Biltmore Estate

I went to Biltmore on Thursday. In fact, that was what I was going to do my Thursday Thirteen about. But I forgot. (And subsequently on Friday I forgot as well.) I didn't forget my Wordless Wednesday though. See, I was very stressed and frustrated that day. Work has been uber-annoying lately. Alex has just been in a funk, I guess.

But I digress.

Biltmore Estate up in Asheville, NC. It was beautiful. I have a few pictures that I'll post as soon as Mike gets them to me. But here are some photos from the website to appease you until then.

Biltmore House


Biltmore Gardens


George Vanderbilt's Library


The Banquet Hall during Christmas


The Winery


Inn on Biltmore Estate

The tour through the house is a self-guided one. Mike and I opted out of the head phones. So, we were probably missing out on lots of really interesting information. It was already a lot to take in, as neither Mike nor I had ever been up to Biltmore. There was so much to see, all of it so beautiful. I kept walking around that house wondering what it must have been like in it's prime!

After wandering up and down five floors of that house and seeing a vast array of bedrooms, sitting rooms, tapestries, and art, Mike and I made our way outside. At a little ice cream shop, we joked that it was really cool that George Vanderbilt had his own ice cream parlor and how he must have loved the frozen treat to build such a shop on his estate. The gardens came next. There were so many beautiful roses in all different colors! It made me want to start a rose garden (of a much smaller scale). The greenhouse had a lot of beautiful and exotic plants inside. I felt like a 'venomous tentacula' was bound to snag me any second.

Not long after, it started sprinkling and the skies gave off the notion of a storm. So we headed for the hills. Or rather, for The Winery. We toured The Winery (which was pretty interesting) and moved on to the wine tasting. I tried whites and roses of course, Mike tried reds. (yuck)

Mike bought a bottle of American Reisling and a bottle of Red Century...which is a merlot, I think. And then we were off to dinner.

We ate at the Bistro which was quite nice. I hascallopsps and Mike had salmon. The best salmon he has ever had in his whole life, he claims. I can never duplicate it, I'm sure. Crap. The waitress was great. She gave us free truffles because we had to "wait so long." Long being, like, two minutes. Dinner was delicious.

Biltmore was massively fun. I highly recommend it.