Showing posts with label Travels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travels. Show all posts

Monday, April 22, 2013

Road Trip to the West: The Great Sand Dunes


Along our road trip we made many amazing stops! One of our stops was to see the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. They were incredible!!! They are located in the San Luis Valley between two mountain ranges: the San Juan Mountains and the Sangre de Cristos. Because of their location they are a part of a very unique ecosystem. We had so much fun learning more about this area. You can check out more information about how these dunes were formed at their National Park page here: http://www.nps.gov/grsa/naturescience/sanddunes.htm





San Juan Mountains



The Sangre de Cristos

































Tuesday, January 1, 2013

The Biltmore





On our way back from our Christmas visit to Pennsylvania we decided that stopping at the Biltmore was a must do before we move. I have to admit I really didn't know much about the Biltmore. I had looked up information about it online, but what you see online and read is nothing compared to actually visiting. It.was.AMAZING! The best way I can describe it is to call it a castle located in the United States.

We started off touring the gardens because of the unusually warm weather. Cameras are not allowed in the Biltmore, so I took as many pictures as I could beforehand! A lot of these are just fun details I saw as we walked around. 

My recommendations on visiting:
~ If you like to read everything and soak it all in like I do, get there early. We could have easily spent another day.
~ Go during the Christmas season. It was beyond beautifully decorated.
~ Unless you like crowds, I'd probably go early in December on a weekday. We went New Year's Eve and it was pretty packed.
~ Rent the audio tour and listen as you walk through. It was filled with in-depth descriptions of the rooms and stories about the family.
~ Just enjoy this magnificent piece of architecture located in the U.S.







One of my absolute favorites!!!






 This reminded me of all of the beautiful doors we saw in Italy.









 There were a lot of fun shaped trees like this by the greenhouse.



The Greenhouse































 I had fun finding all of the V's on the house. V for Vanderbilt