Garden Ramblings: Thanksgiving 2012

We drove down to Jim's in Grover Beach on November 17th to spend a few days with Jim before we all traveled to Gary and Joyce's in Coarsegold for Thanksgiving.

As usual, the weather in Grover Beach was beautiful! Jim was on vacation that week, so we had lots of time to visit. He is nearly finished with his remodel - only waiting for his drapes - and his house looks wonderful!

Sunday and Monday we did a bit of shopping as Jim was looking for a few throw rugs to add to his kitchen and entry way. We also loaded up Jim's car with all of the old photos that we had taken from Dad's house and had been stored in Jim's garage, waiting for all of the boys to go through them. Thanksgiving seemed like a perfect time!

On Tuesday we got up early in the morning and drove down to Simi Valley to visit the Ronald Regan Presidential Library and Museum! Jim and Lee had visited the library shortly after it opened in 1991. There had been many changes and improvements since then and another visit was on Jim's "bucket list".

I had never visited a presidential library and was envisioning lots of books, and not sure what else! Needless to say, the "presidential libraries are not libraries in the usual sense - they are archives and museums, preserving the written record and history of our presidents".

We embarked on a journey through Ronald Regan's presidential experience - beginning with his childhood and continuing through his life, until he was elected president in 1982. The exhibits took you through his 8 years of presidency, with audio, video and interactive presentations. We saw footage of the attempt on his life on the 71st day of his first term (I had forgotten all about that!) heard many of his speeches and footage of important meetings with heads of foreign countries, most notably Russia. There was a piece of the Berlin Wall, which had come down during his presidency and his 707 presidential jet, displayed amazingly in a vast room that was literally built around the plane.

Most interesting (and depressing) was seeing that the same issues that faced Regan still exist today - the economy, immigration, foreign policy, etc., still exist today - it seems that nothing has changed in the past 30 years......

There are 12 presidential libraries in the United States, and it would be interesting to see other, but I'm sure that the story will be the same with each of them.

It was a great experience! If you ever get a chance to visit one, you won't be disappointed.

We got home Tuesday night and picked up Rex (who stayed with Jim's friend, Millie). Rex was NOT happy at having been left all day and wouldn't sit with Jim!

Wednesday morning we got up early (even me!) and were getting ready to head to Coarsegold, when Gary called to tell us that Joyce had the flu!! Needless to say, we did NOT go as none of us wanted the flu!

So we had a quiet low-key Thanksgiving dinner at Jim's. We sure missed seeing Gary and Joyce, but we glad that they could rest and recover!

We spent the rest of the week with Jim and then headed home on Saturday. Thanks, Jim for a great visit!

Ronald Regan - larger than life - at the entrance to his Presidential Library

Lee and Jim with Ronald

Ronald and Nancy Regan

Lee at the presidential podium. To either side of him were teleprompters that project his speeches onto a clear Plexiglas screen - very cool!

An exact replica of the oval office - complete with the desk that Regan and other presidents before him used.

Air Force One

As you can see, the display of this aircraft was amazing! You could walk around it, under it and through it! And it was the shiniest airplane I've ever seen!