Biltmore -Last pictures from our trip

On Tuesday from our trip, we decided to go to Biltmore in Ashville, North Carolina about 90 miles away from Gatlinburg, TN. It is not cheap to go in, but the experience is worth it. It is a huge castle that belonged to Vanderbilt (still in his family) and has 250 rooms, 43 bathrooms, swimming pool, pantries, kitchens, winter garden, huge library, observatory, and much much more...

That is the view from the balcony from the castle. You cannot take pictures in the inside, but they let you in the outside.

After the tour in the Castle, we went to the Conservatory or Huge Green House. It hosts lots of different plants, flowers, trees, etc.... and some lovely orchids as well. The picture below us, looking like a chinese lantern, love it. Don't know what it is, but love it.

This picture was taken in the Gardens, a huge area with many paths and flowers. There are at least 2000 roses, many hydrangeas, daffodils, hycinths, and so much more. I can not put all the pictures of the flowers that we took (many of the plants mentioned were just blooming too), but the one below caught my attention because of the bee... and we did not go the winery tour or the farm, this place is huge!


And while I was taking pictures outside, I saw these girls (that were in my way of the flowers) and thought wow, one day Arianna is going to be that age... Plus, they were having a blast!

Talking about my sweet baby, here she is with her love of any letters in anything...here, yep, the garbage... Heck, it is an elegant garbage disposal, mind you. :)


And I will end with my two love ones, Arianna reading to her daddy. Like I said, all about letters. Aren't they cute together?

Until later...

Smokies III

I took too many pictures to post all of them, but I hope you get the idea of how beautiful the Smoky Mountains are... The next three pictures are landscapes of the mountains, they can look so different (specially by seasons)...




I saw this bird at the Oconaluftee Farm, but I have no idea what it is. Love the golden/yellow/brown combination.

Ari having a great time walking and running with daddy... Yes, we used the "leash". I never understood why parents used them, but after Arianna started running I got it.

One thing about the Smokies is that there are lots of waterfalls to see of many forms. Here is the Mingo Falls, a 180 foot drop and the biggest (I think). It is not too bad to get to it, about a .8 mile round trip, but you have to walk up the wooden stairs and there are a lot of steps... I took a picture of that, but could not find it right now. It is very impressive. I will try to find it later. (First two pictures are with us, and the last one is for you to see Mingo Falls)

Once you go up the stairs, this is the path that you walk to get to the waterfall and back... It is a bit narrow, but not bad at all.

Here is another fall called Socca Falls. It is smaller to the Mingo Falls in height, but it is much wider. I took some pictures from really high ground, so you cannot appreciate how wide it is, and how beautiful. The nice thing about Socca, you can actually get closer. Mike did, but I was up the path and I did not see so he could have captured the two different currents merging into the falls. Trust me, this fall is awesome.

This is the deck where I took the pictures, there was a small path that you could follow if you like to hang like monkeys from trees and get really dirty, but it is worth it. Too bad it was raining and had Arianna so mommy had to stay clean for that reason :)

I loved how those golden leaves looked through the green foliage. In person, it looks even magical. Lots of light. It is really hard to capture that with the lense and a moving car, but I think you will get the idea.

Smokies II...

Trying to download some of the pictures from our trip... since the files are too big and I can't seem to do it in our desktop, I tried in my laptop. The only thing is that the files are too big so I can't download, see and pick the pictures, so I had picked blindly (just my number)...I hope you enjoyed them!
For the same reason, some of the pictures were taken before and after the trip, but I like them so much that I left them for you to see...


Our Misty, she likes to lounge on the sofa and get some sunny rays...

I am not sure if this kitty is a stray or not, does not look like it, people around us let the cats out (some without a collar), but they still have a house....

When we came from the trip (from a rainy 60's degree) we got snow welcoming us back. It lasted a day and another day or two to melt...

I think our birdie friends missed us since our bird feeders were empty... I refilled them and lots of friends were waiting for me to finish...

Here is a Robin, we normally don't have robins in the backyard (there are in the front of the house), except for one year that they used one of the birdhouses next to the garage for a summer and we could not go closed to it (eggs were in there)..., but I was surprised to see them that day.

I was intrigued by this bird that I have not seen before, went to my bird book and they are some type of Grackles! I guess they were passing by (they are supposed to be in the South), and I haven't seen them since that day.

This is where our trip started with a visit to Oconaluftee Farm (may be misspelled) in the Cherokee side of the Smokies in North Carolina. Here is a picture of one of my favorites birds, the Eastern Bluebird. I love their colors - blue and orange with some white.

Picture taking while going in the car, the trees were waking up and the buds were starting to open, in no time those trees will be so green...

We went through the Motor Trail - Roaring Fork. It is a nice place to see, there are so many creeks, trees, wildlife, boulders, etc...

Love the sound of the "river" or "creek", it is so soothing.

I love to take pictures of the road. How many roads can one life take?

I like how you can still see the movement of the water in this pic. I just wish you could feel the breeze and the smell that we felt.

I normally don't look up, but I am not sure why I did. I love this picture. The way the trees look under the sky.

This picture was for Mike. He loves the mill, so here it is. It is a wonderful mechanical invention.

More water pics, took a lot of those. When I can I will put my ultra favorite picture...

There are a lot of boulders... I like how nature arranges itself.

In the road, sometimes you feel like you are going under the trees - just the way the road is - that is why I like this picture.

Here are some wild turkeys. There were three, just walking around. We waited until they moved into the grass, and I was able to take this picture in the meantime.

Taking from the car, but I like the feeling that the river never ends...

One more shot of the flow of water...

The Ogle Farm part of the Roaring Fork Tour... It is amazing that this house has stood for so long. It is a nice walk to.

And I will end with a picture of these trees. In a few weeks, you would not be able to see through them at all...

Smokies ...

I took a lot of pictures with two cameras... My elph (small camera) is the one I can download now so here are a few moments that happened in our vacation. Later on, I will do a post with some beautiful shots of the nature that we saw and more:

Arianna loved to brush her Aunt Eve's hair. I think she is doing a great job, what do you think?

Uncle Ron and Arianna chilling in the porch. Arianna ended up liking her uncle and even now when I say Uncle Ron, she goes around thinking that he is going to pop somewhere.

Taking a break while we were at The Village in downtown Gatlinburg. Here is Arianna's grandparents, Ron and Marie.

A shot of downtown Gatlinburg, closer to the Aquarium.

A shot of the Smokies in our way to the Maggie Valley, it was a beautiful day to hike, picnic, and wander around.