The Aguirre's

Well here's stuff we saw around the biltmore other than just the gardens. Again it was all really beautiful. We couldn't take any pictures on the inside of the house so I just got some nice outside shots. The house itself was a little ridiculous for sheer size and number of rooms. I mean they had four sitting areas and 30 guest bedrooms. But overall a lot of fun. IF you look closly you can see what mom should build for her new pond and just how scary koi can be.

The biltmore garden

Here's a picture collage of some of the flowers and ponds and other beautiful things we saw in the Biltmore gardens. It was a very beautiful and serene place and I was very glad to simple stroll the paths with Rene. We probably could have spent all day in the gardens alone.

Pictures

So here's the beginning of my picture adding entries. I am trying to put stuff up about every other day of cool stuff we did on the trip. This is a picture of our stop in Memphis on the longest leg of our road trip. The one that took 15 hours!!! I spent most of the time bugging Rene about taking scenic pictures of the drive. I promised him I would make a collage which I think will be my last picture posting.
We stopped and eat at Bealle Street and wandered around because I insisted that we should see the famous peabody ducks which live in the hotel and have their very own elevator to get around in. It is a little bit strange to see ducks inside a hotel in a fountain but hey whatever. I also found the sculputures of the scary dogs a little strange but hey what can I say that is rich people's ways of spending money.

Leg 4: The trip to Louisville

After talking to my nephew Horacio for a year about coming to see him at the various places he was working at Horse Tracks we finally timed our travel and where he was to make it work. Currently he is working at Church Hill Downs. He is a galloper, which means he rides horses every day 7 days a week. He seems to be doing very well. We had a really good time catching up with him and seeing some of Louisville. Church Hill Downs was nice and we got to see this part of Louisvlle called 4th street live which seemed like a fun place to hang.
After a short visit we headed on to Tulsa and here we are!
After driving for 19 hours over two hours we decided to rest for a day before we headed to Lubbock. And soon this road trip of longness will come to an end.

From the road,
Jen

Raleigh part three of the road trip of longness

Rene and I arrived in Raleigh on Wednesday afternoon and drove to our friends church to hang out until I was to meet up with Sarah and Tila. After a long drive it was good to finally get to see the people we had driven all that way to visit.
Sarah and Tila and I hung out at the mall, visiting, eating, and helping Sarah pick out an outfit for her rehersal dinner. It had been a long time since I had actually seen Sarah or Tila and it was really good to catch up and visit.
After that I headed over to the pool to visit with the Bolash family. It was strange to see Mila and Risa four years later and much older, but alot of fun.
Over the next four days we hung out with the Bolash's and it was restful and fun and totally unstressful. I got to see Sarah and do some wedding stuff with her and just hang out. On Saturday we went to the wedding, which was small and pretty.
Overall our time in Raleigh was spent being with friends and that was really good. It was all I could have asked for and was even pretty restful and I was sad to leave. But . . . on Sunday morning we woke up and headed toward Lousiville Kentucky to meet up with our nephew Horacio.

Jen

2nd leg of the trip: The journey to Asheville

Rene and I left at 8:38 from Tulsa on Sunday morning headed toward the mountian town of Asheville, NC. After six hours we stopped and rested in Memphis, TN. My overall impressions are that it is a loud somewhat dirty, somewhat funky, fun town. We ate at a restaurant on Bealle Street and walked around some. Unfortunately all the cool places we really wanted to eat were closed on Sundays. Although here's a shout out to Uncle Harold, after seeing the place you recommended we really wished that it had been opened because it seemed much more fun than where we ate.
After some picture taking of ducks in hotels we headed off to Asheville. 7 hours later at 1:21 there time (12:21 most of my family's time) we arrived in Asheville. And were awake just long enough to fall comatose into the very comfortable hotel beds.
Next day we visited the Biltmore estate, which was very beautiful and the Biltmore gardens which were even more beautiful. It was so nice to peacefully stroll along surrounded both by man made beauty and nature. We liked the Biltmore so much we are recommending Asheville as a very nice (not Arkansas, Texas, or Oklahoma) trip.
The town of Asheville was also very nice with lots of very unique shops and lots and lots of art to see. We liked it enough and were tired enough from the 15 hour car trip the previous day that we decided to stay an extra day in Asheville and see more of the town and some things we thought might be nice to see.
So last day was sort of a bust at the beginning. We went to the Farmer's Market which was a farmer's market but not quite as exciting as we had hoped. We had been told there was a 45 foot waterfall which we did not see. Rene was very disappointed as he feels cheated by waterdribble's and other not really waterfall experiences of late and really wanted to see a waterfall. There was one at the Biltmore but it was manmade and not quite the same. Then we traveled out to see the Folk Art Center which was much smaller than we imagined with really beautiful and really expensive art and dishes and brooms you could buy. Really like a 10th of the place in Arkansas we all went to.
But the day was redeemed by a trip to some of the really cool shops around Asheville were we bought some beautiful much less expensive art. We also stopped at a store called the Chocolate Fetish and bought some truffles from a girl who, and I am not kidding, was high on chocolate.
Overall Asheville was fun and relaxing, although we didn't get to see even a quarter of all the things there are to do in the town. And we ate at some fantastic restaurants with really cool names like the flying frog and Tuppulo Honey Cafe. And mom I ate grits and they were really good!!!

From the road

Jen

PS Pictures which we did take will have to wait until we get back to Lubbock and can download them on the computer

Leg one of the road trip of longness

After a 12 hour car trip I arrived in Hot Springs, AR at 3:00 in the morning with Rene in tow. I picked up Rene in McKinney on my way from Lubbock. We slept in and waited for the family to arrive on Saturday. The hotel was nice and the family was able to congragate in various peoples rooms. Specifically our room most often for some unknown reason.
Saturday we spent most of the time hanging out at the lake and eating. It was fun to watch the boys in the lake and to "hike" (really more like a walk) to the water trickle. After some difficulty choosing a place to eat and Mom and Laura's family getting stuck at Chili's we all ate and then slept.
Sunday we headed to Batesville and my grandma's 90th birthday celebration. It was a lot of fun to see everybody and have good conversation and hold babies. And that night all the siblings actually managed to play a game together and the old people beat up on the young'uns.
Then Rene and mom and I headed back to Batesville so we could see my grandma when there weren't so many people and it wasn't overwhelming. And that was also very good. Although mom didn't sit still for more than five minutes, she was like a spinning top that just whirled here and there doing stuff.
Since Wednesday we have been back in Tulsa recouping and trying to rest before we whirl on to North Carolina. We are a little tired, hopefully it will still be a fun trip.

Adios from the road.
Jen