Asheville, North Carolina (2)

July 21, 2008

We have had two wonderful days in Asheville. Sunday morning, we got up, walked Pooh Bear and dressed for church. We attended Mountain View Baptist Church in Black Mountain, with our friends Bob and Susan Lueck. We first met Bob and Susan on our honeymoon in Cayman Brac and have become friends. They are wonderful Christians and we have had the privilege of fellowshipping with them in the Brac and now here in Asheville. We have been listening to Scott Leib's sermons on the trip but it was good to actually be in church. After service we went out to brunch and then back to Bob and Susan's to visit for an afternoon of fellowship and catching up with each other. They took us back to pick up our car as they were teaching a class at church at 5:15 pm.

After a nap and a swim, we headed out to find some barbeque. We never found any, but found a great greek and italian restaurant where we had a wonderful dinner on the veranda. Sue had grouper and I had a pasta dish with capers, shrimp. scallops, mussels and mahi mahi. It was a very romantic setting and a great meal.

On Monday morning, we walked Pooh Bear, went for a swim and headed off to the Biltmore Estate for the day. What an amazing experience. This "house", the largest private home in America, was built in the late 1800's by George W. Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbuilt. It took over six years to build the house and to landscape the grounds. The Estate today is still over 8000acres. George W. Vanderbilt was a bachelor when the house was built. He later married and brought his bride to Biltmore. They lived there, a daughter was born to them at Biltmore and they lived together until George died. The house was first opened to the public in 1930 and remains open today. The property is a working farm as well as a tourist resort. Our tour of the house lasted almost four hours. We went on a self directed tour with an audio guide to about 40 rooms in the house. The self-guided tour allowed us to take as much time as we wanted at each location. I think there a a total of 225 rooms, but we saw only a small portion. Even with that, the house was absolutely overwhelming. Built into the house was electricity, a pipe organ, many, many working bathrooms with toilets and bathtubs, refrigerators, a complete lanudry facility, a two lane bowling alley and a heated indoor swimming pool with a ceramic tile ceiling and underwater illumination.

Afterward, we had a late lunch in the stables which were also finished in ceramic tile. Many of the booths were actually stalls for the horses, complete with feed troughs. It was a very delightful experience. We did some shopping and then headed out to see the gardens. We soon realized that the gardens were everybit as awesome as the house. There is so much to see here that we will need to come back again.

We returned to the Silver Lady exhausted and took a desperately needed nap. After the nap, we walked Pooh Bear, watched a movie and prepared for tomorrow's trip to the Outer Banks. The campground here in Asheville was really great. It lies beside a stream and around a large fishing pond. Mountains surround the area. It is a truly beautiful area we are anxious to visit again.