Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Carolinas Trip, part 2

Thursday, the wife and I went out for breakfast at McDonald's (of all places) but they had fried chicken biscuits (!). Then we stopped to pick up film for the camera.

Me brother wanted to go to The Biltmore Estate up in Asheville, NC on Wednesday, but with the timing of when we were coming down, it was decided to move that to the next day. The plan was to leave by 9:00. Well, with a 3 year old and a 1 1/2 year old, the best laid plans of parents do often go awry. I think we finally got going by 10:30-not too shabby.

The Biltmore (www.biltmore.com) is a ginormous piece of property. Think of the biggest house you've ever seen, then multiply it by 10. Miles and miles of land. Not only does the estate house the largest home in America, there's also a vineyard, a restaurant, a hotel, a conservatory, lots of gardens, horse trails and walking trails. For sheer magnitude and variety of flora, the closest thing I can compare it to (that I've seen) is Longwood Gardens in PA (www.longwoodgardens.org) Longwood Gardens has a much bigger conservatory.

Getting to the Biltmore was no mean feat as the written directions me bro had did not comport with the map. Hrmmm.... So that took a while. Then to find the parking lot takes at least 20 minutes. It's not labeled very clearly which way you have to go so we had a choice of A or B. Me bro chose B. It wasn't till we got 15 minutes into the park and found that we couldn't go any farther and had to turn around that we realized, we should have taken A. Fun times :)

For the privelege of entering the estate and being able to tour the house and gardens, it's a mere $45.00. If you want a self-guided audio tour, that's $51.00 And of course you can purchase a season pass for little less than a tank of gas (i.e. an arm and two legs). The wife and I have a 3 story multi family home. About 2100 square feet. It would fit inside the banquet hall of the Biltmore, or The Tapestry Room, or the library (which has 10,000 volumes-another 13,000 volumes are distributed throughout the mansion). The servants lived better than we do. The "small pantry" holds enough to feed an army. There's a bowling alley (how cool is that?) and an indoor swimming pool. There are four floors of rooms. Who needs a gym membership? You can get all your exercise going from room to room and up and down stairs. Out of necessity, there were upstairs and downstairs servants. One of the coolest features is that there are stairs outside the glass doors that you can walk out onto and be several stories high and get a tremendous view. Unfortunately, they didn't let us go out the doors onto the stairs.

We paid a visit to the gift shop. Since we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the mansion (castle) we got a book of postcards that showed the interior. The wife sampled some wine and bought a bottle of the house Chardonnay. She prefers sweet to dry.

And we visited the tulip gardens. Every variety and color of tulip you could imagine was represented. My niece liked the yellow ones very much and would put her nose right down into them and caress the sides of the flower like she was wafting the scent. Very cute.

So, if y'all are ever down in Asheville, NC make a visit to the Biltmore. The gardens alone are worth the trip. And that's free (aside from parking) :) But the mansion itself is something my limited vocabulary cannot do justice in describing. It must be seen.

On the way back home, we stopped at Fatz Cafe. (is that a great name for a restaurant or what?) So we got cheese grits. That's some good stuff right there, I tell you what. There's just some foods south of the Mason Dixon that the North can't get right. Grits is one. Cornbread is another. Being a Yankee, I'm used to ordering iced-tea and have it be sweetened. You have to specify that you want unsweetened iced tea. But way down south in Dixie, things are reversed. Iced tea is naturally unsweetened. You have to say you want Sweet Tea. So we did. And the wife got a half-rack of ribs and I got chicken and pasta. Good down home southern cooking. Nutirional information? Please. If it tastes good, that's all the nutritional information you need right there. Can you pronounce the ingredients? Good enough.

So, all in all, a grand day out.


To be continued...

5 comments:

Anna said...

Mmm, yes! Gotta love the south 8)

Also, I'll make sure to check out Biltmore if I ever happen to be around;) Lol.

leo509 said...

Yeah, good times. I don't think I'd want to live down there though. Too much humidity. And I like the variety of seasons here. As much as I like to complain about the winter and the cold and so on, it makes me appreciate spring and summer that much more.

If you get the chance, definitely check out the Biltmore. You won't be disappointed. :)

leo509 said...

ha and ha! Well said, Mr. Nathan. :)

Anna said...

Gah, I hate the humidity<_< But when you grow up in the south, you have to love it. And if you don't, your extended family will hunt you down and kill you. :P

leo509 said...

:o

Glad I wasn't brought up in the south. :)