2014 Highlights Part 3: Biltmore

“Take time to enjoy life. Don’t work your life away. Spend a little more money than you think you should every once in a while. Take a vacation or two…or three. Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses along the way.”

Have you ever wondered what advice someone would give you if they could follow you around for week and see your choices, your habits and your decisions? Well, maybe we are the only ones, but we have often wondered. But if we had to guess what someone might say, our list would probably look something like the list above. We have been married for almost three years now, and we rarely take a vacation. In fact, this trip to Biltmore was our first real vacation since our honeymoon! We really need to get out more. Getting away for a few days really reminded us that it’s the little things in life that truly matter.

One thing we have consistently spent a little bit of money on is our annual passes to Biltmore. Biltmore has had a special place in our hearts ever since we got engaged there. We make it up there usually about once a month for an afternoon and sometimes even a little picnic. In December, we wanted to celebrate our first full year of being full time and Alyssa wanted to plan a Biltmore trip. One of her dreams has always been to stay at the Inn on Biltmore so she surprised Ryan with a night at the Inn! It was absolutely gorgeous and wonderful. If you ever get the change to stay there, it is totally worth it!

We also got to go through the house during the Candlelight Christmas. Inside the house, everything is decorated for Christmas. Ok, so that might be a mild understatement. There are 56 Christmas tress inside the house including a 35-foot tree in the Banquet Hall! On top of that, there are over 1,000 Poinsettias, miles of garland and lights, and live music! You have to see it to really appreciate its true beauty!

After our stay at the Inn, we checked out and went over to the nearby Grove Park Inn and ate at a fantastic restaurant called The Edison. We could go on and on about this place, but let’s just say the grilled cheese was the best we have ever had! No seriously, ever. It had bacon, folks. And four cheeses! We will definitely be back!

As we drove home, we recounted our wonderful memories. We think that was the best part of the whole trip. The memories. You only get to live life once. Sometimes, you have to take a little break from the hustle and bustle of life and just live life. We have been called to be good stewards of our time, money and talents. But we have to remember it’s ok to spend a little bit of money and do something out of the ordinary sometimes. You only get one chance! Live life to the fullest, friends! Enjoy a few highlights of our little trip. We definitely recommend taking this trip if you get a chance!

When we first got there, we ate BBQ at the Smokehouse. The meat is locally grown in North Carolina and it was fabulous!

We always try to get people to take our picture. Sometimes they do great! And sometimes they…don’t. If you want to see all of the ones where they didn’t do too well, ask us sometime. The guy who took this one gets a B-. He did a great job getting it in focus, but he didn’t seem too excited to help us out so he loses points for that. Overall though, well-done!

The lady we got to take this one for us was fantastic! We almost hired her to follow us around all day to take more pictures of us. A+ all the way. She was happy to help and this composition is just impeccable! Kind lady, if you are out there, let us know so we can hire you on our next trip!

Ok this guy gets an A+ for effort. As you can see, his test shot attempt didn’t go well. However, he hung in there and really turned it around at the end. So overall, we award him an A-. We can really see a future for him in photography if he keeps practicing!

Ah yes. You may not be able to tell in the image, but this guy had us a little worried that he might drop our $5,000 camera. He didn’t seem sure how to hold it. It was like he was holding a musical instrument backwards. He was an elderly man probably in his upper 80’s. But he said he knew what he was doing, so we just went with it! He gets a C+ for technical proficiency, but overall he gets a B+ because he was such a nice guy.

The rest of these, we actually took ourselves using a mixture of our camera bag, a jacket or two and a few scarfs for support. If anyone was watching we probably looked like total goofballs running back and forth. But we had fun and that’s what matters right? Right?? Ok we will stick with goofballs then.

If you enjoyed this, check out our other two highlights from 2014 here!
2014 Highlights Part 1: Nashville
2014 Highlights Part 2: Andrew Haler