Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum-part 3

I’m not sure why there was a motorcycle exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Library, maybe he was an enthusiast. I’m not into them at all, but I did appreciate the antiques and the ones from the movies more than these contemporary ones:

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Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum-part 2

If you are a woman of a certain age (ahem), you might have had one of these when you were a kid:

I had one similar to the one pictured and I adored it. It kept me entertained for hours at a time.

Imagine walking into a room at the Reagan Library and seeing this:

It’s a miniature, exact-replica White House. It takes up the whole room. It’s incredibly detailed and the miniature lights and TVs “work.” I later learned more about it from this article than I did when we were there but  it is totally amazing.

• It took 38 years to complete (over 600,000 hours of manual labor)
• John and Jan Zweifel, the creators,  keep it updated through each presidency and room renovation
• Every single piece of furniture is hand carved, every rug hand stitched, and every wall hand painted
• At 60 feet, it is a one foot=one inch-scale replica

If you can get there between February 7, 2011 and mid-April 2011, you’ll be able to enjoy the renovated museum and the miniature White House. I highly recommend adding this to your bucket list of things to do in L.A.

In Part 3, I’ll take you through another temporary exhibit we saw that day.

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Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum-part 1

I am so far behind with my blogging. We went to California last month to visit family and I had every intention of processing my photos and posting them as soon as I got home.

However, the hard drive on my laptop is almost full and I have to move older photos off to an external HD before I can put on new ones. And it’s the photo processing time that slows me down.

Ok, enough with the excuses.

You probably realize that when you’ve lived somewhere for a long time, you just don’t hit the touristy spots like visitors do. For being born and raised in the Los Angeles area, you’d think we’ve seen all the attractions, but sadly, we haven’t. Case in point: the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum opened several years before we moved away and we just never made it up there to see it. It’s about an hour’s drive from where we lived, but heck, in L.A., that’s nothing.

So this trip, that’s what we decided to do. We took our son Brian, John’s sister Sue and her husband Ken with us, and none of us had ever been to Simi Valley before. It’s a very rugged terrain as evidenced in this photo:

We were dismayed to find out that part of the museum was closed for renovation in anticipation of President Reagan’s 100th birthday in February 2011, so we missed out on his acting career. But what was open was very enjoyable.

I had heard that his Air Force One plane was there and it is. It’s in a building. They built the building around the plane. You can walk through it, which was very interesting, especially to see the old technology aboard, like the 1980’s-era microwave oven in the galley and the computers. They don’t let you take pictures inside and I was told it’s more of a crowd-flow issue than state secrets or anything like that. The place wasn’t very crowded the day we were there and maybe I could have sweet-talked the lady into letting me take pictures.

There is a replica of the Oval Office (is that supposed to be capitalized?):

This is a famous bronze sculpture, isn’t it? I didn’t look it up to see who made it but I know I’ve seen it before.

There is a section of the Berlin Wall:

John and I saw another section of the wall at Checkpoint Charlie when we were in Berlin several years ago.

Made out of jelly beans:

Scenes from the grounds:

I had been told that the view from the library was magnificent and you’re up on a hill and you can see the ocean, etc. Well, not the day we were there. I made a panorama of most of that view but it was too hazy and overcast to see the ocean, so you’ll just have to take my cousin’s word for it (I did). Click on the picture to see it full size and just imagine that the ocean is out at the horizon line.

And, of course, his grave. A friend of ours did the marble work around this memorial.

In part 2, I’ll take you to the most amazing (in my opinion) exhibit at the library.

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33

33 years ago today, I said “I do” to the young man who stole my heart. We were engaged about 3 months after our first date and married about 7 months after that. I imagine our families were wondering if it would last. I think we’ve done alright.

 

I’m one lucky girl. I love you, sweetheart!

 

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