Our hotel room was actually about the same size as the apartment we lived in when we first got married - only this one had much nicer furnishings. Alex made fun of me for taking these pictures, and I am sure he will make fun of me for posting them on here too - which is why I am doing it. :)
The Biltmore Estate
Anyone who knows Alex, knows that he has a love for big houses - and they don't get any bigger than the Biltmore. The Biltmore Estate is something that Alex has talked about for as long as I have known him. It was built between 1889-1895 and is the largest, privately owned home in North America. It was opened up to tourists in the 1930's with hopes of revitalizing the Asheville economy following the depression. We have been talking about going there for several years and decided that with our 5th Anniversary and Alex's 30th birthday falling in the same month, this would be a great reason to finally make the trip. I could go on for days about this house, but to sum it up - it was absultely amazing and we have made plans to go back and celebrate our anniversary there every 5 years.
The gate house at the entrance to the estate. It is a 3 mile drive from here to the actual house.
The entire 3 miles of this entrance road is lined with trees. You literally can't see the house until you come right up to it. It definately helps build the excitment!
Our first view of the house - It's huge!!!
Up-close pictures of the house
Every detail in the stone on this house is hand carved - Amazing!
The outside of the staircase. There are actually stairs on the outside too, with tiny doors to get out there - I'm guessing so the servants could wash the windows.
The house itself covers 4 acres, totaling 175,000 square feet. There are 250 rooms in the house that include 35 guest and family rooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, and three kitchens. The house also has 2 elevators that are orginal to house and are still used daily. We actually rode in one and it made me a little nervous.
Inside the house - You aren't actually allowed to take any pictures once you enter the house, but I pulled these pictures off of their website to give you an idea of what we got to see.
The Winter Garden - This is one of the first rooms you see when you enter the house. Each one of the windows in the glass ceiling still open and close with the turn of a crank system. Our tour guide also showed us that there is a secret door in the marble floor that allowed the gardeners to switch out plants without lugging them through the house, since the floral room is directly below this room in the basement.
This is a picture of the chandelier in the grand staircase that goes up 4 floors.
The Billiard Room
The Banquet Hall - This is the largest room in the house. It's 72 ft. long, 42 ft. wide, with 70 ft. ceilings. In terms that I could understand, Alex told me that you could put our entire house inside of this room and still have PLENTY of room to spare.
The Breakfast Room - This room was used for less formal dining. Alex loved the walls in this room b/c they were made of hand tooled leather - whatever that means.
The 2 Story Library
Mr. Vanderbilt's Room
Mrs. Vanderbilt's Room - Apparently back in the early 1900's it was normal for a husband and wife to have separate living areas...something to do with male and female servants not being allowed in the opposite sex's rooms.
The Servants' Bedrooms - The famale servants occupied the 21 rooms on the 4th floor of the house. The male servants lived above the stables.
In the basement of the house, there are several kitchens and pantries, a gym, a 2 lane bowling alley, and an indoor pool.
They obviously don't keep the indoor tile pool filled anymore, but this picture shows you that they even had underwater electric lights in their pool at a time when most of the country didn't have electricity at all.
The Backyard
This is a picture of the porch that spans most of the backside of the house. We could have sat out there all day.
The Vanderbilt's once owned the 125,000 acres that surround the estate.
You can see in this pictures that some of the trees were just starting to change color. We've heard that fall is the best time to visit, but going in early October was just a bit too early to see all the beautiful colors. Oh well - it was still amazing!
Pictures from our walk through the rest of the estate grounds
I thought it was really neat how these viney things created a living canopy over the pergola.
Alex always jokes that he wants a house big enough to put big lion statues in front of someday. So, I made him take this picture - can't you tell?
How cute...a turtle fountain.
The Gardens
The gardeners had just finished planting all these mumms - 8,000 plants total they told us. They replant the gardens each season, and unfortunately we were there before the fall garden started to bloom. Needless to say, it wasn't really worth taking too many pictures.
The Italian Gardens
The plants in these pictures make me really want a pond in my backyard. I think they are different types of lilly pads, but we didn't see a single frog - hmmmm.
The first day of our trip was a Saturday and it was our actual anniversary, so we decided to avoid the weekend crowds at the Biltmore and just take it easy. We slept in (something we hadn't experienced in 7 months or so), ate a big brunch, and took an afternoon drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here are a few pictures from that drive. I can only imagine how beautiful these views would have been if the trees were changing color already. Oh yeah - for those of you who haven't already heard the story. We saw a black bear cross the road about 20 ft. in front of us during this drive. You can be assured that we did not get out of the car at anymore scenic overlooks after that.
The good thing about visiting tourist spots - there is always another couple there to take your picture for you. :)
This was technically our first view of Biltmore house. We guessed that we were at least 30 miles from the house when this picture was taken.
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