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Richie Rich (Biltmore Estate)

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Richie Rich (Biltmore Estate)

Asheville’s Biltmore Estate has had a cameo in many Hollywood films, including Hannibal, Forrest Gump, Patch Adams, and My Fellow Americans. One of its most whimsical roles is the part of the Rich family mansion in the 1994 version of Richie Rich, starring Macauley Culkin. Based on the comic book series by Alfred Harvey, this caper follows the adventures of young Mr. Rich as he assumes the leadership role in the family company, following the presumed death of his parents in a plane crash.

See the trailer for this 1994 film:

The sneaky CFO of Rich Industries, Lawrence Van Dough, is behind the many misfortunes of the Rich family and their loyal employees. His dastardly deeds are all part of a plot to steal the family fortune, which he believes is stored on a vault on Mount Richmore. Throughout the movie, you can see interior and exterior shots of the Biltmore Estate and its beautifully landscaped grounds. The estate is trademarked as “America’s Largest Home” and is currently owned by a branch of the Vanderbilt family. Once the wealthiest family in America, many of the descendants are known for their talents rather than their fortunes, including late clothing designer Gloria Vanderbilt, television personality Anderson Cooper, award-winning actor and producer Timothy Olyphant, and screenwriter James Vanderbilt.

To step inside the fictional world of Richie Rich and the real-life world of the Vanderbilt heirs, you can explore the estate at your own pace or take a guided tour with behind-the-scenes access. You’ll see priceless art, stunning architectural details, manicured lawns and gardens, and natural beauty.

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Wat Buddharangsi

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Wat Buddharangsi

Wat Buddharangsi is a Theraveda Buddhist temple, in the Thai tradition, located in Homestead, just south of Miami. It was built in 1982 to house a congregation that has been around since 1979, and it continues to expand with the South Florida Thai-American community and with an increasing number of non-Thai visitors. Visitors from many backgrounds have described the area as a peaceful and beautiful oasis in the fast-paced Miami metro, a place to meditate or just appreciate the unique grounds. The temple welcomes anyone with an interest in Buddhism and also offers a variety of religious and non-religious events.

The centerpiece of the temple is a 5-ton, 23-foot tall Buddha statue. It’s made mostly of brass but also contains copper, silver, and gold. Visitors can place a gold leaf on the Buddha’s head as a prayer for wisdom, or on the heart as a prayer for love or good health. The statue is named “PHRABUDDHADHAMMACHINARAJ” and is based on a statue with the same name in Phitsanulok, Thailand. It was created for Miami’s Thai Buddhist community in 1997 before the temple was built.

A Growing Community

The complex also includes modest apartments for about six monks who live there at a given time. Visitors can ask them for blessings, and they perform marriages and other religious ceremonies for the community.

It was designed by Nopporn Poochareon, a Thai-American general contractor and owner of Thai restaurants in Miami. Man of the materials, as well as some of the workers, were sourced from Thailand to keep the temple true to the Thai tradition.

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Rockefeller Park & Greenhouse

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Rockefeller Park & Greenhouse

Rockefeller Park is the largest park entirely inside Cleveland’s city limits. The park connects a string of parkland that extends from the suburb of Shaker Heights to the shore of Lake Erie. To celebrate Cleveland’s Centennial in 1896, oil tycoon John D.Rockefeller and his wife, Laura Spelman Rockefeller, pledged to deed the city 270 acres of land and donate hundreds of thousands more for the park’s beautification and upkeep—a total of $550 k in turn-of-the-century dollars! The announcement drew cheers from the Centennial celebration’s crowd, and in gratitude, the park was named in their honor.

Rockefeller Park Greenhouse

The plans to build a greenhouse on a portion of the park began in 1902, and the first building opened in 1905. Initially, the purpose of the greenhouse was solely to grow plants that could be transferred to other parks and gardens to beautify the city. Over time, the greenhouse grew to be a botanical destination on its own.

Today Rockefeller Park Greenhouse is a small, four-acre botanical garden with a wonderful assortment of specialty plants, seasonal floral displays, and themed gardens. Are you looking to explore firsthand some beautiful botanical finds? Come indoors to see the greenhouse’s cacti and orchids, an indoor water garden, a fern showhouse, and more.

In December, the gardens and greenhouse are converted into an elaborate holiday display, filled with poinsettias.

There are also six outdoor gardens. The Iris Garden is a delight in springtime. During the summer, the Latin American Garden displays succulents, flowering plants, and tropical fruits found in Central and South America. The Japanese Garden evokes a soothing, tranquil feeling through its materials, plants, and traditional Japanese design. The Mall is a manicured formal garden with statues that symbolize the four seasons, and a Peace Garden leads you through an old-fashioned gazebo to perennial, herb, and rose gardens. A highlight for all visitors, including the visually-impaired, is the Betty Ott Talking Garden. Here plants have been selected for their appeal to all the senses and are planted in raised beds that allow you to get up close to see, touch, and smell them. Descriptions are given in audio, and garden signage is both in English and Braille. As for the park, the outdoor space is filled with arching trees native to Ohio.

There is something in bloom at Rockefeller Greenhouse all year round. Admission is free, and it’s open from 10 to 4 every day, even on holidays. Its small size makes it easy to explore, and it’s often less crowded here than in some of the other parks, making it a hidden gem. Visitors enjoy escaping from cold, winter weather and getting a taste of the desert or tropics in the warm, indoor greenhouses.

More Points Of Interest

Points of interest at Rockefeller Park include the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, four architecturally historic stone bridges, and Doan Brook. The Cultural Gardens and the stone bridges are on the National Register of Historic Places. The park also offers a lagoon, picnic areas, tennis courts, playgrounds, and walks.

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Cupid’s Span

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Cupid's Span

Who doesn’t love love? In 2002, married artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen built the Cupid’s Span installation to honor romance. Located in Rincon Park along the Embracdero, the piece shows partial images of a bow and arrow lodged in the ground. The 60-foot sculpture is made of fiberglass and steel, making it a sturdy and long-standing piece of construction.

The Meaning

For Cupid’s Span, it’s essential to know why the work of art was created. Because San Fransisco is known as the home port of Eros, Oldenburg and Bruggen saw fit to create a monument honoring this space of love and creativity. The meaning relates to Cupid, the mythological god of desire, attraction, and affection. His counterpart is Eros, signifying that Cupid’s Span unites all aspects of the myth into one giant artwork. There is also a mythological account of Eros shooting an arrow into the Earth to bring fertility. All in all, Cupid’s Span is a mythological reimagining of ancient ideas and principals.

The Inspiration

Oldenberg and Bruggen also chose to make this piece because of its similarity to the Golden Gate Bridge. While the meaning behind the work of art is more transcendental, the physical component is meant to emulate and pay tribute to the city’s famous bridge. Both works of steel and both suspended in their own way, Cupid’s Span and the Golden Gate Bridge represent the golden ideals of the city and how those can manifest when people come together to create something amazing.

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