House Hunting

I found my dream house:

Unfortunately, it's not for sale. And if it were, it would probably be out of our price range. But 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 4 acres of floor space (forget square feet, I want my house measured in acres), an indoor swimming pool and bowling alley would be nice. It's probably just as well, though, I wouldn't want to clean 43 bathrooms.

In school on Wednesday, Mabes' teacher had them draw a picture of what they planned to do on Veteran's Day. Mabes drew this:

She explained that she was going to watch TV all day and Annabelle was going to play on her lap. Note the talking dog on the TV screen; that's Martha Speaks.

Thankfully, she wasn't terribly upset when we told her we were going to take advantage of the day off (yay for bank holidays!) and head west to Asheville to enjoy the fall colors and tour Biltmore Estate. We've been in North Carolina for over three years now and we finally went. It was a perfect day: sunny, 65 degrees, beautiful leaves. Dave's sister Amber-Rae was able to join us in the morning, so that was an added bonus.

A brief history: George Vanderbilt opened the home to family and friends on Christmas Eve in 1895. It was built on 125,000 acres, though it is now on "only" 8,000. It was modeled after 3 chateaux built in 16th century France. Though no one has lived in it since the 1950s, it is still owned by George Vanderbilt's grandson. It is the largest privately-owned residence in the US.

Unfortunately, they don't allow pictures inside. But it was lovely and I think I'd enjoy having a house with a large dining hall and my own library to nap read in.

The formal gardens

After we toured the house, it was time for Amber-Rae to leave, so we took the shuttle back to the parking lot to say good-bye and decided to just have lunch there. We folded down the back seat so Annabelle could crawl around, and both girls thought it was the greatest thing ever.

Have I mentioned how much I love my minivan?

We then walked and drove around the estate. The grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the creator of New York's Central Park. Because when you're a Vanderbilt, that's who you get to do your landscaping.

And of course, there's a farm on the estate. Mabes and Annabelle both loved the animals.

We decided to end the day with a brief drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Due to a road closure, it ended up taking a lot longer than expected. There was some fussiness (by both Annabelle and me), but overall, the girls did very well.

We broke up the drive home with a stop at Hardees, which sent Mabes over the moon. "Lunch in da* back of da van, and dinner at Hardees?!? Dis is da best.day.ever!" We got home late, but it was a great day.



*Sadly, we're working on this. Since we're working on sounding out words, she was a bit confused when she learned that "the" doesn't start with a d. So when she slows down, she can correctly pronounce the "th." I realize that she has to learn how to speak properly, as it might sound weird when she's 25. But I'm going to miss the "dis" and "dat." It was the last thing keeping her my baby. Well, that and eating crap off the floor. I won't miss that.