presidential visit

One of the really cool things about where I live and work now is that Lyndon Johnson's presidential library is right across the street. For some nerdy reason, I became an armchair presidential historian a few years ago (mostly due to my quasi-obsession with The West Wing) so the ability to just walk across the street and see this thing satisfies my fetish for all things presidential. The George H. W. Bush Library is only a few hours away so, at some point, it might be fun to go see that as well.

The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library is in Iowa and, having been there on a middle school field trip, I will say that the LBJ one is much more impressive (as you'd predict). Here are a few pics I snapped whilst walking through. Included are:

• A moon rock.
• LBJ's bowling ball.
• The teletype hotline thing used between the White House and the Kremlin during the Cold War.
• A portrait of LBJ etched out on a whale tooth (what presidency is complete without one of those?).
• Racist signs.
• The presidential limousine.
• The fumbly animatronic version of LBJ which tells jokes (and creeps you the hell out).
• The Great Hall where all of the archives are kept.
• The insanely un-stylish furniture in the Oval Office at the time. The replica is at 1/8 scale for some odd reason and kind of claustrophobic to walk around in.

It was a massively fun way to spend an afternoon. I didn't really have a good idea what he did during his time as president other than my tacit knowledge of the Vietnam War so it was really interesting to see the exhibits. Homeboy helped found the National Endowment for the Arts. Holla!