Asheville Trip - Day Four

Our last day in Asheville! It took us awhile to pack up and clean in the morning. (The one pitfall of staying at an AirBnB instead of at a hotel.) My original plan had been to hit the road and stop at Tallulah Falls but since it was very cold, we decided to check out a few other things in Asheville before heading home. 

Our first stop was an antique car museum at the Grovewood Gallery. The space itself is historic and was once part of Biltmore Industries' massive textile production center.

The girls were even allowed to sit in this old fire truck.

The majority of the cars they had on display were Cadillacs (as it used to be a Cadillac dealership) but they did have this Ford Edsel.

But my favorite was this blue 1957 Cadillac. It's a bit of shame they don't make such fun looking cars today. We also visited the Homespun Museum next door which talked more about Biltmore Industries and the textiles they used to produce there. There was also an artist's gallery with an array of beautifully crafted glass, ceramic, wood, furniture, stained glass, toys, etc. They had a beautiful rocking chair that both David and I loved but it was $4,000 so we had to pass. I did buy a honey pot stirrer for $6 though.

From there, we walked across the street to visit the historic Grove Park Inn, one of Asheville's premiere hotels and spas. It's an incredibly unique and beautiful hotel with absolutely gorgeous views of Asheville.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was a frequent visitor and he often came here to write while Zelda was in and out of hospitals. I would love to come back and stay here one day.

The Grove Park Inn also hosts the annual Gingerbread House Competition. We wandered through the hallways and floors looking at the entrants in the competition--youth, teen, and adult.

This amazing creation was the grand prize winner. It was a truly incredible work of art.

These were some of my other favorites. This was the teen first place winner. 

The most incredible thing was just how intricate and delicate most of the work was.

After that was all done, we ate a quick lunch and made one final stop--Ultimate Ice Cream shop. Even though it was freezing out, we wanted one last stop at an Asheville original. The ice cream was quite delicious. After that, we got some gas and hit the road to head back to Georgia.

We went a different route so this time we didn't have to travel on a lot of mountainous backroads. It went much quicker until we hit traffic on the I-85 as we neared Atlanta (because of course). But it still only took us about 4 hours to make it home and the kids were champs. They all took naps and needed no bathroom breaks so we were able to do the trip without any stops which is its own kind of miracle.

We were happy to be back and the cats sure missed us, but I'm glad we got to visit Asheville and especially to see the Biltmore at Christmastime.

Asheville Trip - Day Three

We started out our third day in Asheville by visiting the downtown area. Asheville is--for lack of a better term--a total hipster town. It's an artist and craftsmen haven and there's a big focus on natural, local, and organic products, hand-made and artisanal crafts, and an awful lot of drinking out of mason jars. I was very intrigued by the variety of artist galleries and studios that are open to the public and I was most excited to visit Lexington Glassworks, an open glass blowing studio where they produce their amazing products in front of an audience. 

We got there just in time to see them begin their newest piece-- a blue vase. The two artists worked seamlessly in a perfect choreographed dance to produce several glass products and all the while, they talked us through the process and why they were doing certain things. The kids were totally restless but David and I were fascinated. 

Afterwards, they walked around and answered questions and we browsed their shop. Of course, being that all their wares are made of glass we were hesitant to remain long with three kids in tow. We purchased a beautiful hand-blown glass ornament (purple, of course) and then walked back through the city to the Over Easy Cafe. 

We had put our names down for a table before we visited the glassworks and by the time we were done there, our table was almost ready. Good thing too because it was very cold and windy that day. The cafe was very small--only 10-12 tables--but the food was delicious. I ordered the Eggs Benedict because that's totally become my thing lately even though I normally hate runny eggs yolks and David got their lavender french toast which he immensely enjoyed. The kids plowed through some pancakes and yogurt and granola and it was all-in-all a very delightful meal. 

After our meal, we headed back to the Biltmore Estate. Our tickets were good for two days so I wanted to return and visit the rest of the estate. In addition to the house, the grounds have two hotels, a winery, a barn and farmyard, and the Antler Hill Village full of more shops, exhibits, and restaurants. 

The kids enjoyed seeing the animals but our favorite was probably the farmyard.

They had lots of hands-on activities for the kids and several demonstrations including a broom making and wool spinning. It was quite cold and windy so we spent some time indoors playing with some of the toys they had inside the stables.

When we ventured out, we played with a bean bag toss and the game of graces. Basically, you have a hoop and two sticks and you throw the hoop to another person who has to try to catch them with their sticks. It was surprisingly fun and we had a great time playing together as a family.

When we left there, we wandered through the village. They have a statue of young Cornelia Vanderbilt and her dog Cedric. When I asked them later what they liked best about our Asheville trip Adelaide said she liked the dog statue best. So there you go.

They turned their former impressive dairy operation into a winery and we wandered through their old buildings and some awesome tunnels but didn't partake in any of the wine tasting.

We then went to the playground to let the kids run around a bit. But it was pretty cold so we didn't stay long.

 We got off the estate much quicker this time and went home for dinner, baths, and bedtime. David and I then stayed up to build a puzzle together. We've been in a puzzle building mood. We've built several puzzles lately.

Asheville Trip - Day Two: Biltmore, The Gardens

After the house tour, we grabbed a small bite to eat at their cafe (pretty decent food) and did a bit of shopping and then we went to explore the various formal gardens and the open pathways and trails. It was a beautiful day and the outdoors were simply gorgeous. 

 And here is an extraordinarily rare photo of the entire photo thanks to the very kind grandma who offered to take our photo.

I won't talk too much about the outdoor shots. I mostly took photos of the landscape and our family.

It was nearly impossible to get any good photos of Adelaide because she kept flapping her arms and pretending to be a bird. Or something.

Since it's winter, there weren't many flowers except for what was in the conservatory.

 Adelaide is about to fly away.

Oh look! I exist. Zara took this photo.

We then walked out to the bass pond and boat house and around the lake to a man-made waterfall.

Benjamin was just excited that we actually let him out of his carrier and/or stroller to walk around on his own. (I had him on my back in the carrier during our house tour so Adelaide could ride in the stroller. I had hoped he'd sleep through most of it, but he only napped for about 30 minutes of it.)

The view on the way back. We took the long way back and we were all tired after our walk.

We headed back to our car and tried to go home. But because of the high number of guests, they had traffic only going one way so we had to drive through almost the whole estate to get back to the exit so it took us FOREVER to just leave the estate. We went back to our AirBnB, ate dinner, and put the kids to bed. All in all, a pretty great day.

Asheville Trip - Day Two: Bitlmore, the House

Be warned: this post contains a lot of photos of Biltmore. A lot. So many that I'm going to break up our visit to Biltmore into three separate posts. This post will focus on the house itself with a few exterior shots of the house.

We had reservations to tour the house at 11:45am on Wednesday. Christmas is Biltmore's busiest season because they deck out the whole house for the holidays and reservations were definitely necessary. We had also wanted to do the Christmas lights at Biltmore (where they light up the whole house with candles and light the fireplaces) but that tour cost extra and the earliest tour they had was at 9PM so we had to pass.

Still, I don't think we missed too much. They still had all the Christmas trees inside the house on and we got to take our time through the house. And though our adult tickets were pricey (I got them discounted at Costco), the kids were all free. We did pay a little extra for the audio tour but it was worth it. (And they gave us a kid's audio tour for Zara for free because the guest services agent had an extra ticket which was very sweet.)

This little girl face cracks me up. She's got such a funny personality, even if she's obstinate and cranky most of the time these days.

We got to the estate early so we actually got a decent parking spot and then explored the grounds and gift shops a bit before heading to the house for our tour. In the 1880s, George Washington Vanderbilt, the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad and transportation king, made frequent visits to the Appalachians and decided to build a summer home near Asheville.

It was modeled after French chateaus and was designed by the famous architect Richard Morris Hunt. The grounds and gardens were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (who famously designed Central Park). Biltmore has a total of 250 rooms including 33 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens and the all the latest technologies like elevators, forced-air heating, fire alarms, electricity, and an intercom system. It was opened to guests on Christmas Eve 1895. George married his wife Edith in 1898 and their only child, a daughter named Cornelia, was born there in 1900. She and her husband would later open Biltmore to the public in 1930 during the Great Depression to drum up tourism in the Asheville area. It's still privately owned by the family, but has operated as a house museum ever since.

After entering the entrance hall, the first thing you see if the winter garden, which has this amazing glass roof.  It was one of my favorite things in the whole house.

Next was the equally impressive banquet hall with a seven story high ceiling, Flemish tapestries from the 1500s, and a pipe organ. The table could seat up to 38.

We got a second view of the banquet hall near the end of our tour from the servant's wing. The Christmas tree they had in this room was gigantic, almost as tall as the ceiling itself. It had to be secured by a rope from the organ loft.

There were Christmas trees in all the rooms, sometimes multiple.  Most of them had antique toys around them as well. This one was in the breakfast room.

This is the salon, although it was never finished in George's lifetime.

David was duly impressed by this extravagant lock box.

After passing through the music room, where Mrs. Vanderbilt once stored priceless art pieces from the National Gallery during World War II, we entered the loggia where we were treated to stunning views of the grounds and mountains.

Luckily, our first day at Biltmore was beautiful, warm and clear. The next two days would turn much colder and windier.

Next up was my second favorite room in the house--the library. George had a great passion for books and his library contains just a portion of his 22,000 volume collection.

The ceiling was painted by Italian artist Giovanii Pellegrini in the 1720s and is entitled The Chariot of Aurora. It was originally in the Pisani Palace in Venice.

The next room was the tapestry gallery with three amazing 16th century tapestries representing charity, faith, and prudence. It also includes portraits of family members from the likes of John Singer Sargent and James McNeil Whistler.

The family used the room, which is long and narrow, as a place to enjoy refreshments and listen to music.

This absolutely massive iron lighting fixture extends up all four stories.

There's some crazy people in that mirror right there.

We next went up to the second floor which included the family's private bedrooms and sitting areas.

This is the Oak Sitting Room and it contained possibly my favorite decorative art piece--that blue and white lamp on the desk. There were a lot of far more stunning and impressive art pieces, but I just loved that blue lamp.

The third floor had a variety of guest rooms of varying sizes, decor, and configurations. This was the damask room on account of its damask wallpaper and furnishings.

This was from the Louis XV room which was richly decorated in this heavy burgundy velvet wallpaper and drapery. The windows in this room were particularly unique but I unfortunately didn't get a great shot of it. This room is important because it is where Edith Vanderbilt gave birth to her daughter Cornelia and where Cornelia in turn gave birth to her two sons.

This room was perhaps the most unexpected. They call it the Halloween Room though it has no association with Halloween. (I think it's on account of the black cats and moon.) It's in the basement (and now has an exhibit on the construction of the house) but it was painted by Cornelia and her friends during a party for New Year's Eve in 1925.

The also had their own two lane bowling alley.

And highly unusual for the time--an indoor swimming pool. There were also several dressing rooms lining the hallway into the swimming pool and gymnasium. They said that the last time they filled the pool, they all went to bed and woke up in the morning and all the water was gone because there's a leak somewhere. So they haven't filled it up again. The electric lights at the bottom of the pool are original.

Most of the servant's quarters are located on the fourth floor but there were a few quarters on the bottom floor.

The main kitchen. (There were three kitchens.) The copper pots are all original. There were also several pantries and storage areas, a laundry, and a walk-in refrigerator.

 The last part of the tour covered the bachelor's wing which included the billiard room, smoking room, and gun room.

After George Vanderbilt's untimely death in 1914 (due to complications following an appendectomy), his widow and daughter sold some of the land and moved into this wing of the house. 

After the house tour, we wandered through their gardens, but I'm going to do that as a separate post since this one has been so long so far.