Biltmore Mansion

We stayed in Shelby North Carolina for a little while at a wonderful place we found through boondockerswelcome.com

We made breakfast one morning and took it out to the picnic table.

Little Miss and Snuggle Bug were running around playing.

The property was beautiful.

We were wanting to visit Henry River Mills Village that is just north of Shelby.  This long abandoned town is District 12 in the Hunger Games.  But alas, the property owners now charge $50 a person to go through the village.  Such a shame!

Scenes of the hob were filmed right in Shelby though which was pretty cool.  

We did make our way over to the Biltmore which was about an hour and half away.

It's the biggest privately owned home in America at 175,000 sq ft.  It has 252 rooms(you don't go through all of them though)-35 bedrooms,43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. It was built by the Vanderbilts in the late 1800's.

 Hubby and I had already been there a few years ago but wanted to take the kids to see it. We weren't allowed to take any photos inside unfortunately.

Beautiful views from the back porch of the house.  Everything you are looking at the Vanderbilt's ordered planted.  Previously it was just fields.

Conservatory

(who else is thinking of Clue right now?)

Admission to Biltmore is crazy expensive. And to really get your moneys worth you need to pay extra for the audio tour. They have an adult version and a kids version to choose from. Snuggle Bug and Little Miss got the kids audio. The kids version is the same price but it is presented through the eyes of the family dog. They had some interesting facts on the kids version they didn't have on the adults.

We only got it for Little Miss because we thought it would keep her more occupied during the 2-3 hours it takes to go through the house and it did for the most part.

One funny part was when Little Miss gave her audio to Hubby to hold and he accidentally picked that one up to listen to instead of his own.  He thought,"Well that's a different voice.."  It took him a second to realize it was the family dog talking.

Definitely order the tickets online.  If you can do it 7 days ahead of time you get a good discount.  Even purchasing them online the day of gets $5 off a ticket.

The ticket includes a tour and tasting at the vineyard located on the property.  We didn't have time for it but it would have been neat for everyone to see the wine making process.

I hope to come back down in the near future to Biltmore and bring my mom for a Girls Out Weekend.

Many Blessings,

The Mama