Doris Colvett and I took off a weekend recently to drive to Asheville, N. C. to tour the Biltmore Estate. What a drive! North Carolina is beautiful. It is amazing to me that over and over God stuns me with the beauty he created--what a generous hand he had with mountains, mist and trees in N. C. They are called the Smoky Mountains for a reason.
Ashville is a nice little town with lots to see and do. There are many historical points there, as we learned in a trolley ride through the city. And some very nice places to eat. The tops was Deerpoint at the Estate where we tried and loved chilled cantaloupe soup. Hope I can find a recipe. It has fruit, champagne and sour cream in it.
It must have been nice to be the richest man in the world and to be able to buy anything he wanted for his house--George Washington Vanderbilt did just that to the nth degree. His library was stunning and beautifully appointed.
We attended the First Baptist Church on Sunday morning because we wanted to see the inside of the church and because the c of c brethern and sistern did not see fit to advertise where they were--We did not see one single c of c in the city.
The FBC has a beautiful verdigris dome, was finished in 1889, and is gorgeously furnished with white walls and dark woods inside. Surprisingly, women were a large part of the service. One read the bible verse of the day, one led prayer, one did the children's lesson. Women also helped take the contribution. They are appointing about 16 new deacons and 8 of those are women. My, my--changed my view almost entirely of Baptist churches (However, I did not find out if this one was part of the Southern Baptist Convention--probably not. The organist played Vivaldi which was also a surprise.
We also had a very good tour of the home of Thomas Wolfe--author of You Can't Go Home Again. It is a very nice Victorian downtown in which his mother ran a boarding house.
Another beautiful building in town was the Basilica of St. Lawrence.
An area we didn't have time to touch was Biltmore Village--maybe next time. It was a great trip with beautiful scenery, a good friend, and time away.
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