Saturday, June 02, 2007

Yorba Linda, California - 1/23/2007


We enjoy stopping at Presidential Libraries. They are always fascinating. Nixon's Library was no exception. The building and grounds were beautiful and presidential - the only word I could think of to describe them. Similar to Truman's and Eisenhower's in a way, although Truman's has been compared to a post office. Johnson's, on the University of Texas campus, looked like an office building or a university library to me. We didn't go into Clinton's library on the Arkansas River in Little Rock, but from afar it didn't look presidential at all, probably because he committed a bunch of acts during his presidency that were not very presidential and one of his objectives during the design of the building was to make it better and flashier than all the other presidential libraries. The building is supposed to represent the Bridge to the 21st Century that he constantly talked up. This 'bridge' in Little Rock doesn't go anywhere either.

There were many interesting exhibits and of course we didn't have time to closely examine each one of them. I particularly liked the Pat Nixon exhibition area. I always thought she was one of the best first ladies and was interested in seeing memorabilia and pictures from her life.