Biltmore Estate and Billy Graham Library

We had no down time when we visited our sister during Thanksgiving week 2019.  We were so lucky to be able to get to the the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina into the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It is a historic destination for all of the USA. 

(photo credit:  https://blueridgemountainlife.com/biltmore-estate-visitors-guide/)
Eight thousand acres is a lot of real estate that encompasses the Biltmore Estate. The life depicted is from the late 1800s where it is the closest you can come to American Royalty. There are farmlands, a winery, and woodlands. If you are thinking of making Asheville and the Biltmore as a destination vacation the following video has a lot of information although it is quite long.

Wonderful video that I found:
Asheville, NC and Biltmore Estate Video

My sister's mother-in-law drove us into the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Biltmore Estate.  She can be my Uber driver any day!

Scenes along the route from Charlotte to Asheville with views of the Blue Ridge Mountains:

 

 

While our sister Judi prepared for our Thanksgiving dinner her husband Scot took us to the Billy Graham Library, grave and the restored family home. Thank you, Scot!

I especially liked that the Billy Graham Library had so many artifacts from his years on television.  TVs and television studios are favorites of mine as my father received his training from RCA corporation and my son is in the TV news business.

Charlotte---Thanksgiving 2019

I had my first experience with Vrbo and we rented a condo in the Dilworth area in Charlotte.  Within a few minutes walk, you can get to South Boulevard and you will find a Publix grocery store, restaurants and a few nice boutiques. To get to Downtown Charlotte we could have taken a light rail train at the nearby station, instead, our youngest sister who lives in Charlotte drove us to the downtown area.

 

We thought we wouldn't be able to find tasty Italian food but we were wrong when we found Zia Pia's in the 7th Street Public Market.  The squash soup was the best ever and the Italian bread is just the way I like it--- crusty and spongy in the middle.  Zia Pia is an Italian kitchen dining area, retail shop and online retailer of imported Italian foods, pasta, sandwiches. Dine in or take out in the Charlotte, NC area.  This urban food destination in the heart of Charlotte was a hit for me.  The Market's mission is to celebrate the food culture and promote local and regional farmers, food artisans and other entrepreneurs. The market is located at the base of the 7th Street Station parking deck. Parking is validated for the first 90 minutes with a purchase from a Market business. 

 

The house below is one of the houses that gives evidence of the gentrification of many neighborhoods in Charlotte.  The land values are increasing and people will buy up these older homes and replace them with million dollar homes.  Basically they are squeezing out lower income populations.   See the photo below....one of the few left of the older homes that remain.

East Blvd is lined with shops and restaurants in the heart of Dilworth, which began as Charlotte's first streetcar suburb and was established by Edward Dilworth Latta in the 1890s on 250 acres just southwest of the original city limits. Like neighboring (click on the link for more info) Myers Park, the streets of Dilworth feature, mature oak trees, sidewalks, and houses with beautiful front porches. Unlike neighboring Myers Park, most of the homes are more conservative bungalows.

Dilworth is also home to the Charlotte area's largest hospital, Carolinas Medical Center or Atrium Health.

One of the upgraded homes:  

 

  

 These motorized electric scooters are everywhere:

 

The boutique, Revolution, with a mix of unique fashions, accessories and other surprising offerings was a delightful experience.   I found the owner tucked in behind the counter and I had to take a photo of him.  His outfit made a statement of his tastes and what he chose as his merchandise. It was like no other store that I had ever been to.  Amazon could never ever replace a store like this. It was an experience like going to a museum with updated artifacts.

The owner of the Revolution shop:

The owner's car:

Overall, the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metropolitan area is growing at an unbelievable fast rate.  There are about 150 new residents every day!

 Bank of America's headquarters are in Charlotte:

This must be a chain because I recently had a fine meal in a restaurant in Philadelphia with the same name...

Below is the captain riding on a horse with its mane blowing in the wind.  The statue can be found along the Trail of History in Little Sugar Creek Greenway. It was the first statue of Charlotte’s Trail of History and is called The Spirit of Mecklenburg and depicts Captain Jack who was famous for his ride to Philadelphia carrying the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and a set of resolves to the 1775 meeting of the Continental Congress.

The Firebird is a large statue that is covered in pieces of mirrored glass.  The Firebird stands in front of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art.  On a sunny day the the Firebird catches the rays of sunlight and sparkles.  Charlotte’s main and historic square at Trade and Tryon is where you’ll find four more statues, each on a corner, facing in.  Each statue is symbolic of Charlotte’s past, present and future. 

Then there’s the statue of Queen Charlotte that depicts her with her dogs in a garden.  Charlotte was founded in 1768 and was named for Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III of England.  She stands regal--- looking out over Charlotte's Uptown.

It was quite evident that Charlotte's climate is much milder than that of southern New Jersey.  One peculiar thing in the neighborhood where we stayed is that there were fig trees often included in the landscaping.  My fig trees at home had already been covered for the winter because otherwise they are likely to die.  Both cities by Thanksgiving had a killing frost but there were so many plants still blooming in Charlotte. Where we stayed they had an elephant ear plant that was hit with a killing frost and that was how we identified our condo.  New  Jersey will have to wait til spring to see Narcissus or Camelias blooming: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the landscaping was just perfect but this is the elephant ear plant that got hit with an unusual  killing frost.  It became a means to identify our condo:

 

It was great to be with our sister and her family.  We had a small but delightful dinner for Thanksgiving. We also visited with members of Judi's family and below you can see her husband's grandmother who still enjoys reading at her advanced age.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hiked around Latta Park and their community center was hosting a bridge playing event:

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed my Charlotte blog!