Monday, April 5, 2010

Austin

We found an Easter Egg on our holiday outing yesterday. Want to guess where?

The egg is located inside this building on the the campus of the University of Texas here in Austin. Now, do you know what place we visited?

Snapping a picture of this cute little cowboy I revealed the answer. We sought relief from this warm, breezy and humid holiday with a visit to the LBJ Presidential Library.

The library features a historical timeline of the life of our country's 36th president. It was all very interesting.

The presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson was the first in our lives that we actually remember. This panel chronicling the start of Johnson's presidency with the death of President Kennedy brought back childhood memories for us both.

This card contains the words Johnson chose to address a grieving nation shortly after taking office. The writer and editor in me took special note of the many changes.

We can both remember where we were when were watching President Johnson on television as he read the words on this teleprompter roll.

Paul hung around the one-eighth scale replica of Johnson's Oval Office.

Compared to the Clinton Oval Office, which we visited last Fall, LBJ's appears rather sparse. The telephones, however, were huge!

A place setting from the Johnson White House depicted Lady Bird Johnson's love of Texas Hill Country wildflowers.

The library houses a small theater, where we watched a short film about President Johnson's life. A docent provided a brief introduction to the film, where he asked us a question he says he asks every group he meets: Which two U.S. Presidents were born in Texas? Our group got it wrong, just like every group does. But, if you plan to visit the library soon, check this picture for the correct answer. (It would have helped if we had visited the display of presidential portraits before seeing the movie.)

In the center of the library, a cross section of the archives stacks. This area houses over 40 million pages of Johnson's papers. It's an imposing sight.

After our visit to the library, we stopped by Paul's cousin Cynthia's home for dinner and conversation with her family and cousin Sarah's family, too. It was wonderful to catch up with these good people. The last time we saw some of these grown-ups they were babies!

While we were visiting we exchanged contact information. Here Sarah and Cynthia "bumped" their phones to pass the information around. We're all so high-tech! Now that we can easily connect, we look forward to staying in touch and seeing everyone again soon.

Our home during our Austin stay was the Austin Lone Star RV Resort. While staying there we met Gary and Francile, new Journey owners from Winnebago County, Iowa. We joked with them that they had to buy a Winnebago. They live just a few miles from the factory! We enjoyed getting to know this very friendly couple, who introduced us to one of Austin's wonderful hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurants. Francile was out when we stopped by this morning to say goodbye. So, when we asked Gary to pose for a picture, he put his arm around his invisible wife. We look forward to seeing these good people again while we are in Iowa this Summer.


Our next stop was Boerne, just 90 miles or so away. Along the way we saw more wildflowers in bloom. This is how they looked today from a motorhome cruising down the highway. Mother Nature's show should be glorious for the next few weeks here in Hill Country.

If you have a chance, don't miss it!

2 comments:

Margie M. said...

The LBJ library is a great place to visit. Glad you had a great visit there.

The family reunion looked great. It is so nice to be able to visit family in an RV. Just drive away when you get tired of them. :)

MargieAnne said...

Thank-you for both your Blogs. I have just read both from start to now. Picked up the link from Margie and Bruce.

John & I are Kiwis and have been to the States 3 x in recent years. Our reason for coming each time was to join a cruise with Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship Each time we have taken a road trip and some of the places you have been brought back wonderful memories. Last year we drove from San Francisco to Vancouver via Santa Rosa, Sutters Creek, Redding, Medford, Salem Portland, Anacortes, Abbotsford in about 8 days in June. We drove back taking the ferry to Port Townsend, stayed at Sequim, had lunch at Forks, discovered later about Twilight, on through Aberdeen and down the coast. It was all a lot of driving and we did get tired but well worth it. The big trip in 2005 took 7 weeks, Miami to LA. Key West, Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, Kennedy Space Centre, Jekyll Island and so much more through 13 States ... such fun we had. We prefer to not use Interstate Highways and discover much by 'accident.' We dream of coming again and being able to RV. It's a great dream. Will let you know if ever we make it.

Now I must choose another link. Travelling via Blogs is the best we can do right now.

I look forward to keeping up with your travels as I have addedyour Blog to my Reader.