17-January-2024. Presidential Day!

Today I headed from Houston to Dallas, and stopped in College Station at Texas A&M University to visit the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library (funny that they have you park in parking lot 41).

I had never been to a presidential library and didn't know what to expect ... and was very impressed! The library had a variety of different exhibits about different segments of President Bush's life: his time is a naval aviator, his entrance into politics, his time as vice president and U.N. Ambassador, his term as President and then his life beyond the presidency. They also had several displays showing different rooms in the White House (the oval office, the situation room), Camp David, and even the presidential limo. There were lots of videos and artifacts and I was particularly impressed at how many personal photographs they displayed. The Bush's valued family time and togetherness and it shows with all the great pictures that they took and printed and displayed. The photographer in me loved seeing some of the extended family portraits they had done on the coast of Maine!

The presidential library also had an outdoor component. First there was a large statue of wild horses jumping over a piece of the Berlin wall, a bronze statue of the former president and a rose garden (dedicated to Barbara Bush) behind a pond. At the back of the outdoor area is the burial ground of George and Barbara Bush and their young daughter Robin, who died at age 4.

And the day was extra presidential because I listened to a couple hours of my first audiobook today: Becoming by former first lady Michelle Obama. I really enjoyed it – it was like having Michelle Obama riding along with me telling me a story as we were driving along. So far I'm still learning about her youth and upbringing and I'm looking forward to hearing and learning more from her - I especially like that she herself is the narrator.

My WILD idea today was to ponder one of Michelle Obama's quotes that I found to be special:

"The lesson being that in life you control what you can".