April 29, 2006: Asheville, North Carolina




Together with our friends here in Charlotte, Mama, Papa, and I went on a daytrip to the beautiful Biltmore Estate in Asheville. The Estate, which is the largest home in the United States, is one of the must-see places here in North Carolina.


Built in 1889 by George Vanderbilt, the house took 6 years to be completed. It houses more rooms and acreage than I can count. More on this later.


We were really excited to go there especially since the Festival of Flowers was currently on-going. It was a relatively short drive, just about two and a half hours, and I slept the whole way there.


Trivia: did you know that Patch Adams was filmed here? And Forrest Gump, too. YOu can see a list of the movies and tv shows filmed at Biltmore Here.


Here is the entrance to the Estate. That in the picture is Dory, our car, as taken by Mama Theena who was in the car behind us. Its a long, lush, and winding drive to the ticketing area. So pretty!


Here I am, among the tulips, while waiting for papa and his friends to get our tickets. But you know what, it turns out that we went to the wrong ticketing place. This ticketing area sold Group Tickets - as in for large group tours. Oops!

Due to the number of guests visiting the Estate that day, we were scheduled to tour the mansion at 1:30pm. Since we had almost an hour and a half before the tour, we decided to have lunch at the Deerpark Resturant. They served their food buffet style. Yummy!

Here's Mama at the entrance to the Deerpark Restaurant.

The restaurant itself was in an area called the Farm Village, where people were allowed to visit the barn to see and touch the animals. Cool!




After lunch, everyone congregated at the courtyard. Here are our friends: (l-r) Mama Tess with baby Ivy, Tito Micke and Mama Theena, Tito Kits, Mama Odette and Tito Noel, Tito Bong and Tita Kate, Tito Anton and Tito Jess. That's my Papa in the background.


By 1:20, we all hustled to the House area. We parked our car in one of the four huge parking lots leading to the house. A motorized coach took us the rest of the way there (yup, it was too far to walk!).






Behold, the Biltmore House. (More like Biltmore Castle, if you ask me!)





You think the house is big? Check out the front lawn!





Unfortunately, cameras and videocams are not allowed inside the house. So this one picture below was the only picture we had inside the house. Technically, we weren't really inside the house because we were on the balcony.




The balcony itself overlooked one side of the estate. Feast your eyes on this...


The estate owns everything, as far as your eyes can see.



The inside of the house is breathtaking! Beautiful artwork, majestic antique furniture, precious books, intriguing architecture, and decadent interior design have all been preserved beautifully.


The Ground Floor or Main Floor houses a Winter Garden, the balcony, a billiard room (with two 1895 tables made by the Brunswick Company), a massive banquet hall (with a 1916 Skinner pipe organ!) and triple fireplaces, a breakfast room, a salon (with pieces previously owned by Napoleon and Cardinal Richelieu), a music room, a tapestry gallery, a library (with more than 10,000 books!) with a canvas ceiling painting originally from Venice, and the grand staircase with four iron chandeliers!


The Second Floor houses the family and guest bedrooms, and sitting areas. What's so interesting about this is, Mr and Mrs Vanderbilt each had their own (enormous) bedroom which is joined by a sitting room in between where they probably had breakfast or played games. The other rooms, ie the Sheraton and Chippendale Rooms, must have belonged to the children.


The Third Floor houses several bedrooms (emphasis on the plural), each with their own unique character. For instance, the South Tower Room is decorated in the neoclassical style, the Rafael Room was inspired by the artist Raphael Sanzio d' Urbino, the Earlom Room was inspired by English painter Richard Earlom and showcases Dutch cabinetry, the North Tower Room is an eclectic mix of 18th and 19th century styles, the Madonna room (was not inspired by the pop singer, mind you) is decorated with prints of the Rennaisance Madonna and Child painting, the Morland Room is more in the style of Rococo and named for English painter George Morland, the Van Dyck Room is for the artist Anthony Van Dyck and is decorated in the Colonial revival style, and the Watson Room (the only room in the house with twin beds) was names after engraver James Watson.


An aside, the house actually has an elevator which is original to the house. Guess who made it? Otis, of course! The elevator was designed specifically for this house. It does not, though, go up higher than the third floor. Why? Because the Fourth Floor houses the servants' quarters (21 rooms! And these are only for the female servants!) and I guess they're made to climb up the narrow wood stairs instead.


The Basement is, for me, the most interesting of all. It housed a bowling alley, a gym (which contained exercise machines that were supposed to be top of the line at that time), and a swimming pool! The kitchens are also located here. There was a room for every domestic task: a canning pantry, a pastry kitchen, a rotisserie kitchen, a kitchen pantry, a floral arrangement room, the main kitchen, a huge laundry room for linens (with antique washing machines!) as well as an indoor drying room (all drying is done indoors), another laundry room for handwashing, and lastly, more servants' rooms and living areas.


By this time, I fell asleep already. It was so exhausting, and yet there was so much more to see!


Here are some details of the house's facade.









Since we couldn't take pictures indoors, we more than made up for it outside! :D



Behind us is the Grand Spiral Staircase as seen from the outside.

Papa's solo shot in front of the mansion, the leaning tower effect courtesy of my mama's photography talent.

And here's me with both papa and mama. I'm not bored. Ok, so maybe I'm a bit bored. Sorry!



At one side of the house is where The Stables were once located. It has since been converted into a shopping and dining area.


Here's my Mama with Mama Theena, with the stable as their background.


Altogether now. (l-r) Tito Rojie and Tita Zorina, Mama Odette and Tito Noel with Ate Pauline. Behind them is Tiger Woods, eheste, Tito Tolits and then Tita Amy with baby Aldwin, then Tito Anton with his ice cream, and Tito Micke.


And may I introduce to you, Brendan, my ka-love-team.


Papa said, no boyfriends yet because I still have "gatas sa labi". Well, in this case, it's Oreo. :D


Next stop, the backyard, or technically the "sideyard" - where the Gardens are.
I learned a trivia from my Mama that, since the lay-out of the home is very French chalet-ish, its not surprising that the main garden is situated at the left side of the home. Most French chalet's are like that.


The backyard is as fabulous as the front.



Mama and the girls just want to have fun.


Of course, my papa and titos need to have their own pics taken, too!





And because the arbor is so pretty, Mama and I had to have our picture taken there, too.



I'm growing taller na!

Welcome to the Festival.


One of the reasons why we wanted to go on this particular date was because it was the second to the last day before the Festival of Flowers ended. However, we didn't go to the fair, instead, we frolicked in the garden. Useless, right? Hehe.



I am the gatekeeper. Please come in.



Just a few of the pretty flowers we saw in the garden.



But Mama and I are the prettiest of them all.







There were a lot of interesting greenery at the Shrub garden. My favorite is the beautiful white shrub behind mama and me.



But my Mama is still my favorite non-shrub living thing.



Time for a break before heading off to the conservatory.



The conservatory.


Inside the conservatory.


With my titos and titas, too!


It's now time to go back to the main house. Bye conservatory!


But I have to rest first. All that posing made me thirsty for my milk! I'm like the flowers, I need to be hydrated!


And so, as we wait for the coach to take us back to our car, our tour of Biltmore House ends. Too bad, there were other places within the Estate which we were not able to visit. Maybe we'll get to go back again sometime.


Bye Biltmore.



But wait... we're not finished yet! After the house, we still went to the Biltmore Winery where Papa and Mama tasted various kinds of wine, which were for sale. Alas, it was only grape juice for me!



After sampling almost every wine they had on the wine list, Mama and Papa finally settled on these two bottles.


Mama's choice was the Chenin Blanc ("Delicate flavors make this a fresh and fruity wine. It is ideal by itself or as a companion to desserts") and Papa chose the Chateau Reserve Chardonnay ("Fermented and aged in small, medium-toasted oak barrels, this white wine presents a complex aroma. Served chilled with salads, chicken and pasta. It goes well with cream sauces"). Impressed with my knowledge of wines? Nah. I got those from the brochure, hehehe.


After Biltmore, everybody went to dinner at Little Venice, a quaint Italian restaurant just a short ride from the Estate. The service was not so good, but the food was yummy.


So that ends our day trip. It was nice to spend a day in a castle. I felt like a princess for a day. Oh, what am I saying? To my Mama and Papa, I know I'm always their princess.


*Photo credits to Mama Theena, for the pictures with the date stamps. :D