The exhibits in the museum review the highlights of his presidency, and they did a very good job of making that period come alive. In 1974 when President Ford was sworn in after President Nixon resigned I was only 6 years old so I had no memory of any of the national events. The only thing the exhibits sparked a memory about for me was the celebration of our country's bicentennial. That I do remember, specifically going to see the replica of the Liberty Bell which traveled on the Freedom Train throughout the country.
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| photo stolen from panaramio! |
A good museum draws you in and keeps you interested, and this museum didn't disappoint. I won't spoil it and give out all the details. Our favorite part of the museum was a section of the Berlin Wall, right in the lobby. If you're ever in Michigan, make the effort to stop in and visit for yourselves!
Katrina was inspired to make it a goal to visit all the presidential museums also, and so far is beating me in the race! During spring break in 2011 she went on UWEC's Civil Rights Pilgrimmage and one of their stops was the William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 2012 she went to Boston with friends for spring break and visited the John F. Kennedy Museum. In an effort to catch up I'm hoping to visit the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in Iowa this month to celebrate our anniversary. Ahh...dead presidents and wintry Iowa cornfields, the height of romance!
I'm also planning a trip right after Christmas with my mother and when I mentioned to Katrina that we were going to stop at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum in Atlanta that was all it took to get her to come along! Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976 and began his term of office in January, 1977. I was still in grade school, but I remember our class holding a mock election and voting for Carter myself. The reason why is lost to time!
I took the kids to Washington D.C., but I'll save the details about that for another post. My only other presidential travel experience was when we visited South Dakota and stopped in at the National Presidents Wax Museum in Keystone. I hear you laughing out there! Our visit was in 2009 and we were greeted by none other than President Obama himself.
Some of the wax figures were very realistic, and some were not, but our favorite was the depiction of President Kennedy at his desk with John Jr. playing underneath.
I keep finding these goals we have in common as this is also one of ours. It's a rather loose one that falls behind so many others, but we have enjoyed all the museums we have visited. We particularly liked the Lincoln museum in Springfield which might not be a horribly long distance for you to travel.
ReplyDeleteI visited some of the Lincoln attractions as an 8th grader when I lived in Illinois but of course don't really remember anything about them. It's been on my mind to get down there and revisit soon.
DeleteI enjoy traveling around searching for the weird and unusual which occasionally includes a museum here and there. But Presidential museums never seem to make the list for me. Maybe someday I might give one a try.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the Black Hills of SD, but never visited that Wax Museum. I guess we all thought it was a "tourist trap" (there are plenty of those in the Black Hills, as you probably noticed) Maybe next time I'm back visiting my folks, I'll have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteSee what you mean a piece of wall, fraid it would not give the same oppresive feeling as being stood next to it feeling the cold concrete. Touching it from the west was one thing on the east side you would have been dead before you got there.
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