May 1, 2012 - The BIltmore Estates

Of all the homes of the rich and dead that I've toured I think this one fascinates me the most! (Well...Graceland..but we'll get to that)  I loved the tour of this home and the gardens and the pool and the grounds and the...well you get the idea.

The Biltmore Estates

Apparently if you're rich, you have to have lion statues guarding your home!

The tiny windows are the elevator shaft! Love it!

Each end of these windows are actually doors to the outside
ledge so the windows could be cleaned by servants.

Stanley and I standing by the lion guardian

Gargoyle!

View of the front grounds from the porch

View from the back veranda

I love the random carvings above and to the sides of their doors!  I seriously wonder if they plan to put these things up or if the builders just surprise them with it.  TA-DA here's your creepy carvings that make no sense and have no continuing theme from one door to the next.

This guy...was weird

Also weird...this guy

V for Vanderbilt

Satan?

The Sandman?

After touring the inside of the house (which you are not allowed to photograph) we got some shots of the grounds and gardens.

The Biltmore from the fountain

Close-up of the fountain
(I have a weird thing with moving water you'll see lots of these kind of pics)

This is the double bridge that the horse carriages
use to come down to enter the grounds

This was in the fountain..I'm sure it was a brochure, but I like to
pretend it was like an old dollar or something cool like that

We decided to let Stanley have a little fun....

Stanley playing in the fountain

Stanley walking up the bridge

Coming back down the bridge

The gardens were AMAZING!  These pictures are for mom cause she's a huge flower fan.

View of the house from the gardens

Random white bush/tree thing
I wasn't good at reading the signs for the plants

My camera focused wrong (I was still learning how to use it)
but I think this pic turned out super cool.

This tree FASCINATES me...almost as much as the Weeping Beachwood
Trees from Rhode Island that we saw last year.

I remembered to get a picture of the name of the awesome tree

Close-up of the weeping blue atlas cedar

Garden path...is that poison ivy?

Can you see the butterfly?
This is also for mom...she loves her purple!

He's in this one too

Squirrel!

More different squirrel!

non blooming wisteria

Creepy fish fountain?! LOVE IT!  The water trickles out of his mouth.

I have seen this same water feature at every rich dead persons home!
They really like the creepy dude with horns and grapes hanging from his head who is vomiting water

The stable cafe

We ate lunch at the Stable Cafe.  It used to be a barn and they have converted it into a nice dining restaurant.  We sat in a booth that was originally a stall in the stable.  Jalaire ordered roasted chicken and mashed potatoes and I had North Carolina BBQ Pulled Pork.  They served it with a jalapeno sauce that was SO hot...but SO delicious!

Seriously!  LOVE THIS HOUSE

I totally want a spiral staircase in my house!

? not even sure... but I liked it!

For mom

Stanely in the gardens

These flowers were glittery!

After we were done at the Biltmore, we found a Wal-Mart and stocked up on soda, water and snacks. (You know you're jealous of the fun we have!) Then we decided to go for dinner at Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack.

http://www.rockyshotchickenshack.com/

This was the start of the mac'n'cheese on every menu portion of the vacation!  

After dinner we went back to the hotel and watched clips of So You Think You Can Dance? on YouTube. Jalaire loves that show (and as I read this to her in my journal she said, I DO love that show!) She was only going to show me one or two but then every clip reminded her of a different clip that she just had to show me.. lol.

This was my favorite clip:

Followed closely by this one: