Visiting Ronald Reagan

As we headed back up to Northern California from our cruise in the South we decided to visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. We had never taken the time to visit before and since this a famous "Californian" I figured it would count as a school field trip also.

Do you notice Molly holding Reagan's hand in this picture. She held on really tight and I had to pry her fingers off eventually. We walked by this statue again later and she reached out for the hand again. There must be something about Ronald Reagan she likes.

The grounds were beautiful. They had a lovely rose garden which was supposed to mimic the rose garden of the White House. And when we came across the piece of the Berlin Wall we had to explain what it was and why it would here on Reagan's Library grounds.


We took a tour which took us through a room made to look exactly like the Oval Office did in Reagan's day complete with the photographs he kept on the back table.


We also got to walk through the Jet that was used as Airforce 1 during Reagan's presidency. I guess the new Airforce 1 that they use now is about 3x bigger.

Here is one of the limos that Reagan would have drove around in. The 1980's don't seem that long ago but these cars sure do look dated.


Here are all the cousins posing in front of Marine 1, which is the helicopter that was used by Presidents in the past.

One of the most interesting exhibits at the library was a miniature White House.

It was all done so you could see right into the different rooms on the back side. And they are all decorated just like you would find them in the real White House.


They also included the west and east wings of the White House. For some reason none of us realized the Oval office is actually in the west wing and not in the House itself.

Can you see the round dome in the picture above. That is the oval office in the west wing.

There were also several rooms with other memorabilia from Reagan's years in the white house. Before we left for our trip I had checked out a biography of Ronald Reagan to read to the kids. Knowing we were planning to come to this library I wanted to prepare them for our visit.  Since we haven't studied this time period yet in our history studies they didn't understand all the Cold War stuff but they did remember that Reagan was shot while president. They had the suit he was wearing when he was shot there and the kids remembered that part of his history.


Here is the final resting place of Ronald Reagan. I guess he picked this spot for his burial because he especially enjoyed the view.

It certainly was spectacular to look out over Simi Valley.

The weather that day was perfect and we enjoyed the visit with this famous Californian.