Vanderbilt Mansion, Museum & Planetarium part 1

If you are ever traveling in New York and make your way to Long Island I recommend going to the Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport NY. I have lived on Long Island my whole life and it is one of my most favorite places. Youngest daughter, her friend and I spent a wonderful day there. The grounds are amazing. We always bring a picnic lunch and eat our lunch on the great lawn. They do have picnic tables throughout the property but we like to eat on a blanket. They only have vending machines to sell snacks so you do need to bring your own. We brought our reusable water bottles and our free museum library pass and we were ready. The pass is good for 2 adults and up to 4 kids. You can go anywhere on the grounds, throughout most of the buildings and you get to watch one planetarium show. I could spend the day just walking all around the grounds. They are wonderful.

This was the Vanderbilts summer home so they have so  many magnificent gardens. Every corner you turn, there is another one. Every balcony looks onto a garden. It truly is amazing.

They loved their fountains. Most of the gardens have some sort of water feature. 

This fountain and pool is out back off of the main house. 

One of my favorite spots is the sun dial that still works. Over the years they have done amazing upkeep and restoration to the buildings and grounds. 

There are benches and hidden nooks that you could easily spend the day hiding out on with a good book. 

Another favorite area of mine is the wishing well garden. 

Flowers are everywhere.These are some of my favorites.

They have statues everywhere. Some are inappropriate for the internet. Many of them have been restored.  

The views of the area are so breathtaking. I would love to be able to spend a night just so I could wake up to the views.

The small buildings are the pool houses. They filled in the pool with dirt and grass so kids love running on it now. They were restoring the pool houses last year. They put new tile roofs on them and on other buildings throughout the property. 

The property does go down to the beach but they are currently restoring the boat house which is how you get down there. I'm sure there is another way but I didn't ask. 

The property is massive and they now do weddings and other events in a pavilion on the property. 

Stay tuned for part 2.