11-8-17  The Biltmore decorated for the holidays:

Heading into Asheville, such a neat town.

 The entrance to the Biltmore Estate

 Into the estate

 love all the bamboo here.

 First stop---the visitor center.  I had bought Angie, Faith and myself yearly passes after our visit here in July, so Angie had to stop by and get her pass.  I know we won't get here too often, but I had some money left on a gift card someone gave me and for the price of another admission, we were able to get the yearly passes.  We had hoped to all 3 get back up here for the Christmas decorations, but Faith wasn't able to join us.

 With Angie's and my passes in hand, we headed to the parking lots for the house.

 We like to park at the very top and walk up to the Diana statue, then down the lawn taking in the view of the house.

 Diana, at the top of the hill.

 looking down the lawn

 Close up of Diana---Goddess of the Hunt.

 Glad to see we still had quite a bit of fall colors

 like I said before, I love all the leaves on the ground, too.

 Back when I was in grade school, we did field trips to farms!  What lucky kids these are!!!

 heading down the ramps to the lower lawn

 one of the fountains on the wall (turned off for winter, I presume).

 The Christmas tree is up.

 the Biltmore from the large fountain in the middle of the lawn

 While we were out on the big lawn, I took a few close up of the detail on the house.

 I love all the "gingerbread"

 Never noticed the big "V" before.

 St. Louis, I think

 Even the lion guarding the entrance was decorated.

 We decided to check out the side and back of the house before going in since it wasn't raining at the time.

 I could get use to this view!

 The side of the house.

 off in the distance you could even see the river---or is it the pond where you get a great view of the back of the house from?

 from the pavilion on side of the house.

 This area is where concerts and receptions are held during the summer.  Last time we were here is was blocked off.

 one of the many statues on the grounds.

 and another

 There was a flurry of activity all around the house, inside and out.  They were filming a commercial for the Biltmore Estate.  Sort of neat to see, but also annoying that they had equipment set up everywhere and some areas of the house were blocked off.

 close up of one of the gargoyles.

Heading in----I would love having a "winter room" like this!

 I like the way they used poinsettias to make a Christmas tree.

 interesting lights in the winter room.

 I wonder if they had presents for the kids under all the Christmas trees?!

 the dining room

 bet there were some fun dinners here!

 some of the crew for the Biltmore commercial filming.

 the "breakfast room"

 huge doll house in one of the bedrooms.

 breakfast room again.

 looking into the winter room from the other side

 the salon?

 on to the back patio.  I like that they have chairs out there that you can actually sit on.

 detail on the arches on the patio

 more details

 into the library

 Wonder how much time he spent in here?

 more of the library

 the tapestry room which was closed off because of filming.  This was Angie's favorite decorated room from when we were here with Emily and Brian in 2010, so she was not too happy about it being closed.  This is also where I got yelled at for using a flash---even though it wasn't me!  It was the filming crew!

 one of the ornaments

 love all the roses used in the decorations.

 in Vanderbilt's bedroom

 his sitting room---love the ceiling and walls!  I wouldn't mind the paneling in my house so much if I could have crown molding like that!

 nice place to sit and play games

 yep, I liked this room a lot

 a clever ornament---basket with seeds in it.  Made me think of Faith.

 a view out of a window on the 3rd level.

 view from another window

 in the guest lounging area

 more rose decorations.

 another "V"

 I love the lines in the grand staircase

 a cute tree in one of the guest bedrooms

 another guest room

 I guess here you get carrots in your shoes on St. Nick's day instead of candy?!

 guest room

 lots of bedrooms.  Must have been fun being a guest here!

 cute baby cradle

 I believe some of the housekeeping quarters were up there.

 out another window

heading down the grand staircase

 looking up from below.

 heading to the steps to the basement

 the party room where guests painted the walls.

 Wonder how long it took them?

 more decorations

 into the hallway to the changing rooms and the pool

 pretty nice pool

 into the kitchen---I presume this is a gingerbread Biltmore house?

 the workers' dining room

 The men's quarters

 back up to the main dining room from the side.

 that dumps you out into the courtyard to the gift shops and some restaurants.

 But we had plans to eat in The Village at Cedric's, so walked on back to the car now. 

 heading back up the ramp

 admiring the leaves some more.

 in the car and traveling to the Village by way of through the garden.

 We also stopped at the pond to get the obligatory photos of the back of the Biltmore with it's reflection in the pond.

 one with fall leaves

 Angie pointed out this tree trunk to me.

 still lots of leaves

 close up of the back of the house.

 and one last house photo.

 as we were continuing on to the Village, I snapped a couple pictures through the drivers window of the pond and reflections (Angie was driving).

 So pretty!

 When we got to the Village, we went straight to Cedric's and had a great dinner---Reuben for me and hamburger for Angie.  By the time we got out, it was getting dark.  I hate that it's dark by about 5:30 now!  This is looking across the courtyard area by Cedric's towards the ice cream place.

 a couple of the globe lights

 entrance to the winery.  We were too stuffed to even do the wine tasting!  But we did go to the store and buy a few bottles to take home.

 heading back to the car.

 Looking back towards Cedric's

 and the ice cream shop which we were parked near

 some of the weirder decorations.

We took a different route back to Sapphire.  This time we avoided the curvy roads of the Blue Ridge Parkway and took the 20 miles shorter route (60 miles instead of 80 by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway).  It was another great day!  So glad we have the passes for the Biltmore.  Hopefully we'll get back up here a couple more times.