Madi: Mom has the blog a few days

The Biltmore Estate is breathtaking inside and out. My pictures only capture a little of the grandeur of the outside of the home and grounds. Photography is not allowed inside the home.

Biltmore is the largest privately owned home in the United States. It has four acres of floor space which include 255 rooms, 33 family and guest bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens, indoor swimming pool and bowling alley. It sits on 125,000 acres of forests, 250 acre wooded park, 5 pleasure gardens, and 30 miles of roadway. It was built by George Vanderbilt. He and his wife Edith had one child Cornelia she married John Cecil in 1924. They had two sons. The home is still owned and managed by the younger son, Willliam A. V. Cecil's family. You may enlarge the pictures by clicking on them.

This picture was taken with my panorama function about 1/4 mile away from the home.

This is a side view


Front view of the left side the slanted windows are on the staircase, also note the observatory at the top. It is reached from a spiral staircase inside the library. Special tours included a bird's eye view from this point.


First hint of some color that will probably peak by early next week. I was actually very surprised by the lack of fall foilage. Many of the trees were already shedding their leaves.

Great Smoky Mountains taken from the back deck of Biltmore using my panorama function

Each morning we were there we awoke to thick fog and below freezing temps. By about 8 am

the sun was burning the fog away as seen in this picture of the sun just hitting the mountains

As we traveled from Bryson City (about 45 minutes west of Asheville) we would see very interesting cloud formations and fog

Below is a picture of what we thought was snow but it isn't. We were told it is 'rim ice'.

Neither my husband nor I had heard of that before. It is heavy fog over the mountains. It freezes on the ground and trees causing rim ice. October 17 the first snow of the season was reported on Mt. Mitchell. Parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway were closed. We were not able to go on the Parkway in the morning because of heavy fog.

Biltmore Winery opened in 1985. Although one of the youngest wineries in America, it is the most visited and acclaimed, having earned more than 700 awards since its opening

I found the champange bottling room to be quite interesting.

No matter how many times we visit Asheville we always take a side trip to The Grove Park Inn.

We've never stayed there many because we cannot justify paying the $$$$ for the room that we will only sleep in. There is just too much to do in Asheville.

This is one of the many fireplaces in The Grove Park. What you cannot see is this pictures is multitude of guests in leather chairs, on leather couches, in rockers and at the many tables enjoying a snack on a cold afternoon.

This is a picture from the back of the Inn. The front section of the roof is under maintenace.

The stone stairs you see lead down to their world class Spa. During Christmas each of the front windows of the Inn has a Christmas Tree. Each tree has a different theme. The public is allowed into see all the trees or dine. Our favorite place to have lunch is on the back balcony which is under the short roof below on the left.

Madi thank you for once again sharing your blog with me.

Madi will be back on Saturday.