Gaylord National's Christmas on the Potomac

Wednesday November 25, 2009

Today’s blog post is dedicated to our trip to Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, MD. The purpose of the trip was to attend a press reception with a Tree Lighting Extravaganza and walk through a winter wonderland made from 2 million pounds of ice in their “ICE!” exhibit. The Press Reception was a great time with fantastic food and drinks, which lead into the Tree lighting extravaganza.  The Tree Lighting consisted of raising a 60-foot-tall glass tree with one of a kind holiday decorations. During the show there was a group of singers, dancers on stilts, amazing indoor snowfall, fireworks and 50-150-foot-long lights morphing into an array of colors up above our heads.

We were transported from the hotel to the “ICE!” exhibit, which was set up on a parking lot.  As you walked into the event it was surprisingly warm but we soon came to find out we were about to be walking into a 9-degree room.  We were handed parkas as we embarked on our journey.  Walking in and seeing life sized holiday scenes all sculptured out of ice almost looked like you were in a storybook.  There were various spots along the way to take pictures with the sculptures.  Our favorites were the penguins and the ice bridge, which you can find in our pictures posted on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Huntingdon-Valley-PA/Mid-Atlantic-Events-Magazine/164064373897. The exhibit  has guests winding through 11 rooms of different hand carved wintertime themes.  It also had 4 ice slides that were over 2 stories tall.

The hotel itself is a monstrosity.  Your first view of it will be a memorable one, as you drive in it looks like you are entering a small city, which the Gaylord happens to be.  Anything you could ask for is all located right inside the hotel and if you feel like venturing out, there are shops and restaurants outside as well.  The hotel is 300-acres and set right on the waterfront, 8 miles south of Washington D.C. and is the largest resort on the eastern seaboard.  If you are thinking of planning an event, meeting, or convention at Gaylord National, they have 2,000 guest rooms, 470,000 sq ft of convention, meeting, exhibit and pre-function space. Not to mention inside the resort it looks like a small town with various restaurants and shops to keep you busy for days. 

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