Virginia's Life, Such As It Is!: North Carolina Trip

Showing posts with label North Carolina Trip. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

North Carolina: Mountain Shops

We've been home from North Carolina for over a month, but I realized I hadn't posted pictures from our last two days there! What reminded me is that I created and ordered six 11"x14" poster collages on the Walmart photo web site. I haven't hung them up yet, but they look great! Many of these pictures made it onto the final one.

Ten of us went to the village of Blowing Rock on a Wednesday. I love that place! So quaint and picturesque!

My grandson enjoyed the playground when we stopped for a picnic lunch. What a cutie!

We visited several shops. I am always drawn to words, so I love inspirational signs.

I was supposed to meet my family at the ice cream store, but they weren't there when I arrived, so I popped into another store two doors down. Cross Trade reminds me of Trades of Hope. They import lovely craft work from Brazil to support artisans with a fair living wage. What a surprise to see that the cashier is my friend Anne, who is also the mother of my brother-in-law. What a sweet lady! We had a nice chat. I hadn't seen her in years and didn't realize she lived in the area.

We all enjoyed our waffle cones at Kilwin's ice cream store.

Heading back to the van, I saw the Dulcimer Shop. I love dulcimers! I've owned one since I was in 8th grade, but haven't played it in years. I bought new strings and a music book, and enjoyed hearing the owner play one of the dulcimers for us.

Take a quick listen to the sweet music that the owner Bill Magee played for us on request!

I'm getting my dulcimer restrung at Lyrical Lumber here in Maitland, Florida very soon. Two of my daughters want to learn to play it, and fortunately it is super easy. There are even instructional videos on YouTube.

On Thursday, one of my adult daughters bravely took five of her younger siblings to Grandfather Mountain, while the other three of us adults stayed at the cabin to do a final cleaning before leaving the next morning. I'll put those photos in a separate post.

That afternoon, we all visited Mast General Store, a beloved local vintage landmark.

Besides being a general store, it is still a working post office!

Of course, the kids bought both Nehi and Cheerwine sodas!

One son arranged his Mast treasures on the table back at the cabin.

It was my second son's 16th birthday, so I got him a Grandfather Mountain t-shirt to remember the day.

Such a lovely trip to North Carolina! Here are the links to the other photo posts so far.

Grace and peace,

Virginia Knowles

Thursday, July 9, 2015

North Carolina: The Gardens at Biltmore Estate

Hello!

This is a continuation of my

Biltmore Estate post.

These gardens deserve

their own blog glory!

conservatory and rose garden

they look like
they are painted

resting our feet

mother and child

Italian Garden

water lilies

This is just a tiny sample of what you will see in the gardens at Biltmore.

Other botanical gardens:

North Carolina: Biltmore Estate

I loved my visit to Biltmore Estate with three of my adult daughters. One of them was flying home out of Asheville, two hours from the mountain cabin in Boone, so we decided to make a day of it! The daughter on the right is a ceramics major with a strong interest in landscape design, so she was super excited!

Biltmore is the creation George Vanderbilt, grandson of industrialist and philanthropist Cornelius Vanderbilt. It was started in 1889 and officially opened to family and friends with an 1895 Christmas gala. His descendants opened the home to the public as a tourist attraction in 1930 as a generous way of alleviating Asheville's economic woes during the Depression.

Our tickets were $60+tax each, but are less if you buy on-line a week in advance. Right now, children ages 16 and under are free.

I have saved most of the flower pictures for a separate post here: The Gardens at Biltmore Estate.

Here we go:

miles of wooded roads
within the sprawling estate

Biltmore is the
largest home
in the United States,
but don't worry -
you will only walk through
a few dozen of the 250 rooms,
which takes about 2 hours.
Be prepared for stairs!
If you want to see more rooms,
you can take a Premium tour.

guarding the castle

in the planters
near the front steps

not supposed to
take photos inside,
but someone (not me!) did

Being the philosopher and poet that I am, as I walked through the estate, I pondered about the lessons I wanted to take away from Biltmore. What did they have that I could incorporate into my home (on a much smaller scale, to the best of my penny-pinching-mother-of-10 ability)? The words that I tapped into my iPhone:

innovation - the latest technology available at the time for efficiency and comfort
hospitality - dozens of guest rooms, and every possible amenity for the well-being of their many guests, which included diplomats and other VIP's
variety - so many different things to see! Rooms had different themes.
legacy - this was built to stand the test of time, and as a historical, architectural, and artistic gift to future generations
fine art - paintings and sculptures by world renowned artists, 16th century tapestries - a feast for the eyes!
books - a 10,000 volume library!
gardens - colors, shapes, textures, arrangements - gorgeous!

And that's what we saw after the house - the many gardens!