November 15-20, 2016
Our home base for visiting Dallas was The Vineyards Campground & Cabins on Grapevine Lake. This campground reopened in May after a year of clean up after being 20 ft under water from flooding. Who would have known?! They have done a great job restoring this lovely campground.
We purchased the Dallas City Pass which gave us the opportunity to visit four places at a 40% discount. Our first stop was the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. With five levels of exhibit halls and a 3D Theater we spent four hours experiencing and engaging information from unseeable cells to the far reaches of the universe.
Our second visit was to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum located on the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in University Park, Texas. The highlights of this museum include the 2000 election, A Nation Under Attack, a full scale replica of the Oval Office, Life in the White House, and important policies and initiatives. Under pinning everything was George and Laura’s commitment to faith, family and public service. Their deeply held principles of freedom and inherent value for every human life led them to empower Americans; “To every man and woman, a chance to succeed. To every child, a chance to learn. To every family, a chance to live with dignity and hope”. Another quote we liked is; “I build my life on a foundation that will not shift, my faith frees me”. We admire and respect George W. Bush’s presidency and the decent and honorable way he has conducted himself post-presidency.
Next we enjoyed a 360 degree view of Dallas at the 561ft Reunion Tower. Reunion Tower, also known locally as “The Ball” or “God’s Microphone”, was completed in 1978, along with the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion, as part of an urban redevelopment project that also renovated the historic Union Station. The view was tremendous! At night, the globe at the top of the building is illuminated with 259 custom LED fixtures in various patterns for different occasions.
From Reunion Tower, we walked to Dealey Plaza and experienced the Sixth Floor Museum commemorating the tragic events of November 22, 1963. Omar and I both felt eerie walking the site of the assignation of our 35th president, John F Kennedy. The museum was well done and included a multi-media experience of the life, assassination and legacy of JFK. The museum is literally on the very spot from which Lee Harvey Oswald, according to four government investigations, shot and killed the President. You get the view from the window and the scene as it was found. There are x’s painted on the street where the president was hit. We felt the dire sadness of this horrible event. One comment made about the controversy regarding JFK’s assassination stuck with us, “How could such an in consequential person kill such a consequential man?” We may never know this side of heaven. We are grateful we had the opportunity to remind ourselves of this fatal, historic event.
From Dallas we spent two nights in College Station so we could visit the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library on the west campus of Texas A & M University. Bush 41 served as our president from January 1989-1993. We spent all day learning about his life and all the amazing opportunities of service he chose. He was a naval pilot during WWII and was shot down in 1944. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University in 1948 with a degree in economics, after which he and Barbara moved to Texas where he worked in the oil business. His political career began in 1963 in Texas and by 1981 he was vice president to Ronald Regan. He was also Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in China, and Director of Central Intelligence. Both Barbara and George were committed to public service and initiated the Points of Light Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Washington to promote the spirit of volunteerism. President Bush used the “thousand points of light” theme to describe the power of citizens to solve community problems. We are grateful for these two people of integrity, respect and love for our country.
From here we head to Austin and Thanksgiving with Kay’s relatives.
okstravellog 