Rob really wanted to go to Asheville, North Carolina to see the
Biltmore house, which, by the way we had never heard of until getting to
Tennessee. So, we left Gatlinburg and headed to North Carolina.
As
we crossed into North Carolina the car was filled with us all yelling
"WE MADE IT ACROSS THE COUNTRY!!!!" because we did. We started out on
this adventure in California and finally made it to an Eastern coastal
state. We may not have actually seen the Atlantic Ocean but we had made it from one state on one coast to another state on the opposite coast, it's a big deal!
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| that sign says "Welcome to North Carolina" |
The Biltmore house
is AMAZING! I've never seen anything like it in my life. The house was built by George Vanderbilt. The home has 250 rooms and is on 8,000 acres (originally the family owned something like 100,000 acres. CRAZY)! The home was "opened" to friends and family in 1895. You can read more about the Biltmore Mansion
here. No one is allowed to take photos inside the mansion so my pictures are all of the outside.
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| Driving up to the mansion |
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| Fountain (without running water) |
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| Gargoyle on the mansion |
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| another figure on the mansion |
We really
enjoyed the home tour and visualizing how it must have been to live in that
massive house during that time period. We didn't arrive at the Biltmore
until near closing time so we didn't have time to explore the grounds as
much as we would have liked.
We spent the night driving back to Nashville. It was a long drive back but no one complained, too much.
I've
learned from this trip that we are definitely a driving family. We love
our road trips. After we returned we looked up how far other places we
want to visit are from here and nothing is really more than 10 hours or
so. Which, may seem like a long drive to some but doesn't seem too bad
to us. When we were home in California we made 14 hour (more like 16 to
18 hour) trips to Portland, Oregon several times so we aren't strangers
to long car rides.
We are excited for many more road trips!
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I grew up in VA and went to grad school in Greensboro, NC, only a few hours from Asheville and the Biltmore. Sadly, I was alway too cheap to go--dang, it's expensive. But it's one of those things I regret. Thanks for all the photos! (Found you via Weekend Meet n Greet.)
ReplyDeleteOh, holy cow is it expensive! The only reason we ended up going in is because I misunderstood my husband. He said, "it's $45 for us and the kids are free" so I said, "that's not too bad." He looked at me weird but I didn't think anything of it. I was chasing around the kids while he got the tickets. As we were walking to the car to drive in he said that he couldn't believe we spent $90 to see a house. I thought he meant it was $45 total otherwise I probably would have said no to going in!!
DeleteBut, I am glad we went, we will probably never go again because it is so expensive.
Love it!! Now I can save $90 and the price of gas or plane tickets to visit. I can just look at your pics over and over;)
ReplyDeleteVicky
www.thepursuitofnormal.blogspot.com
The inside is worth seeing. No pictures are allowed inside, I thought about sneaking a few but I figured if it got us kicked out my kids and husband would be pretty mad at me.
DeleteThere are a few things to do besides the mansion. You can buy a $50 plastic gargoyle in the gift shop or pay $10 for a candy bar in the candy shop. And, you are forced to take your picture in one part of the house, which you can buy for the cheap price of $25. There's also a restaurant and hotel on the grounds, which I'm sure are super expensive.
In the spring the gardens will look much better than the brown that is there now. I think I read there is a farm and horseback riding somewhere too, we didn't see it and I'm sure it would cost more than I would like to pay.
I love visiting historical places! It looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteI'm a new follower from the blog hop :)
Xo,
Eeka
http://ericaliveloverandom.blogspot.com/
It was pretty interesting. It's amazing how advanced the home was, as far as electricity, and whatnot for the time. It had an indoor pool with pool lights at at time when most houses didn't even have electricity yet. I guess it just shows you what money can do for you.
DeleteI'm heading over to your blog now!
Thanks for stopping by. You're blog had me laughing, I love funny blogs! I wish I was funnier, especially in writing. I think I'm hilarious in real life but no one else does :)
ReplyDeleteThese are Beautiful Pics.... Makes me want to go see this very soon!
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely something to see, even if it is pricy!
DeleteThe Biltmore is huge. I remember as a child looking at the big staircase inside and imagined living there and getting to run up and down it every day. Fun to see it again.
ReplyDeleteMy kids loved it, too. I think they really loved the dining room the most though. That room was amazing and so huge!
DeleteGlad you stopped by :)
ReplyDelete