Catching up - February Trip to Biloxi

I wish I was better at keeping up with the blog like my daughter-in-law. But it is what it is!

In February, we made a trip to Biloxi to visit Matt and Vanessa and family for Valentines weekend. I took the Friday the 12th and Monday the 15th off to make it a four-day weekend. We actually left Rock Hill on the evening of the 11th after work and drove to Montgomery to spend the night. With the time zone difference we can get up a little early with our bodies on Eastern time and be really early on Central time. We got to Biloxi mid morning. We went to the Half Shell Oyster House for lunch (only time of day we can afford it.)

Nathan and Nanni at Half Shell

The rest of the day was spent reading books, riding bikes, and going for walks.

Hallway is the correct place to read

Saturday morning was soccer time. The temperatures were a little on the cool side.

Afterward, there was the usual afternoon of shopping and visiting. Nathan had to have a "Piderman" umbrella. Then we did some more soccer in the back yard.

Sunday morning, we went to church. Then for lunch we had heart-shaped pizza and goodies.

Burning off some energy!!!

Monday, we headed back to Rock Hill. We love that we can visit more often since Matt and family moved closer to home.

Biltmore Estate

For Christmas, Matt and Vanessa got us tickets to visit Biltmore Estate, in Asheville, North Carolina. It is advertised as the largest privately owned home in America. Do I believe it? Yes, I do. We actually went to Biltmore 20 years ago with my dad and mom.

Fall
1996

Jessi and Matt in 1996

Gary, Matt, Kira, Mom and Jessi

Grandpa Ed and Grandma Lola with Matt, Kira and Jessi

For those who may not be familiar, Biltmore was built between 1889 and 1895 by the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, George Washington Vanderbilt II. He pretty much blew his inheritance building the estate, which was modeled on the French chateaus and English manor homes.

Biltmore has four acres of floor space and a total of 250 rooms in the house including 33 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens and 19th-century novelties such as electric elevators, forced-air heating, centrally controlled clocks, fire alarms, and an intercom system (not to mention the bowling alley and indoor pool.) It is decorated with tapestries, paintings, and other art works from America and Europe. The house was designed by Richard Morris Hunt who also designed the façade for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. The grounds were done by Frederick Law Olmstead (designer of Central Park in New York). The original grounds covered 195 square miles most of which Olmstead converted to forest which is now the basis of Pisgah National Forest.  

30 Jan 2016

We left Rock Hill about 8am, since we had a time for the tour of 10:30a. After stopping for gas in Gaffney we got there around 10:20am. There was still some snow on the ground in Asheville, especially under the trees.

It took about an hour to tour the house. We had the audio tour where you are given a device with a number pad on it. As you came the various rooms, there would be a sign with the name of the room and a number on it. You would punch in the number and it would play back a recording describing the room, how it was used, and anything of interest in it. (There was always something of interest.)  The tour covered the main rooms, many of the private and guest rooms, and also the kitchen, laundry and some of the servant’s quarters.

After the tour, we visited the gift shops in the converted stable/carriage house. We also had lunch there at the Stable Café. We had the Stable Café Sampler for two (smoked ribs, pulled pork barbecue, rotisserie chicken, white bean ragout, coleslaw, sweet pickles and potatoes.) I came to about $40 with the tip so not real bad. The food was pretty good (except the chicken was kind of bland.)

After eating we stopped off at Antler Hill Village and did a little window shopping and got some ice cream.

Then it was back to Rock Hill. We got home a little after 4:40 pm.

We really enjoyed the trip and we would like to go back and take the behind the scenes tour of the servants area.

Weekend at Hilton Head

For Martin Luther King weekend, we were able to join Matt, Vanessa, Joshua and Nathan at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. They had a time share they were trying out for the long weekend and we went down to visit with them.

Friday, 15 January, we took the dogs to the kennel right after work and drove down to Hilton Head. Since we thought they just had a standard hotel room, we had made reservations at the Best Western. We got in around 9pm after about a 5 hour drive and settled in for the night.

Best Western

Saturday morning we were up early and went to meet at Matt and Vanessa's apartment. Due to some issues with their time share, they got upgraded to a two bedroom, two bath apartment. Since they had the space we moved in with them.

Saturday breakfast was at Palmetto Bay Sunrise Cafe. We chose to eat outside despite the cool temperatures. They had gas heaters around the tables that made it pretty nice. It was interesting. There were locals who were obviously regulars. They would bring their dogs with them and everyone greeted them by name. The dogs even knew where the doggy snacks were kept. Breakfast was good but seemed to be a bit pricey as all the entrees were about $9.99. We were to discover that was pretty standard for all the places we ate at Hilton Head.

Palmetto Bay Sunrise Cafe

After breakfast we drove over to Harbor Town. This is the location of the iconic Hilton Head lighthouse. You have to pay $6 for a pass to this part of the island if you are not a member. We looked around, played at the playground, and did a little shopping.

Matt, Nani, and Joshua watch the pelicans at the pier

Nathan (AKA Taz) gets some exercise

More exercise

Yacht harbor (There was one for sale for $1.2M if you have the change)

Live Oak tree

Playground

New toy motorcycle

Waiting for mom and Nani to shop

Joshua

After shopping we stopped at a nature trail on the island. We should have figured something out when the trail had the name bog in it. They had signs describing what we were looking at. Joshau got very concerned about poison ivy after seeing the signs.

For lunch we stopped at Reilly's Bar and Grill for lunch. Matt had a gift certificate as part of their time share package, plus we got an addition discount for staying at the time share location. Each entree cost $9.99!

At Reilly's Bar and Grill

After lunch we went back to the apartment so Nathan could take his nap. He could not sleep unless Pop Pop was in there with him, so PopPop got a nap, too. Matt and Vanessa went to a two-hour spiel on why they should buy into a time share. As tempting as it was, they decided against it.

When they got back, we all went out for Pizza at Giuseppi's. It was pretty good.

After pizza, we walked over to Kilwin's for ice cream. We had eaten at one of these places in Hendersonville NC a couple of years ago.

Nani is hungry

Sunday morning, we left Nani with the boys and went to church at the Hilton Head ward. It was a broadcast stake conference for all of the southeast US, so this was the same conference we would have seen in our home wards this day. After the broadcast, we came home. Nani fixed chili for lunch. Then we played a couple of rounds to Mad Libs while Nathan took his nap. After that we went over to the beach and a short walk. Nathan kept trying to catch the sea gulls while Joshua looked for shells and sharks teeth. (No teeth but a couple of small shells. No birds for Nathan.)

Sadly, Gary had to be back to work on Monday morning, so we headed back home, leaving a little after 5pm. The drive home was not bad and we got home a little before 9.  We had a great time and look forward to next visit in Biloxi in February