Biltmore, less costs more

Biltmore mansion day. Cold. Misty-rain ALL day long. And expensive. We booked online the nite before and got the tickets for "only" $94 for the 2 of us - and - well, overall my impression was that the previous day's (hiking at DuPont) activity - at the princely cost of - FREE - was much better.

We'd been to Biltmore years ago - with the girls, so we really only wanted to visit the *grounds* and enjoy the rolling hills - but there isn't an admission price for that: you take it all or nothing, so we signed up, drove in, and parked. The driveway in - at a mile or so - really is pretty - and we ultimately heard that the construction of Biltmore - over a 5-year period (1889-1894) included almost 3 *million* plants being bred, developed, and placed - in addition to the house. That is a staggering number of plants - and it is a beautiful setting.

Even though it was a Wednesday in October - and was 53 degrees - and forecast to be drizzly all day - they were expecting 4000 people today. Do the math. At $50 apiece, that adds up to over $200,000 in ONE off-season day. Biltmore is very-much a *business*. Parking was full, but we found a spot in a satellite lot - and walked over. VERY nice - and we emerged right at "THE view" of the house (refer to photo). A really nice surprise to emerge from the woods and see the green lawn spread out before us with the granite mansion at the end. A nice couple there offered to take our picture and - voila:


Our reservation for the house tour was 11:30 - so we headed to the left of the house - down into the garden - to explore the Conservatory. Pretty - particularly for a gardener and her husband. The flower colors were stunning in the subdued light:

And there were some surprising finds in the Conservatory. This is a "Magic Lantern" flower - that we'd never seen before:


We found a path which was marked as a 1.2-mile hike - and it looked like it would be beautiful - if it wasn't 51 degrees and steadily raining, so we, instead, hiked back to the mansion and joined the long lines SLOWLY wending their way thru the mansion. Annnd. OK. It is beautiful. It was architected very thoughtfully and beautifully. And it is furnished very authentically. But. It's "a big house". No photography allowed - so that they can *sell* you the photos. It was dark and generally depressing. And the crowd moved VERY slowly so I got very tired of standing and walking and I was "done" long before we finally emerged to find it (of course) raining.

We wandered over to what used to be the stable and had lunch in the "Stable Cafe" - and they nearly saved the day. Yeah, I know, I'm way too excited about food, but they had a really-interesting sample platter with chicken, ribs, pulled pork, some interesting stuffing with cornmeal and jalapeno's, a really-tasty cole slaw, and even collard greens. And our server was just bubbling over sunshine-y with her smile and attitude. Actually, I have to admit that every single employee we encountered thru the day was just wonderful. The Cafe was also entertaining because each booth was made up to look like a horse stall:


We walked back to the car, sharing a small umbrella (which is actually a very-nice thing to do with someone who is cuddly...) and we drove thru the grounds - over to the Farm area. It was still cold and rainy, but we enjoyed the Blacksmith (who made an iron "leaf" out of a bar of iron) - and the Carpenter - then to the Winery. The lines for the tour were long, so we just wandered thru the gift shop - and discovered the entry to the wine *tasting* at the end of the tour - so we just got into *that* line and Kathy found 2 of their wines that she liked enough to acquire.

By now, it was 5PM and I am *stiff and sore* and tired from standing and walking. Yeah, I guess I'm getting old. So we loaded into "Monroe" (with lots of groaning on my part) and headed back to the hotel to just chill out - and tell you all about it.

A good day, but, again, my "bottom line" is that there are plenty of things to do - which don't cost anything at all - that are more beautiful and inspiring. We'll aim for public parks instead of Biltmore - in the future.

We're FALL-ing and it makes us feel so UP.

Hi, all,

Wow. What a great day. The pop song "Perfect Day" keeps running thru my mind. Huge thanx to Jack and Mary Ellen Farrar for pointing us to DuPont State Forest outside Asheville. There are short-hike trails which lead to spectacular waterfalls - all free. I just kept staring at them thinking "really LOOK at these - this is REAL - not Disney-created tricks". The combination of falling leaves (it looks like maybe our timing really IS good - bright leaves swirling down from the trees so it is "FALL") and the quiet solitude crunching along together on the trails - holding hands - and the beautiful waterfalls - made for a magic day.

OK. Back up a little. Great breakfast in our hotel (yeah, I know I get WAY too excited about food, but waffles AND biscuits and gravy and sausage AND orange juice get me excited!). Then ask Leila to find the DuPont forest. About a half-hour's drive and we found a little turn-off parking lot that just didn't look like much. But there were 5 waterfalls within "less than mile" hikes of that little parking lot. Enjoy the photos rather than my descriptions. Remember that you can click on any photo to get a bigger version of it. This next one just looks like a postcard or a picture puzzle.





Thanks again to Kelly for the loan of her good camera.


We wore out the battery, so had to pack up and head out. Bot another battery at Best Buy on the way home, then headed to Biltmore Mansion - figuring that we'd "do" the grounds today as well - but they close the gate at 3PM - so we were too late for today - but now we know where it is (again).

Great dinner at Texas Roadhouse (they keep the salads really COLD in seriously-chilled bowls and the salad just tastes SO much better that way - not to mention the cinnamon-butter yeast rolls which you could just feast yourself to death on) - and back to the room to catch up.

Just a perfect Fall day - looking at Falls - and avoiding any falls in the process - despite some slippery footing near the Falls.

Back on the Road: Leaf-ing home

Hi, all,

It's been quite awhile, but we're back on the road for a short trip. Our lives finally opened up schedule-wise, so we decided to hop into "Monroe" and have "Leila" guide us to Asheville, NC. We think we're probably a week or two early to catch the turning of the leaves, but this is when it worked for us - and we've been meaning to get back to Asheville - ever since we visited Biltmore mansion with the kids - probably 20 years ago.
The drive up from Florida was relatively uneventful. Kelly brought over her camera at 7AM so we'd have the GOOD camera again, then we packed up and headed out - wearing shorts and T-shirts since it was 93 degrees. We cruised up I95 - and saw the aftermath of a multi-car accident near Daytona (again! - we saw a BAD one a couple of months ago - a few miles further up the road). But we just took it as a warning to "take it easy" and all went fine. We were fussing with Kathy's brand-new laptop - getting the Aircard to work - and totally missed when we left Florida and entered Georgia - and we had some really interesting rain patterns as we cruised: one sheet of rain couldn't have been more than 50 feet wide: clear, then RAIN, then clear again - all within 50 feet. Of course, that may have been caused by the drop in temperature from the 93 of Florida - to - eventually 56 here in Asheville, NC. Quite a temperature change for one day.
I had a hankering for Italian food, so we had Leila tell us where any Italian restaurants were nearby - and we wound up at a wonderful little restaurant named "Capri". Our waiter Justin was really attentive and friendly and I enjoyed my Lasagna - and dessert of "Brownie bites": *fried* balls of brownie so that they were crunchy on the outside but gooey and fudgy on the inside. Paired with ice cream, it was like little individual "molten Lava cakes".
Annnd I got some good news once I asked Kathy to drive for a bit - and got onto *my* brand-new laptop: I had "given up acting" - yet again - only to wind up auditioning for another 35mm film at Full Sail University - on Saturday. Usually it takes a couple of weeks to hear anything - but I had an email waiting - offering me the lead in "Box 304". It will shoot in November and I play a Father who is bent on cleaning up the world. I thought I'd done well in the audition, and it's great to get another lead part. Cool.
So. Our plan is to enjoy the grounds of Biltmore Mansion, browse Art Galleries in Asheville - and try a short hike or two which lead to waterfalls in State Parks. Then head over to Tennessee for a party with our friends Chris & Denise.
Hopefully we'll get to see some pretty leaves in the process.

Good to be back on the road.

What have we been up to since we got home?

Hi, all,

If you'd like to read about what we've been up to since we got back home, take a look at the regular column I'm now writing for "The Examiner.com". We've put on another 3,000 miles, visiting New York, Boston, and Tennessee/North Carolina. Just click the link and follow along.

See you there!

Meanwhile, we've entered the contest to be the Tourism Ambassadors for Queensland, Australia, by composing and entering a song on video. The tune is "Waltzing Mathilda".

View the video here.

The lyrics are:

**************************************************

I'm Pete LaMaster, I love to travel while I Blog,
It's what I do - read my websites and see.
I drove across the States, blogging all of my dis-cover-ies
Now Bring me to Queensland and your spokesman I'll be.

I'll bring a fresh eye. Tourists will see why
Queensland is bonzer & there's lots to see:

All the fish, birds, and plant lifeKoala's, 'roo's and wallabies
If you want to Show-case your Queensland - pick me.

Hamilton Island, Sea and Blue Sky-land
Bushwalking, snorkelling, SCUBA - and Me!

Outback and hot tub, Great Reef and Great Grub
Queensland is bursting with great things to see

So just turn me loose and watch myDis-cov-er-y O-dyss-ey
If you want to Spot-light your Queensland - pick me!

Spoken:
Hi, I'm Pete LaMaster.
Travelling and Discovering and Blogging - is what I DO.Let me do it down-under - for YOU!

*********************************************

A few "extras" about us that didn't fit into the video:

Kathy and I retired recently and immediately hopped into the family van to explore the United States for 2 months. We drove 11,000 miles, visiting everything from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, Disneyland to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, Diners to Restaurants.

We took over 3000 photos and Blogged our whole trip while experiencing new places, new foods, and new people.

Check out our travels here on our blog.

I also write a regular column for "Examiner.com". Check it out at the link above.

Bottom line: We like to do things - and write about them.

With the 2 of us as a team, you get a computer geek engineer with an MIT Master's degree, a writer, a botanist, a teacher with Zoo experience, and 2 swimmers - and you even get an actor and model since I just finished 10 short films in the last 2 months.

We've been planning an exploration of Australia for over 10 years now and we're just busting ready to do the same kind of discovery of Queensland's Barrier Islands - that we did here in the States.

We're very real, just like the tourists you want to attract.

We're ready, and we've proven that we have the time, the interest, and the skills to be exactly the ambassadors you're looking for.

"Pick Me!" (and you get "us"!)

P&K