The Biltmore

Whenever you tell anyone that you are visiting Asheville, North Carolina, the first reply is almost always, "You are going to see The Biltmore, right?"  So, of course, we went to the Biltmore.  George Vanderbilt, grandson of famous industrialist and philanthropist Cornelius Vanderbilt, first came to the Asheville area in 1888.  He envisioned his "country home" and constructions soon commenced.

Two Hundred and Fifty rooms, built over the next  6 years made a tremendous impact on this area, and on future generations.  This is the breathtaking view you receive when you walk over the hill from parking.

According the Biltmore's website, the home officially opened on Christmas eve of 1895 to family and friends.  His home, spread over 4 acres of floor space, included 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces.  

You can't help but try to imagine living during the Gilded Era of the late 1800s and early 1900s, being driven down the long path in a horse drawn carriage, dressed extravagantly for the party of the year.  We purchased the audio tour, which allowed us to learn many fun facts about the rooms we toured.  The kid's tour was from the perspective of their dog. The first stop is this beautiful atrium.

A variety of period costumes were on display during our visit.  Most of these were from movies set in a similar time period as the Biltmore was active and lively.  I, for one, really enjoyed this special touch.

This is their dining hall.  

Imagine gentlemen arriving for a full night of food and festivities in attire like this.

This was one of my favorite rooms.  The walls are covered in leather!  And, if you look closely, you can see the "secret" door.  Can you find it?

This was one of my very favorite gowns on display.  I can't remember what movie it was from.

They had a large display of prints by Albrech Durer...one of the great artists we study in CC.  

This was another piece of artwork by Durer.  It hangs above a fire mantle that he carved.  

Here is the fireplace mantle.  In the middle you can see the initials A.D.

The view from the Portico.  I believe that Vanderbilt actually deforested this area, and then had a landscape architect redesign and plant this view.  

The next several pictures are in the library.  This is the hand painted ceiling.

There are "hidden" doors on either side of the fireplace, on the second floor.

Every homeschool mom's dream.....a room filled from floor to ceiling with books.  Vanderbilt was an avid reader, and some of his favorite books were on display around the home.

This is one tapestry in a room full of tapestries.

I love this dress too :)

I loved this gown because it reminds me of an Avon figure my grandma had.  I attempted to draw the figure in high school for a costume design project I was working on.

This was Mrs. Edith Vanderbilt's bedroom.  The walls were covered in gold.  Real gold.

This one is for the kids....who knows who this is?

I can't remember the story behind this bed curtain...but it was good...

This was their bowling alley :)

This kitchen was the heart of the home.  Imagine the meals and party food made here.  It's not as big as you would expect

You can imagine the men enjoying an after dinner cigar here.

After the tour, we were all really hungry.  I packed a lunch, but didn't want to drag it somewhere pretty to eat and then have to carry the cooler around.  So...the kids ate it while sitting in the trunck, haha

The afternoon was spent touring the gardens and outdoor areas of this estate.  Of course, Jeremy had a football.  What else do you expect the boys to do on this large, green lawn?

Just some close up shots of the home.  

This is the side view, as if looking from the gardens.  

Besides the fact that the back of my ankles were bleeding from my shoes, I really enjoyed the afternoon in the gardens.  

I thought this was interesting, and I'm guessing quite purposeful to have one orange marigold in a sea of yellow.  Marigold's always make me think of my Great- Grandma Blanche's farm house in Ohio.

This is about a quarter of the rose garden.  It was in full bloom about 3 weeks before we came, which means most of the flowers were still gorgeous!

So sweet 

This has become our persona Lilla Rose flower.

I love this one too!

They had several large green houses.  This area had some unique orchids.

Spider orchid

This is the front view of the greenhouse. Cool building.

Jeremy with his two girls.

We couldn't help but feel romantic here

Hannah was always looking for photo ops.

We took a long walk around the garden paths, looking for ponds.  Finally found one.  

This little guy was a favorite though.  

This is the view when standing in front of the Biltmore, looking toward the bridge and parking area.  

Some of the trees on the property were massive!  The kids and I were able to "hug" this one.  

Before leaving, we decided to check out the winery.  

Jeremy and I got to taste test several different types of wine.  This was a neat experience. We are not big wine drinkers, however some of Jeremy's clients have inspired us to try out different varieties on occasion.  Tasting 6 or 7 different varieties here and being able to compare them helped us both know what we like, and what we don't like.  The gave the kids grape juice, which they thought was really cool.

So, we visited The Biltmore, as everyone told us to.  Will we go back?  Probably not.  This is one of those "been there, done that" places for us.  That's not to say that we didn't have a great time, because we did.  It was a beautiful, relaxing day (besides the bleeding ankles of course :)  A perfect end to our Asheville vacation.

Grandfather Mountain

One of the places everyone told us to visit was Grandfather Mountain, home to the mile high suspension bridge.  We decided to "swing by" on our way home from church on Sunday.  We found a Harvest Bible Chapel in Hickory, NC....a little more than an hour from Asheville.  

What we didn't realize was that storms were rolling in that day, and the drive would become one we would not soon forget.  

Google maps took us on two lane backroads to the Blueridge Parkway.  These backroads would have been beautiful on a clear day.  However, the low clouds and thick fog made it quite trecherous.  There were times, when we would roll around a curve, and it would white out in front of us.  Thankkfully, the maps on my phone helped us know how sharp a curve was.  It was extremely intense!

All of a sudden, my map said "Arrived", however we were still in the middle of the Parkway.  Apparently, it took us to "Grandfather Mountain", but not the park :/  We had driven about 10 miles too far...which meant we had to go back.  Ugh.

Finally making our way to the bottom of the check in center, we decided that since we had come this far, we would head up the mountain. There is a fee to enter (a quite high fee if you ask me), and switchback roads to the top.  This made me nervous, however it was much easier than the other roads we had traveled.  

We made it to the top though.  Not really the view we originally hoping for....but this was it.  The mile high suspension bridge.

So, the bridge is really over an 80-something feet gorge...but it is one mile above sea level.  It was rebuilt in the late 1990s.  

I believe it is always windy as you walk across the bridge, however it had very high winds as the storm was moving in.  

'

This was our view, right smack in the middle of the gorge.  I bet it's beautiful on a clear day.

We made it across to the other side.  

Which means...we had to walk across again.  

We are all about the experiences.  Check those boxes people! 

Nicole hung with me as I lingered behind to take pictures.

We then went down the mountain a bit and explored their little educational center.  Their displays were quite neat. "Minerals of North Carolina"

This is a sliver of a tree and they pinpointed major events that took place in the lifeline of that tree.  Everything from the Revolutionary war to the invention of the light bulb.

Grandfather Mountain also has a display of animals.  At this point, it was drizzly and very cold.  The workers told us not to go look because none of the animals would be out.  

We went anyway.

They were wrong.

Jeremy waited all trip to see a black bear...here it was :)

They are looking at the otter, which was taking shelter in its log.

At this point, they had closed up Grandfather Mountain due to high winds and bad weather.  But, we did it!

These photos are from our morning at Harvest Bible Chapel in Hickory, NC.  

It was neat to attend a Harvest that has been around for a while.  The message was fantastic, and so were the baptism testimonies that day as well.  

Father's Day

This year for Father's Day, Jeremy asked us to updated his picture frame in his office.  I'm not sure what the problem was...his pictures were only like 5 years old :) haha.

So, the kids and I did a photo shoot in front of a big banyan tree.

I think they came out pretty well!  I'm just going to let these be random.

I loved this one, but she didn't like that the wind was blowing her hair.

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THIS....This is a real life photo of my little man.  Such a cutie!

The heart was for her daddy

The kids made up the heart idea themselves.