The Biltmore

We were lucky to spend the Easter holiday with family right here in North Carolina. Joe's parents drove down to spend almost a full week at our house. Actually this was the first time they've seen our house. Even though we've shown them lots of pictures and some videos, it's not the same until you see it in person. It's also so nice for Joe and I to entertain guests with so much more space. As opposed to our previous small apartments, we're not able to give guests their own bedroom and bathroom. Everyone wins!

We planned a few fun activities to do while Jed and Julie were in town. One being our trip to Asheville and The Biltmore. This has been in the back of our minds for a while, one of those "must do/see" while living so close.

We started our trip actually by eating in the Stable Cafe. It is literally what is sounds like... a restaurant in the old horse stables. The booths were neat, they were situated in between the original walls or stalls for the horses. Great food too, wish I would have taken some pictures in there.

As you can see nothing was really in bloom. That made me sad. Although I could just pictures how pretty this walled garden would look with all the tulips and roses bushes full of color. Just have to use your imagination!

This was the back of the house, well maybe more so on the side of the property. Who cares, this place was huge. We snapped a few pictures back here, but the wind didn't let my hair cooperate with me.

And directly behind us in the picture above was this... beautiful rolling hills with the blue ridge parkway in the background. I see where these mountains get their name!

This angle of the house makes it look small... just remember this house is 179,000 square feet inside and the estate covers 8,000 acres of land. Holy huge house!!!

Close up, I love the detail. I'm still in awe of the inside of the house. It was too bad they don't allow pictures inside at all because I would have loved to capture some of that detail. Life back in the early 1900's was so different, I'm intrigued by their formality. Of course the amount of money George Vanderbilt had was incredible also. George, his wife Edith and their daughter Cornelia lived fascinating lives.

Like I said, the wind was howling...

Inside the green house we did find a few very pretty flowers. I snapped a few close up shots. It was nice to be inside the heated building with no wind. Plus look at how pretty these colors are. Spring can't come fast enough!

We had some fun with the statues. Although we kept it completely PG... notice how I didn't tell Joe to stand next to the statue without clothing! He's such a good sport when I get on a picture taking roll.

To end our tour of the Biltmore we stopped into the winery and tasted some wine. Completely complimentary wine tasting. Although I was a bit disappointed... I think maybe 2 or 3 of their wines actually use grades from North Carolina. The rest are either shipped in or processed in California. In addition they didn't let us keep our wine glasses. Oh well, you can't win them all!

More to come tomorrow of the rest of our trip!!