Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year I was fortunate to spend some time with mom. In the picture above you can see she was enjoying being queen for a weekend. She and my brother's mother-in-law Brenda flew up from their homes in Tampa for the weekend to visit and to spend some quality time up here in N. Carolina.


The weekend's events included a visit to the neighborhood where my new house is being built, some quality time between lunches and dinners, and a visit to Asheville and the Biltmore Estate. Today's blog entry is put together with images taken at the Biltmore Estate's gardens and conservatory. I couldn't think of a more appropriate way to celebrate moms than with a nice picture of her being silly and some flowers.

The Biltmore, which is the largest house in the U.S., is loaded with elegance and all of the luxuries money could by back in the very late 1800s. My mother absolutely loves history. Every summer she was in charge of planning our road trips. You could pretty much count that we would end up learning about the history of some small town in the U.S. As a kid, we all wanted Disney World and theme parks. Mom always wanted to go see some historic battle site or some small town in the middle of nowhere. As with growing older, I can finally appreciate all of those "boring" places we visited. Now I can't wait to revisit a lot of those places and gain a finer appreciation the second time around. It's strange what "getting older and wiser" will do to a person.

I can recall my mother forcing the family sometime around dinner time to watch that show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" with Robin Leach back when we were kids. I remember how boring it was to learn about what rich people did with their money. This house and its grounds were truly amazing. Mom loved every minute of the day, especially the wine tasting, the audio history tour, and the gardens. At the turn of every corner I was just waiting for Robin Leach to greet us.


As you can well imagine, I enjoyed just walking around taking pictures of the estate with all of its detailing and grandness. Learning about the house and the level of sophistication for its day was also very interesting.


To all the mothers out there, and to my mom especially, Happy Mother's Day. I hope you enjoyed your weekend in N. Carolina with "the kids."