The Cove

Hello! I know its been a week or so since I've updated the blog, I apologize. So, here is the pictures of the Cove where the Billy Graham Training Center is located. We took a tour of this when we went to the Biltmore. Below, is the steeple, which is about 87 ft long. 87 feet! The cross is about 8 ft of the full 87. The builders wanted it to be seen from the road, obviously. =] The door is made of walnut and we were told that no nails whatsoever was used to put it together.

This pic is taken from inside the prayer room. I'll explain this in a moment.

This is the prayer room. The cushions on the table and floor is for your elbows and knees. Mrs. Graham, who designed most of the interior of the chapel, wanted a "place to put her bony elbows."

This is also in the prayer room, as is the next pic.

This is the sanctuary. It was brought to our attention that everything points up to God, including the chairs, windows, chandeliers, etc. The pulpit is over 400 years old. The pews are over 200 years old and were taken from a school for blind children.

We got a chance to play and sing. Here is Ju on the piano.

Now this is an interesting story. =] The women who made all the chandeliers and the sconces on the walls was an opera singer turned blacksmith. Strange, huh? Never heard that one before. =] Notice the blooms, the are dogwood blossoms.

The sconces are based off of the jack-in-pulpit wildflower.

Window...

The outside of the chapel. Beautiful! Love the wilderness!!

Biltmore

Behold! the Biltmore Estate!!! We traveled to the Biltmore, located in Asheville, North Carolina, and took a tour of the house and grounds. It is beautiful! The reason we went was, of course, to see it but the parents left for a business conference and the grandparents decided it was a good opportunity to go. So we went! A little history of the estate: it took about 6 years to build and consisted of 125,000 acres of land, now of which only 8,000 remain. The owner, George Washington Vanderbilt, traveled the mountains of North Carolina and fell in love with the land. He called upon two of America's most renowned designers, Richard Morris Hunt and Frederick Law Olmstead, to assist in the planning of the large castle. =] In 1895, the House was formally opened to the family. In 1930, it was opened to the public. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the House, but I did manage to get a few of the grounds. Enjoy! Beautiful! The grandparents, it took a couple shots to get them to behave... Poppy was being naughty =D

The kiddies, we really do love each other!

This is my [Sari's] favorite picture. So majestic!

The entrance to the House.

Notice the gargoyles and the intricate stonework in these next few pics.

This is at the entrance looking up.

Standing on the portico at the rear of the house, we captured this view.

Ooo... so ominous... I tink it be purty, don't yew?

Once again, please observe the beautifully carved stonework. These masterpieces were carved out of the stone after it was placed on the building. It is amazing at what people can do, especially in the late 19th century. But we could do without the naked people... O.o For your sake and ours, they are not pictured.

Rawr.

Howdy, folks! Welcome to the barn! This section was opened to the public much later. It was in the shape of an octagon with the building pictured below protruding into the center. The barn, as a whole, consisted of the Mercantile (a shop), a blacksmith workshop, a restuarant (called the Smokehouse), a woodworking shop, and stables.

More of the barn...Lookit! a Farmall tractor!!! There was much farming equipment displayed for all of us tourists to admire, this being one of them. =]

This is a pic of one of the stables that housed the Belgian draft horses. It's HOOGE!

Meet Bert. He is a Belgian draft horse, retired and happy. He and his buddy, Chester, were being babied by some workers.

Let me be the first to introduce you to the rare wheelbarrow goat. XD We like this position!

*cheepcheepcheep* There was a variety of chickens, a few had afros while others had "hairy" legs...

The Bass Pond.

This is a waterfall coming over the dam of the pond.

Welcome to the Gardens of the Biltmore!

This is a weeping, evergreen, something or other, tree. We forgot the name...

This is the arbor laden with grapes, which were quite good, actually... =]

Pretty green gourd...

Oooo...

Wow, what a funky blossom!

Dresses

Ready for a fashion show? Allow me to present a dress made by the one and only JP! Cute, isn't it? No actual design, she pieced it together in about 4 different sections. Below, you can see the detail of the top... The back of the dress is a low scoop, for lack of better word; and as you can see she wears a black tank to complete the masterpiece. =]

And here, the skirt. Neat little pattern, don't you think?

Aha! Here is me in my birthday dress. It didn't look like that when purchased. A friend of my grandmother's made a few minor adjustments to it, including the straps and belt.

Here you can better see the straps, which were constructed from the belt, and the belt, using what was left, conviently velcroed in the back.

Oreo Excellence ^_^

Hello, everybody! JP and I [Sari] decided to experiment with a new recipe. I give you Oreo Cheezcakes!!! Don't they look yummy? I found them on a website called epicute.com (a branch of icanhascheezburger.com, which is funny pictures of cats, mainly, with captions), a cute food blog. They have some really good-looking stuff. Below is the finished product. It was sooo good! Oreoooosss... 0_o 'Nother pic, up close...

Crust is made of freshly crushed graham crackers with light brown sugar and melted butter. Mind you, real butter. =P

Spooning the mixture of cream cheese, lemon juice, vanilla, heavy cream, and oreos (of course!)...

Mixing up the batter... pics are kinda out of order. =]