We spent a beautiful Sunday on the Biltmore Estate. I had spent an afternoon there last year while Scott attended the Abraham-Hicks Seminar and LOVED the beautiful hiking paths and scenery. To say the foliage is beautiful would be a gross understatement. Being from North Dakota and remembering the beautiful fall leaves and crisp fall weather, then moving to Phoenix where there is no color (well...if you count varying shades of BROWN...), this is just sensory overload. The girls and I did a quick hike through the forest and as we got off the paved path on the hill, both girls said, "now this is what I call hiking!" It was fun to get off the "path" and explore the forest. Leaves were everywhere...acorns on the ground and color everywhere. It was beautiful. Of course, they wanted to kow when we could come back and do a different trail.
We picked Scott up and headed over to Biltmore House for our 11:30 a.m. tour. The place is amazing. It reminded me of the castles I had toured in Europe: formal rooms, receiving rooms, bedrooms...animal trophies, fireplaces...everything big and beautiful. We did the audio tour and learned a lot about the Vanderbilt family: the kindness they showed to their employees and the community of Asheville, the philanthropic projects they took on, their love of books and art...it was truly amazing. They were surely ahead of their time in the planning of that home: fire proofing, allowing for technology that would come, and knowing upgrades and improvements would be made eventually. Carolyn would love to live there someday; Elyse grew bored quickly with the tour; I would have loved to have just been a guest at the Biltmore House in its heyday. We could have spent many more hours there, but Scooter had to return to the seminar and we had grocery shopping to do before we would leave for Lake Lure.
I want an acorn! :)
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