Travel dates: July 18-19, 2017
Presidential libraries and four year olds are not the best combination. Truth be told.
But we have a firm rule about never passing up a good presidential history site (is there such a thing as a bad presidential history site, really? There are bad presidents, but they still make for good history), so we weren’t going to leave Austin without sampling all the Lyndon B. Johnson history it had to offer.
We started with the LBJ Presidential Library , an imposing blocky building in the heart of Austin.
Gus picked hanging out with friends over presidential librarying, but we picked up Ari’s friend Lula to replace him:
Admission is $10 for adults, $3 for youth 13-17, and free for kids 12 and under (it’s like they think there’s not a lot here for preschoolers or something). There’s ample free parking on site.
I’m all about brilliant people with complicated legacies, so I found the LBJ library fascinating. The very well done introductory film made me tear up. There are several floors of exhibits, and we saw as many of them as Abe let us. There’s an area where you can listen in on a number of LBJ’s phone calls (he really liked the phone, which is just one of many ways he and I are different. Also, he was taller than I am):
There’s a animatronic LBJ who tells jokes:
There’s a large exhibit that takes you through important moments in his presidency. There’s the obligatory recreation of the Oval Office:
The Presidential limousine:
And, while we were there, an exhibit about PBS. With Big Bird!
It IS for kids, after all!
We picked up an “All the Way with LBJ” bumper sticker at the gift shop on the way out of course:
On our next LBJ-focused day, we headed about an hour west of Austin to Johnson City to see the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Site. There are a bunch of different things to see here, some of them in Johnson City itself and some of them 14 miles west, at and around the LBJ Ranch. We started off at the Visitors Center in Johnson City to get some information and pick up Abe’s Junior Ranger book. There are exhibits here, too, and a couple of films.
Since we had limited time (and had just been to the library the day before), we went through here pretty quickly. We didn’t make it to the boyhood home or the Johnson Settlement (where LBJ’s grandparents first settled in the 1860’s, either.
Instead we headed out to the LBJ State Park and Historic Site, where there’s a second visitors center where you pick up a free driving permit that gives you access to the rest of the sites.
We saw the Junction Schoolhouse where a 4 year old LBJ started school:
Then headed to the ranch to sign up for a tour. The tours are limited to 12 people, so there can be a wait during busy times, but we had just enough time to explore the exhibits and finish up Abe’s Junior Ranger book before ours started. The cost for the tour is $3 for adults and free for kids under 18.
I especially enjoyed the room with a display of some of the many, MANY gifts LBJ gave people. I like gifts:
And then on to our tour. There was no photography allowed inside, which really bummed me out, because LBJ had a fabulous house. Super mid-late 60’s decor (except in LBJ and Lady Bird’s bedrooms, which are preserved as they were at the times of their deaths), and very homey and personal; we got a real feel for LBJ and Lady Bird’s personalities here. It’s a big house, but most of the square footage is given over to the bedrooms (you don’t see the upstairs bedrooms on the tour).
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The tour is only half an hour, so, while Abe didn’t exactly fine it fascinating, he did tolerate it fairly well.
And after our tour, we met up with our friends for an afternoon at the Science Mill, a fun little science museum right in Johnson City, where you can feed turtles and control things with your mind, among other things:
We were unable to control the date that Dave had to report back to work with our minds, however, so it was time to move along and continue our trek back east. Two more posts to come!
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