Strom Travel Diaries

June 25-26, 2022

A few weeks ago, Mom and I decided that we’d better get ourselves up to Asheville if we didn’t want to miss the immersive Monet & Friends exhibit, which is due to leave on July 10. We’d been talking about going back to Biltmore for the past couple of years, since the last time we were there I had to drink apple juice during the complimentary wine tasting. So now seemed like the time to do it!

We decided to drive up on Saturday, do all the Biltmore stuff, stay the night, and then go back to Charlotte on Sunday. I got up pretty early on Saturday, packed, and put breakfast together. Mom and I also packed a li’l picnic lunch for later. We got on the road a little after 7:30 and had a pleasant drive to Asheville.

We rolled through the gates to Biltmore at about 10:30 and had to decide which way to go: the house and gardens, the village and winery, or the Monet exhibit area. Well, our tickets for the house wouldn’t let us in before 12:15 but our Monet tickets were for even later. And since we thought 10:30 might be a little early for our wine tasting, we decided to head for the house and explore the grounds and gardens before going inside.

We started out in one parking lot where we could get a trolley to the house, but after talking to the nice woman at the guest services desk we decided to move to a parking lot closer to the house so that we could walk and carry our lunch to the grounds and then take the bag back to the car. She was a little doubtful if there would be enough room still in that lot, but we found an even better (read: shadier) spot there than in the first lot.

We found our way to the grounds, which was a very easy walk, and decided to go ahead and eat on the lawn overlooking the house. There was a crew setting up some large tents for what we guessed was a wedding reception. We explored a bit up there, as there was a statue of Diana (the Huntress, not Princess Di) and a lovely view, looking down to the house.

Statue of Diana and view of the house, Two goddesses

We took the lunch bag back to the car and then made our way on a different walking path to the house. For 2022, Biltmore had put out different informational signs about the landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, in honor of his 200th birthday. He’s also known for designing Central Park in NYC, so. There you go.

Of course, we wanted to stop at the different signs and read about the various stages of planning and constructing the grounds around Biltmore. Frederick Law Olmsted, Biltmore owner George Vanderbilt II, and architect Richard Morris Hunt apparently all worked quite well together and exchanged many ideas about the entire estate. One of the things I found most interesting about the grounds was that when construction started, the land was basically fallow farmland. Frederick Law Olmsted had the idea of constructing the grounds to have a wild feeling that would then contrast and complement the French chateau-style house and manicured gardens. It does have a magnificent effect when you drive through several miles of huge trees, large bushes, and blooming flowers, listening to birds singing, and then through the secondary gates at the house itself.

We wandered up the drive and around the front of the house, and by that time it was already 12:15, which was the earliest we could enter. We got in line (surprisingly short) and were ushered through the front door. Fun detail: the doorbells on either side of the door were in the shape of lion heads.

Front façade, Marble lion, Grand Staircase (outside)

Mom and I both like to take our time going through museums, exhibits, grand houses, etc. So, with the audio tour that was included in the entry ticket, it took us about 2 hours to go through the house. We both loved the library with its spiral staircase, the banquet hall (we heard the organ playing!), Edith Vanderbilt’s bedroom, the Halloween room with its painted walls depicting Russian folk tales, the swimming pool that can’t be filled anymore as it leaks into the sub-basement, and the kitchen (kitchen wing? It was a very large area).

Winter Garden, View across Winter Garden roof up to Statue of Diana,
View from the Loggia

Edith Vanderbilt’s Bedroom, Tea set in the Tapestry Room, Library,
Organ in the Banquet Hall

Three paintings in the Halloween Room, Stone Hallway, Grand Staircase

Storage Room, Main Kitchen, Servant’s Bedroom, Gymnasium, Indoor Pool

After we left the house, it was a perfect time to get some ice cream. I had a Biltmore Crunch (I think?) that was vanilla ice cream with cookie dough bites swirled through it. It was big! And Mom had a scoop of Cappuchino Crunch. She thought it was yum!

By the time I’d gotten my postcards (no collector’s spoons!) from the Carriage House Shop, we had a little time to check out the gardens before we had to head over to the Monet exhibit. We had just enough time to walk around the Library and South Terraces, as well as the Italian Garden. The koi ponds in the Italian Garden had displays of water lilies in honor of the Monet exhibit. In fact, George Vanderbilt II had been a collector of Impressionist works, including a couple of Monets that were on display in the Salon.

Italian Garden, two views from the South Terrace

Water lilies and koi in the Italian Garden

Fountain, Statue in the Italian Garden

We drove the couple of miles (!) to Deerpark, which is a small complex of buildings, comprising a restaurant, the Amherst event center, and the Carriage & Trail Ride Barns. We found a shady spot and walked over to Amherst, where the Monet & Friends exhibit was taking place. We got there about 4:15 and were let straight in. The exhibit itself was divided into two parts: one area where you could read many informational panels on the artists featured, the history of the Impressionist movement, and some of the contextual events of the time. Of course, we started there!

The other part of the exhibit was the multi-sensory experience. It was very similar to the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit, in that there were myriad projectors set up around a large room, with some screens set up in the middle of the room and on the floor, with benches scattered throughout and facing in different directions. Monet & Friends also used music to complement the art, though it was more classical music whereas Immersive Van Gogh had also used one or two more contemporary pieces.

Monet & Friends used scent to drive the immersive experience as well. It was supposed to be a mix of lemon, pine, musk, and other layers of scent meant to evoke the experience of en plein air. It was wonderful to have that added layer of sensory immersion. The video exhibit was divided into three parts or themes in order to kind of organize the presentation, and each part included art from a variety of Impressionist artists, as well as quotes and other media relating to that theme. We sat through about one and a half full runs of the whole thing, and would have stayed longer (we moved seats a couple of times) except someone came through to say that they were closing in 15 minutes! And we still had to go to the gift shop!

New poncho and more postcards in hand, we left Amherst and Deerpark to drive another couple of miles (!) to Antler Hill Village, where we planned on getting dinner after our wine tasting. On the way, we saw some wild turkeys and wild turkey chicks! Aw!

We got to Antler Hill Village with plenty of time to spare before our 6:30 wine tasting. So, we walked down to see some goats, walked through the village, and found the Winery. The Winery is located in the old dairy barn (more like dairy complex), and you get there by walking through an old stone hallway. I had to stop and read all of the informational plaques along the way. We got up to the Winery and checked in for our wine tasting. We had to wait a few minutes for a wine host to be ready for us, but it was worth it!

Mom and I each decided to try two whites, the rosé, and two reds for our tasting. We both agreed that the Gewürztraminer and Cabernet Franc were our favorites. It had been forever since we’d had Gewürztraminer and it was great to be able to try some again.

We left the Winery and wandered around Antler Hill Village some more, looking for a good place for dinner. We decided on the Bistro since they had a nice outdoor eating area and it was such a pleasant evening. When we were planning this trip, the weather had been predicted to be rainy for a good bit of the day, but we were very lucky! It must have gone around us.

Pergola to the Winery, Hydrangeas outside the Winery,
Drive outside the Winery

It would be a little while before they could seat us on the patio, so we wandered over to a nice, quiet area by the Winery drive and just relaxed. We got our text notice that our table was ready just about when they had said we would, so we walked the 50 yards back to the restaurant and were seated pretty quickly. It was wonderful to be able to enjoy our dinner outside. Mom had a delicious trout dish and I had a blackened half chicken with veggies. (Was it a bit too much? Yes. Was it worth it? YES.)

After dinner, we walked around the Winery area a little bit more, over to the clock tower, and peered through the window to the vat/bottling area. It was HUGE! But we still wanted to visit the farmyard area on the other side of the village, so we walked down there. We saw more goats, an interesting display of vintage farm equipment, and lots of fireflies! By that time it was after 9, so we figured it was about time to head to the hotel.

As we were beginning to drive out of the parking lot, the car suddenly flashed a couple of errors, one that there was a braking system failure and the other that there was a transmission system failure. Of course, we were both a bit freaked out about this, not least because it was dark out and we were still on the estate, so we weren’t sure of what recourse we would have. Fortunately, the car was driving perfectly fine. No issues with the engine that we could tell, no problems braking, etc. So, we decided to go ahead and drive to our hotel, since it was about a five minutes away.

We white-knuckled it to the hotel and checked in. Once we got up to the room, Mom started calling the several numbers we had for different roadside assistance, etc. Of course, it being a Saturday night, no one was answering. While she did that, I started Googling. After some false starts, I found several forum posts from people with similar experiences and the most common issue seemed to be a failing cell in the 12v battery, which would prompt multiple errors to flash.

Our original plan had been to spend Sunday driving up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mount Mitchell and Linville Caverns before heading back to Charlotte. Well, Mom and I were still very concerned over the state of the car, so we ditched that plan. After breakfast, Mom called the extended warranty number (“Hi! We’ve been trying to reach you about our car’s extended warranty.”) and arranged for the car to be towed to a Meineke that was open on Sundays. We checked out of the hotel and waited for the tow truck. And waited. And waited. And waited some more.

The tow truck finally showed up about two hours after Mom had initially called. He got the car loaded up and drove us to the Meineke. Which was, in fact, closed. Luckily, there was a Firestone just down the road that was open, and the tow truck driver was willing to take us there. We explained the issue to the guys at the Firestone, and they explained that if it was a transmission issue they wouldn’t be able to help. We waited a bit longer, and one of the mechanics went out to look at the car. And…(drumroll, please!)…nothing. No errors, no history of errors, no nothin’. He drove it around the block, and it was fine. So, of course, he couldn’t tell us anything other than that it seemed to be perfectly safe to drive and we should be alright. (I’ll add: this aligned with my Google results exactly. Which certainly bolstered my confidence that any issue was relatively minor.)

By this time it was about 1 PM, and Mom was still concerned over the drive back to Charlotte. We decided to go ahead and just take the most direct route home. The car drove fine, thankfully! Though Mom still wants to have Honda give it a thorough check-up.

We ended up back at home by about 2:45 on Sunday, and spent the rest of the day lounging around the house!