My Birthday Trip!

Gosh, I feel like Christine! You know yesterday was her birthday too! Happy Birthday Christine!
Well, I just got back from a trip to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC! My DH had a business meeting in Pidgeon Forge and offered to take me to the Biltmore for my birthday! We had a wonderful time! I got to shop at some antique malls in Sevierville! (That will be another post!) We got to, I mean, "we arrived at" the Biltmore Tuesday afternoon and decided to tour the gardens, conservatory and the winery that afternoon and save the house for the next morning! I'm glad we broke it up like that. We enjoyed each without getting too worn out! I took lots of pictures but you can't take pictures inside the house!!!!! Trust me! It was drop dead gorgeous! I can't even imagine the amount of money that was spent on this house!!!! Everything inside is a priceless treasure! I mean everything! Down to the last little detail! But I could've spent all day just taking pictures of the outside! I love to take pictures of beautiful architecture! But alas I had to stop so we could actually tour the inside of the house!

I'll start with our tour of the conservatory 'cause that's where we started!!

Look at this beautiful hot house orchid!

I wish I had a place in my yard that looked like this!
Look at this gorgeous terrarium!

Here's a close-up!

I don't know what these are but they were beautiful!

And another terrarium! Look closely in the bottom left corner...venus fly traps!

Now let's go out to the gardens. For the most part, spring had done sprung and summer was just beginning to wake up. They had tons of roses but alas they were not blooming yet! This beautiful foxglove was surrounded by blue sky and wisteria! I have a planter just like that!

And look at this wisteria! I want to paint this! If only I was a painter! Hey, isn't that from a song? Sheila help me out here!
Some of the tulips still looked pretty good! I love the cream and magenta!
Now for the azalea gardens! You're not tired are you?! Just wait til you see!

These were the steps down into the garden!

I'd love to be able to paint this one too!

Well, ladies, I think I've captured enough of your time for this one post! I have to say I was pretty impressed with my camera! The DH gave me the camera last birthday! I just put it on auto and pointed, zoomed and clicked! I promise to post the house either tomorrow or Saturday! Thank you for sharing the first leg of my trip with me!