Elsbury Clan: ~~~~Biltmore Estate~~~~ Vacay!

Be prepared for a long post! :)

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

For mom's birthday, she took us 4 girls to North Carolina to the Biltmore Estates. We all stayed at Virgie's apartment on Sunday night and flew out of Omaha on Monday morning. We had a few lay overs in Atlanta which put us a little behind, but no biggie.

In the rental car driving to the Biltmore Inn.

This was our Inn. It was built on the Estate in 2001. It has 201 rooms and was wonderful!

The view off the terrace. You can see the winery that was in built in 1985.

Enjoying a glass of wine on our first evening there.

I love you Mom!!!

What a great idea to go to North Carolina as just the ladies!

Fun times!!

I love all these beautiful women!

We went down to Cedric's that evening for supper. It is a bar that was named after their St. Bernard, Cedric.

This is the view from the restaurant/bar to our hotel.

The next morning, Mom, Laurie, and Virgie enjoyed a massage while Eliza and I relaxed and had a magnificent breakfast!

On Tuesday morning we went to the................wait for it.................................

Biltmore House

1st glimpse of it....Wow!!!

George Washington Vanderbilt III inherited $10 million from his prominent father William Henry Vanderbilt. He built this home as a bachelor in 1889. It took 6 years to build. It has 4 acres of floor space, 250 rooms - 33 family and guest bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, 3 kitchens, indoor swimming pool, bowling lane, 2 elevators. It was in 125,000 acres of forest, farms, and a dairy, a 250 acre wooded park, 5 gardens and 30 miles of roadways. At age 33, George Vanderbilt had a beautiful home!

We went inside for an audio tour. We had a remote that you punched in the number of the room and it explained the room and interesting history facts. It was amazing!!!! They wouldn't let us take pictures inside.

This is on a balcony outside the tapestry room.

We then did a Butler's tour. They took us behind the scenes to the servant's quarters and in the basement and roof.

This is where they used to bring in the food, firewood and guest luggage.

On Tuesday afternoon we had a High Tea date. Mom outdid herself and bought us beautiful hats, ha ha!

Oh yeah....and gloves! :)

We each chose our tea first by smelling all of them. Then we got interesting Tea time food.

I think I might wear this to school! :)

Don't we all look wonderful?!?

We set the timer on the patio and had fun!

Pretty

Silly

Scared

A little leg.

That evening we ate supper in the same place we had tea. Then Mom went to her room early and we stayed to chat. Then we tried out the hot tub. It is so nice to relax and not be in a hurry for the next thing.

On Wednesday morning, we headed to the house for the Architect's tour.

In the shuttle. I saw a bear this day. It was walking in the forest. Crazy, huh? I am the only one out of us that saw it, but other guests on the shuttle and later in the day saw him too. So, I am not seeing things!

1st time seeing Monks!

For the Architect's tour, we got to learn about the outside of the house mostly and why the architect did what he did. By the way, he was the same Architect that did the pedestal to the Statue of Liberty.

We were on the roof here.

There are tons of statues on the house. Some are creepy looking.

Look at that view!

The Landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, also designed Central Park in New York City and the grounds around the Washington Capitol.

Good photo op! ha ah

The dome over the staircase that went up 4 stories.

The statues were weird. This is a bear holding a honey pot.

I just loved the view. After George died in 1914, his wife and daughter sold some of their estate to the government. They made it into the first National park.

We then went shopping in their stores that used to be the carriage houses.

We then toured the Big Gardens.

Huge Green House

They had tons of exotic plants in there.

That afternoon we scheduled a Segway Tour. We didn't really know what was in store!

Helmets on.....ready to go!!! It was us 4 and an older couple. Scott our guide took us to the training area. Eliza volunteered to go 1st!

Everything he said would happen...did. It was funny to watch, but then she did great!

My turn

We feel pretty confident now! :) ha ha

Virgie's turn

Laurie's turn

We loved our ride! The segways max out at 12 mph. At first that seemed fast, but then after you get good at it, you want to go faster. We went to a lagoon that was built for the purpose of a reflection of the house.

I would do this again in a heart beat!!!!

Do you see the reflection?!?

I am amazed how ahead of his time he was. Everything was amazing!

That evening, we had a reservation in the dining room at the Inn.

Isn't Mom's birthday dish beautiful!?

What a lovely evening.

We then went to the hot tub again. Virgie says she saw a raccoon in there, but we didn't see it! :) ha ha

On Thursday morning, we ate the wonderful breakfast again and enjoyed the beautiful weather out on the terrace before we had to go.

This was Laurie and I's room.

Our view of the entrance.

We then wanted to drive to the House in the rental before we went into Asheville for the day/night.

This was another Architect's tour.....we were up there. How cool?!?

In Asheville we went shopping in all the little shops and ate lunch. I got some neat platform shoes! Woop woop! Then we went bar hopping! ha ha

At our last bar - Tressa's, we were basically the ONLY ones there. We saw they were going to have live music, so we stayed until they started. We were in for a treat! ha ha. We egged on the piano player and a groupie. It was fun.