Candler, NC
We slept in a bit today so we were late leaving to go visit the Biltmore Estates. As we were driving to the estate we decided to have lunch before we went. We figured it would be at least two hours there and we thought the restaurants there would be expensive so we stopped at the Texas Roadhouse. We had a good lunch and then headed over to the Biltmore.
We got to the Biltmore a little after 1:00. It took a little time to get our voucher from the base converted to tickets. The people at the desk hadn't had one before and needed to get help from other staff. We finally got the tickets and drove the 2 miles to the parking lot. There we got in a shuttle to go to the house.
You are not allowed to take pictures in the house so I don't have those. This place is huge with over 100 rooms and 40 bathrooms. We took the self guided tour and didn't rent the audio guides ($10 each). I would probably recommend renting them. One bummer about the house is that it is not air conditioned. They did have fans blowing but it got warm and stuffy in there. We spent about 1 1/2 hours visiting the 3 floors that are open.
After we left the house we went to the stables area that is now shops. We wandered through them and looked at stuff. We also had ice cream cones. Even though they cost $4.50 for a single scoop they were worth it. I don't know who taught this people how to count scoops as I think there were 3 big scoops. They push ice cream down into the cone, then put 2 scoops on top and call that a single. I couldn't eat all of mine.
After visiting the shops we crossed over to visit the gardens. The skies were starting to darken but we though we could get through the gardens before it rained. Guess we were wrong. We went to the formal or walled gardens.
As we walked back to the front of the house to catch the shuttle the skies opened up and poured! We made it to a tent that was setup for an event to wait out the rain.
After about 30 minutes the rain finally let up and we were able to run up to the entrance and catch a shuttle. Back at the car we headed out for the 4 mile drive to the winery. At one time the Vanderbuilt family owned 126,000 acres. I don't know what it is today but it is still big. The family still owns the house and the 4th and 5th generations of the family are involved in the estate.
Along the way we stopped to see the Bass Lake and the waterfall.
We finally arrived at the Winery, Farm and Antler Hill Village. We walked through the shops and did a little wine tasting. Bill had grape juice instead of wine. I bought some wine and grape juice to take home.
We finally left the Biltmore around 6:00 PM. It was a long day. I always thought the $60 entrance fee was a little high but now that I have been there it isn't a bad price for what is there.
I took pictures with both my phone and with my camera so they are a bit out of order,
1 comment:
Cool place! We could sure use some of that rain!
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