Monday, January 3, 2011

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum

Up in Simi Valley now at a nice Ventura County park, waiting out a cold, rainy storm. Good time to catch up on blogging, pictures, etc.

Saw some of the the Reagan Museum as much is closed for remodeling and a Grand Re-Opening on 2/5/11, celebrating 100 years since Reagan's birth. What we did see, we liked, so will definitely return someday to see the renovations.

We toured this 707 Air Force One that was used by 7 US Presidents Nixon through GW Bush, decomissioned on 9-8-01. Cool to be inside that!

Temporary exhibit of US history represented by Christmas trees. One tree for each decade since 1770's. Fascinating! This 1950's tree has Barbie, TV, radio, Cat in the Hat, Disneyland, Korean War and more.
Another temporary exhibit, a model White House - full room size, about 8 feet tall. The detail is amazing. Built and maintained by the Zeifel family.
Beautiful gardens and grounds and views - darn the rain and cold!








Some of the Berlin Wall that Reagan brought down.





Rose Parade 01/01/11

Click this picture for just a few ...well, 87...photos from our Rose Parade adventure. We absolutely loved this, despite near-freezing temperatures! We will definitely come do this again. It was especially fun to have our friend Amy Kaye join us for the parade, to meet new friends on the street, to run into Gloria and Charlie Goss (who we had worked with at the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque in Oct), and to see Gregg's cousins Dan and Marge.

We haven't yet figured out how to be there earlier to work on floats which we would like to do another year. The issue is parking the RV in a safe place near the float work areas and not paying an arm and leg to do so. Parking at the Rose Stadium is $100 per night with NO hook-ups. We just won't do that. Street parking not allowed until the 29th and we wouldn't want to leave the RV there, unattended for a full day. RV parks are pretty far away. Gotta figure this one out for a future year.