Gallivanting in Asheville

You might have guessed that Marty and I are on a little adventure....this time just a wee bit southeast of Bristol...in Asheville, NC.  We find ourselves settled into a charming B&B, called the Beaufort House Inn, which is a "rescued" Victorian Mansion, built in 1895. 

 It was once scheduled to be demolished and replaced with a parking lot, but, luckily, a couple purchased the property and worked hard to have it listed in the National Register as a Historic property.  I had read that Paul Newman and his wife had once lived in the house and when I investigated a bit further, I learned that the couple actually rented a room here, in 1947, for one year prior to his moving to California to pursue a career in acting.  Can't say that would be a priority on my list for staying here, but the convenience, quiet, and awesome breakfasts certainly have me sold!

We're just here for a few days, and since today featured bright blue skies with sunshine, and temperatures in the low 60's, we decided to head out to Biltmore Estate to wander about the grounds.  One travels a small path from the parking lot, and walks right into this view!

Pretty amazing, isn't it?

The house was built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt, grandson of the shipping magnate, Cornelius.

It stands presently on 8000 acres nestled among countless rolling mountains, as you can see in the distance. 

As I mentioned, the skies were brilliant, which only added to the beauty of this magnificent building.

We chose to purchase the grounds ticket without the house tour, as we wanted to really enjoy this magnificent day.  As you can see, some of the trees are just beginning to bud.

And the gardens were planted with early spring flowers to enjoy.

The conservatory to the back of the gardens was bursting with loads of colorful tropical flowers.

So many different blooms to enjoy! 

We decided to hike some of the trails, and headed out to Bass Pond to begin our adventure.

Marty, of course, spied several bass, and you can bet he was looking for some at the base of this waterfall as well. 

I spotted this group of daffodils popping up, just along the edge of a stream. How brilliant is that?

The river itself offered some beautiful vistas with the mountains in the distance. 

We decided to head back to the parking lot, and after climbing uphill for what seemed to be ages (and exhausting), we spotted our intended destination in the distance.

Just a few more quick photos

then we hopped in the car and drove over to Antler Hill to check see what it had to offer. 

Included with our Grounds package was a complimentary Wine Tasting event.  Getting to the tasting room was an experience in itself.  The tunnel went on for quite some distance. 

The experience was quite fun, and we were asked to pick 5 different wines to sample.  All of the wines are made and bottled by Biltmore, and, I must say, we did enjoy all of our choices. 

Nearby, there was a small museum devoted to the story of George Vanderbilt, and he and his wife, Edith's love story.  It really was quite fascinating learning so many facets of his life, as I was completely unfamiliar with his story.  One aspect of interest was that George loved to travel, and as part of that venture, he loved to collect unusual items.  No worries, I'm not going to post a long list of George's acquisitions, but I must say, that his fascination with Napolean intrigued me.

And, here you see an original chess set that belonged to Napolean himself. 

Bet you haven't seen one of those before! 

We originally planned on spending the entire day on the grounds, since it is open until 9:00 pm, but we found ourselves quite spent (perhaps it was that wine tasting?) , so we decided to head out to dinner, then spend a quiet evening in our quiet B&B.  

A pleasant ending to a lovely day!