Great day at Biltmore!

We had a lovely time today! It was a little warm, but we all still had a great time and got to see the beautiful Biltmore Estate. Will definitely head back, maybe more toward fall, and check out the Antler Hill Village. This is the area they've built up around the winery, and includes a petting zoo and farm. It would've simply been too hot for that today. Nice to have such a treasure as this so close by. Fun day.

Biltmore Gardens

One of these picts is the understatement of the day, I'll let you figure out which one.

Biltmore - ice cream

The perfect way to beat the heat. Next stop, gift shop. ;)

Biltmore House - no pictures?!?!

They've stopped allowing photos of the interior of the house. Really?! I did take a short video clip of the organ performance, though. ;) Will post to YouTube soon.

Photos below are from balconies and porches. Lunch is in the Stables, yum!

Favorite parts of the House, so far:
Josie - pool
Mitch - whole basement
Ainsley - kitchen
Anastasia - organ in Banquet Hall
Samantha - organ in Banquet hall
Caroline - library
Jerilyn - hallways upstairs

Consensus opinion - this would be an awesome place to play hide-and-seek. :)

Biltmore Estate visit - day trip to Asheville, NC

Today, the kids and I are visiting Biltmore House with their friends from school, Anastasia and Ainsley, and their cool mom, Caroline. We've borrowed my Mom's minivan (the 'Mimivan') and are ready for an awesome time!

We've already made one friend! He hasn't completely lost his tail and is very, very cute!

Real camera shots - Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks

There is no way to show how immense these trees are. The sugar pines are tall, the Sequoias are tall - your neck muscles get tired of looking straight up all the time. The kids really seemed to enjoy walking around all these beautiful and amazingly large trees. What a special place.

We didn't take any real camera pictures of San Diego, so I guess this is the end of the blog for this trip. I hope we get to take many more trips together - the kids seem to get so much out of them. The adults do, too. :)

Real camera shots - the bear in Sequoia NP

Driving into Sequoia National Park, we saw a bear. This was the only bear we saw on the entire trip. Thankfully. And, despite his color, this is a black bear. Black bears out West come in brown, tan, and cinnamon varieties.

Real camera shots - Yosemite Valley Floor Tour

This was a great 2-hour introduction to Yosemite human history, geology, flora, and fauna. At the end, the ranger made our kiddos Junior Rangers!

Real camera shots - walk to Mirror Lake

Mirror Lake is not really a lake, but a dammed up spot on a smallish river. Potato, potahto - it's lovely. This is where Mitch was leaning over a bridge rail and his sunglasses fell off his face into shallow water and mud below. Bill got them out, his second 'fishing expedition' of the trip (the first being Sam's water bottle in Zion). Bill modeled extremely well the 'leave no trace' ideal for our children.

Real camera shots - Yosemite Valley

Sentinel Rock, Royal Arches and Washington's Monument, the Cathedrals, Half-Dome, Bridalveil Falls. So many beautiful features. Several of the usual waterfalls for this time of year were absent because of the light year in snowfall, which feed the falls during the snowmelt. Less snow, less runoff, fewer waterfalls. When I was there in 1998, the roaring sounds from the waterfalls were almost deafening. Awesome.