Association, a group of middle and high schooler’s who promote Technology in Education. They compete in a variety of different events, ranging from balsa wood bridges and CO2 cars, to Public Speaking and Parliamentary Procedure. They also perform many community service projects throughout the year.



Okay – that is the global group of attendees – but who did I travel with?? The group from the White Mountains Regional School District in Whitefield, NH! We had 3 schools in our district represented – Whitefield Elementary, WMRHS, and the Lancaster School.



Here’s the list of players!



Amanda – DD1 – age 15, a freshman at WMRHS, she is the NH State TSA president this year, as well as earning the right to compete by winning 1st place in both Prepared Presentation (prepared speech with audio visuals), and Extemporaneous Presentation (making up a speech on the spot about a given topic, and presenting it) in the State Competition. This was Amanda’s 3rd National Conference, and her first as State President, she was State Reporter last year.



Jennie – DD 2 – age 13 ¾, an 8th grader at Whitefield School. She is NOT a technology eager student, but after realizing that Amanda would be gone the week of her birthday every year till she graduates, decided that there ARE fun competitions to try! (Of course, the fact that she got to spend last year’s 13th birthday at the Orlando Nationals – at WDW! – had nothing to do with it!). Jennie did earn her trip to Nationals, by placing first in the Communication Challenge (designing logos, stationary, and packaging on the computer) and placing second in the Structural Challenge with her partner (building a balsa wood tower) at the state level. This is her 2nd National Conference.



John – DH – age not required. John is a MAJOR technology buff, and teaches rocketry to the 8th graders every fall as a guest teacher. He chaperones the boys at the state conference every year (I can’t go-I have to substitute for the tech ed. Teacher!), and this is his 2nd National Conference.



Me – I love my girls, and I love to travel – there is no way they will go to all these fun places without me! This is my 3rd National Conference, and I have the schedule and the chaperoning duties down pat! The advisor is involved with TSA at the National Corporate, and State level, and so he needs to spend a good part of every day in lengthy meetings – he knows he can count on me to keep tabs on the kids, and make sure they are signed up and in attendance to whatever they need to do!



Of course, we can't forget DD3, Sarah, who did NOT come on this trip! Sarah is 7, and can't wait to be able to do TSA, but there are way to many meetings and competitions, and not enough DOING for her right now! She got to stay with my Mom, who is visiting in NH for the summer. They stayed at my sister's lake camp, along with her 2 cousins, who are 8 and 10, definitely little girl heaven! Sarah spends way too much time with the Bigs, she loves her vacation with the Littles! I missed her like crazy though!





Our Middle School has a very active TSA chapter, and sends students to the National Conference every year, and this was no exception. This year, we sent 8 kids, 3 boys and 5 girls, to Tennessee. This was an exceptionally well supported group, and we had a total of 8 chaperones including the advisor! Not a bad ratio, or one would think so, but we’ve learned the hard way that sometimes the chaperones are harder to supervise than the kids!!



Our High School is much less active, to Amanda’s dismay. Most of the kids either complete their competitions at home, or back in the Middle School Tech Ed room! Their advisor is a really nice guy, but this was his last year teaching, as he officially retired the day before we left! He decided to come to Nationals to support the kids this one last time! We had 2 girls, and 4 boys in attendance from the high school, with no other “official” chaperones than the advisor, since we had signed up to be part of Mr. C.’s Middle School group. Of course, we actually chaperoned both groups, although the high schools needed much less guidance, and really were a piece of cake!



There was also a lone contestant from the other district midddle school, and he came with his dad and stepmom, who served as his advisors. Since they registered much later than we did, they were unable to get rooms in the conference hotel – and stayed at the Fairfield Inn down the street. They saved a lot of money this way, but it’s like staying off-site at Disney – the experience loses something in the transition!





Okay –



Pretrip Planning – There was none! Mr. C sent a notice home to all the state winners, letting them know the dates of the conference, as well as estimated costs. There is no funding for this trip, as the school board funds the travel to the state conference only. The middle school kids did a great job of fundraising – so their trip ended up being mostly paid for, while the high school did NONE, so we had to pay the whole thing for Amanda! Of course, the chaperones had to fund all of their trips as well! I am a Southwest Airlines Rapid Reward Member, and so, I purchased all of our family’s tickets on my own, making sure that I flew at the same time as the group. This worked great, and I was able to use the online check in, which was a breeze, and got us “A” boarding passes!



We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel – and I had fun researching their website, but even the awesome pictures on the site couldn’t prepare me for the reality of this hotel! It is a huge, sprawling complex – with 3 separate “canopies” on site, as well as a huge convention center. Each “canopy” has about 6 floors with hundreds of guest rooms, restaurants, and shops as well as a huge atrium with acres of indoor gardens! The Cascade canopy appears to be the oldest, as well as the main canopy for the hotel. This is where all the check in desks and guest services areas are located. The atrium for the Cascades has several waterfalls, and absolutely gorgeous gardens. Our rooms were located in this area of the hotel, and I felt like I was walking on the Paths at the Polynesian resort as I walked to our room, except that the roof is all glassed in – you are never exposed to the elements!







The Magnolia canopy was the most elegant, IMHO, and it had some absolutely gorgeous, multi level gardens in the area called the Conservatory. This area of the hotel also had most of the sit-down restaurants for the hotel, although not all – I think there were 6 different full – service restaurants in this section of the hotel, as well as many coffee shops, sweet shops, etc!



The Delta canopy is the main shopping area for the hotel – think Downtown Disney! Of course, on the perimeter of the atrium area, are hundreds more guest rooms in this area! This atrium has over 9 acres of gardens, including a 20 minute Delta Flatboat guided ride throughout the gardens, kind of like “Living with the Land”. Of course, the ride is NOT included in the room rate – it costs $8 per guest! Still – very cool! There is also a food court area here, with all the usual mall type food stuff, Pizza Hut, Chik Fil A, a deli, a BBQ joint, Freshen’s yogurt, etc. Upstairs from the food court are all kinds of cool shops, including a Grand Ole Opry shop, clothing stores, Christmas shops, Jack Daniels shops, etc. as well as Ben & Jerrys, Cinnabons, and all kinds of treats! You literally could spend your entire vacation here, and never go outside!



On the opposite end from the Cascades (of course), was the Convention Center – the biggest one I’ve been in yet! There are 4 separate ballroom areas, with huge auditorium spaces. Our convention of 4000 was only using one of the ballroom areas, and there were 2 other large conventions going on while we were there, as well as a huge Norman Rockwell exposition in this area. It took us at least 20 minutes to walk from our rooms to the Convention Center at the beginning of the week, although by the end – we’d found a few short cuts to cut it down to 10 minutes at a brisk pace!



Well – I think that gives you a good overview of the hotel, and it’s facilities – On with the report!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Marie What an awesome hotel, love the pictures of the cascades Can't wait for more

[loobyoxlip]

How cool!! Y'know every time I read TSA in your report, I can't help but think of the TSA here at the aiport

Beautiful hotel!! BTW, who is that lady in the picture?!?

[CRCrazy]

I hear ya - the kids LOVE to go to the airport wearing their TSA shirts! The Polos especially really look official - and last year when we went to Orlando, most of the kids' suitcases were inspected, and had the TSA tape all over them! They draped that stuff all over their projects!

By the way, that's my friend Gretchen. She and her husband Doug went as chaperones for Gretchen's daughter Ayla. She and Jennie are great buddies!

[luvnwdwgal]

Great start Marie!! Looking forward to more!!