Asheville, North Carolina

Our Christmas break trip this year was to Asheville, North Carolina. I have to say that I wasn't THRILLED to be going to North Carolina (especially since Osaka, Japan; Paris, France; and Amsterdam, the Netherlands had also been "on the table" at one point or other in the "let's go somewhere" discussion).

Turns out, however, that North Carolina is pretty cool! Even better...they have sweet tea (which I THINK should be the national drink of America, or at least the official beverage of the south), and Waffle House (which, in three days, we managed to eat at FOUR times!).

We started our trip with a visit to Biltmore House...built and owned by George W. Vanderbilt as a getaway from the hubub of New York City. I believe I read somewhere that the house has 250 rooms, including a bowling alley, COUNTLESS guest rooms, a library, a swimming pool, a grand salon, multiple kitchens (depending on WHAT was being cooked), and an ENORMOUS banqueting hall (which, while we were there contained the BIGGEST live Christmas tree I've EVER seen!). The estate includes a botanical garden, conservatory, working farm, winery, and an inn...there are acres and acres of trails and woods and meadows, and it was TRULY amazing!

Here are some photos of the estate:

The front of the house

The vaulted glass ceiling over the entryway/fountain

Duane and me in the atrium

The tree in the banqueting hall


A statue of Pan on the side of the house

Another statue near the wisteria trellis


A view of the Blue Ridge Mountains through the courtyard wall

Me looking through the wall

Duane looking through the wall

The back of the house

Another view of the back of the house (through a cornfield)



The back of the house from a distance

After the Biltmore estate we went into Asheville for New Year's Eve. We found a restaurant that took "walk ins", and had a lovely, relaxing dinner. In our usual PARTY ANIMAL style, I was asleep by 10:00, and Duane by 10:30...PAR-TAY!!!

New Year's Day was cold, and uneventful. Most everything was closed, so we went downtown and looked around for awhile. Here are some photos of our "explorations":

Duane and statue


The Asheville "Flat Iron" building

Duane and a statue of a flat iron (it took me WAY too long to make the connection between THIS statue, and the Flat Iron building across the street...) (apparently, I needed WAY more sweet tea at this point...)

Me and the flat iron statue

After looking around downtown, we decided to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway during the afternoon. It was a GORGEOUS, 45 MPH road that wound up through the mountains. Here are a couple of shots along the way:

Hiking a trail along the parkway

Hiking a trial along the parkway II

A mountain view

Another mountain view

Yet another mountain view


Still yet another mountain view

After driving the parkway (part of it...it was a LONG parkway!), we went back to the hotel for awhile, then headed to the Grove...a historic, cool, huge, hotel in the foothills outside of Asheville. The place was still GORGEOUSLY decorated for the holidays, and we were able to see the winners of a big gingerbread house contest that they have every year. The winning entries (and even the "runners up" were absolutely AMAZING (but my pictures of them all turned out blurry, so you'll have to use your imagination here...).

Here are a few photos of some of the decorations around the hotel:

The next day (Friday), we got up, went back downtown to look around one last time, hit a few antique stores, then headed to the airport to come home.

North Carolina is actually pretty cool. I'm not sure I'm in any big hurry to go back, but I think a spring or summer trip to see Biltmore in bloom, or the fall leaves on the parkway would be AMAZING!!!!!

Hope YOU were able to visit a new place during YOUR winter holiday!!!!