Well it has been a bit of time since I last blogged!  One issue has been that my beloved had changed the computer to a newer revamped one while the littles and I were visiting in New York.  It has been difficult to find the previous shortcuts to the way things were set up and I was unable to access my photos or even find the Blogger site to make any postings.  I have been off work for the past month with carpal tunnel surgery so I now have had some spare time to look for the things that have been missing from my previous laptop.  The problems all started when Momma tried to download Windows 10 and then the laptop would not recognize the Bell internet stick.  Alas the problems were too much to bear and we now have a different computer to work from.  I have also had to figure out how to access my photos which were copied to a folder but were not accessable to load from the Blogger site.  I have moved the photos into the current document site so lets hope that this will work!  First off here is our wonderful two week trip to New York state visiting my sister, their much loved Auntie Edwina.  I decided to take two weeks off work and school during the March break and take the kids on a road trip. We left home at 4:00 a.m., hit the boarder at 6:45 a.m. and were at the first service centre by 8:30.  While in line at the Tim Hortons (thank you God), Mark let out a yell "New York City...here we come!"  Everyone laughed and I wondered where he had ever heard that saying.  Apparently there was a kiosk with photos of the statue of Liberty and he recognized it from the Wonder Pets show.  There you go...what you never knew that your kids know.  We arrived at our destination in Kingston New York by 2:00 p.m., tired but happy to see our family.

First stop the Vanderbilt museum:

 This was just one of the many houses that this family had built.  Evidently the smell of horses and manure in New York during the summer was too much to bear so they headed out to the county to just hang with the locals.
 This was the guest house for the bachelor men.  Seems that they could not be trusted to behave in the main house so they were kept here but expected to come to the main house for dinner and evening entertainment.  I suspect they were happy to get away from the debutants and all the giggles and squeels that young ladies seem to engage in when presented with handsome young men.  Some things will never change over time.
 This was the chandelier in the mens quarters.  Not bad for a little cottage!  Made from solid brass I am sure that it was a very expensive item even during the times of the guilded era.
 This is the main lobby of the actual mansion.  I was unable to get  many photos because my little camera would not let me turn off the flash (evidnetly a no-no) and I nearly got us booted from the tour when I tried to take a few photos.  Yes this is all marble shipped from Italy.  No wonder they ran out of money in one generation of spending.
 The bathrooms were lovely and not unlike what you would expect to see in a fancy house today.
 Everywhere you went there were mable statues, exceptional works of art that were representations of the best marble cutters of the day.  This lovely lady was in the garden and was overlooking the koi pond.
 Another lovely marble bust in the house.  Seems that you never can have too many of these boobs hanging out.
 This beautiful ceiling mural was discovered underneath some of the more recent paint jobs.  Seems someone took offence to the depictions and considered them inappropriate pornography.  Such prudishness...the murals are restored to their former glory and are a beauty to behold.  Thankfully they were found and are now well protected.
Often the marble statues showed unusual events.  Not sure that my child would be wrestling a snake this size but hey someone had to buy the odd piece just to show that they had the money to do so.
Here is the top of the main staircase and here is my nemisis the park guard that does not allow photos.  Ha ha ha...where do you think the flash came from goofy.  I did not drive ten hours with two kids in the back seat to not get a few pictures.  With all due respect...go back to eating your donuts. I am only kidding.  Once I was advised that there was a no flash policy I did stop taking photos.  Auntie Edwina who thought she had turned my flash off did however take another flash photo which made my day.  She hates to do anything wrong and it was super funny seeing the look on her face when the guard suddenly shot around again thinking I had defied his orders.  My poor sister was left to explain that she also could not get the flash to turn off.  I left the two of them to figure it out while I explored the house.  Sometimes you have to have an inside laugh!

 This is the fireplace in the sitting room.  With no central heating it would have been a main attraction during the cooler summer evenings.  Again this thing is made of solid white marble and beautifully carved.  The little ones did not come on the inside tour as there are just too many things for them to get into trouble with.  Many areas are roped off for protection and kids are not generally allowed to tour.  We did connect again at the end of the tour and we were greeted with them running up the main staircase wondering what was taking so long.  So we followed them outside to the place of the elaborate gardens.  Here they are running through the now dry koi pond.  This would have been filled with water lilly plants and beautiful koi fish during the time of the Vanderbilt occupation.

 There is still some effort to keep the gardens up for the tourists, however many of the gardens have been put back to grass.  There is a maze and being as it was early in the year there were not many flowers to see.  The trees were beautiful and many had been shipped here from all over the world.  This was the era of full time gardeners and elaborate greenhouses to keep the whole thing going.  My Dad would have loved to have been employed here!  Now there are a few flowers but mostly grass as maintanence costs would be horrific.


 Evidently this garden has spiders!  Oh sorry that is just our Mark in his super over sized spiderman hoodie that he insited on having despite it being too big.  I should have known...Marissa would not be sitting that close to a real spider!
 The love that these two have for eachother is amazing.  When they are not fighting or conspiring against us adults they are the best kids one could ever hope to have!
 Momma had to get her face in at least one photo just to prove I was there.  I cannot imagine what it would have been like to try to keep this estate going with the hundreds of guests, workers and family members there all at once.  It would have been very stressful for the headmistress.
 This photo was taken by my sister before I knew what she was up to.  She calls it Mistress of the mansion or Lady of the manor (not sure what she titled it).  I would likely have been the scullery maid.  It is a great photo however of the ceiling work.  Wow can you imagine having to paint that!  In all it was an amazing tour and it was impressed on me about how little I know about this time in history.  The Vanderbilt name has always been familiar to me but I had no idea of the wealth that had once been a part of their lives.  How far they have fallen.  Money is something that has to be managed well or it is lost and your family home becomes a museum to strangers!  Kind of sad in a way.
 So Momma came home inspired to add some bling to our home.  I found this beautiful chandelier in my thrift shopping that is a vintage, made in Spain, cast brass, led crystal beauty.  It was in pieces with a few parts missing.  A bit of ebay shopping to find the missing items and here is the end result. Queen Marissa is sleeping under her own "frozen" bling. I am quite proud of the work I have done in restringing all of the crystals in a different fashion so that no-one is aware that it is not in the original form that it once was.  Actually from what I could tell, I much prefer the way I have put it together over the way it had been.  It is a pretty nice piece and I am sure that when the time comes I will likely take it down and give it to Marissa to hang over the dining room table of her home...yes it really does look that nice!
I will follow-up with a few more events of our holiday when I am able to get to more postings.

 This is the beautiful night shine of the chandelier which is awesome to look at.
 During the day the sunlight casts rainbows all over the room, much to the delight of our Queen.
Of course there has to be that well loved cat!  Hello Kitty you have a new purpose here.  I have another round ball for when it is moved to the future Queen's dining room!  By then I assume the Hello Kitty will have lost its glamour.  Sleep well little one.  They say crystals are good for your health.