Road Trip: South - inalnd trip
Day 6: Monday, May 25, 2015 - Asheville, NC
Weather: Mid 70s. Partly cloudy.
Steps: 14,966 (Steve), 13,685 (Linda)
Drove: 95 miles
Today's breakfast was back to the continental style.
Time to head out to the Biltmore Estate.
On the way we came across this unusual looking McDonald's:
We heard there was a grand piano inside...
Our tickets to get into the house were for 2:00. We were originally planning on arriving in the late morning but wound up shifting our travel to nights. So we had a lot of time to walk the grounds and visit the gardens. A much better plan.
If you have never been to the Biltmore Estate, I'll just say that it is... big. Though I guess big is
relative. If you think a 150,000 square foot home (no, that is not a typo. yes, I just wrote one-hundred
fifty thousand square feet.) is big, then yes, it is big. Huge. Enormous. The largest home in the
U.S. This is a view of the house from about 300' from a corner side with the fisheye lens on:
And this is one from about 800' straight out. One of those shots that the camera wasn't set right,
but Photoshop helped and you still get the idea:
We started our walk on the left side of the house. We found a patio area with an old massive vine arbor:
The views from the patio and the greens beyond the patio - inclusive of some of the 8,000 acres of the estate, were spectacular:
This statue is well over 100 years old and is still in pretty good condition and has such fine detail:
An arbor walkway (almost got it people-free) and a tree from the arbor looking out:
The Italian Garden and some close-ups:
The Conservatory is the focal point of the garden area.
Off the conservatory are three greenhouses (though one was marked hot house and one warm house). This was inside one of them:
But before you get to the conservatory, you have to pass by the flower gardens. Here are some views of
the flower gardens (we were fortunate enough to be there early and the crowds hadn't quite gathered yet):
Roses. Lots and lots of roses. Too bad this isn't on the smell-ernet because the fragrance from these was
captivating. And very potent.
Some of the other flowers (the non-rose variety), including orchids and roses (in a myriad of colors):
Inside one of the greenhouses, a harpist, Carroll Ownbey, played for forty minutes. I recorded two songs -
her first and this one, which happens to be Linda and my wedding song, Pachelbel's Canon in D (I missed
the first few seconds of it because I didn't know it was going to be that). It was a relaxing break:
We walked all the way to the Azalea Garden. Only to find out it was no longer in bloom. However, on that
walk we came across a walking tunnel and someone volunteered to take our picture:
Some intersting trees:
We purchased lunch outside and ate it outside. We shared a cob salad with chicken. We were considering
buying a Subway sandwich and bringing it with us and in hindsight, we should have. It was rather crowded (and
on the expensive side [as if going into the house wasn't expensive enough]):
If I ever see most of my house obscured by trees with only part of the roof showing,
I'm usually at the end of my driveway. Not a quarter mile away....
We honored the request for no photography or videography inside the house. It would have been nice to have some pictures of the rooms with the Downton Abby costumes (they were on display until this day) or any of the other rooms or the bowling alley or gymnasium or swimming pool or atrium (aka winter garden) or library or dinning room (more like dining hall). The three floor self-guided tour took about an hour and a half.
After the house tour, we made our way over to Antler Village. This is a collection of shops on the grounds in the format of a village like setting. It included a winery and we gladly partook in a wine tasting.
After we finished at the estate, it was time for dinner. We wanted to go to Little Piggies based on what was read on-line
about it. However, when we got there we discovered that since it was Memorial Day, the restaraunt was closed. We found our
way to a place called Moe's Barbeque. It turned
out to be very good (tied for first with Smokey's in Tifton on our list of favorites for this trip).
Linda went with the pulled pork with potato salad, marinated slaw and cornbread:
I went with the ribs wtih marinated slaw, baked beans and corn bread:
We heard the only other people - a couple - that were eating in the restaraunt tell the waitress that they were in
Asheville that morning and were headed toward Charlottesville after they ate. We couldn't let a comment like that
go without a follow-up. It turns out that they were at Biltmore that morning (we were there the day before) and
though they were headed to Charlottesville, were not going to Monticello. They also happen to be from Bucks County, PA.
We set the GPS, and tonight were venturing to Wytheville, VA (our third state in as many days, and fourth in five). We were back on i81, and also were on i64.