I've always wanted to go to Dallas to see Dealey Plaza and with the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination approaching (and the facts that it wouldn't be overly hot and there was a NASCAR race and it was on off-year election so Jon could get the day off of work), we decided to make the trip. Our plane was late leaving Boston because the thing that was supposed to shove us off from the gate was late, but we still arrived at DFW fairly close to our time. While getting a quick lunch at Dunkin (breaking our rule of not having food on vacation from restaurants you can go to at home) we saw this super cute stuffed armadillo in a pink cowboy hat and bandanna which I decided to get for our neighbor Melissa, who is watching Regan.
We then went to get our rental car. DFW has one of those rental car complexes that you take a bus out to. The most interesting thing was that rather than get helped by actual, live, in-person human beings, you could choose to have someone, essentially Skyping, help you. Since that line was shorter, we went with that, but I still questioned whether it would actually work or not. Could this possibly be real? It was, and it did, and we were on on way in a Nissan Sentra.
One of the locations we wanted to go to on this trip closed at 4 and since we weren't going to be there until 2:30, we decided to go to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on the Southern Methodist University campus, which was open until 5. One of the reviews on Trip Advisor complained about the lack of parking, but we didn't have any trouble in the dedicated lot. Maybe because it was a Saturday? (You did have to pay $7 but we knew about that from the museum's website.)
After you paid the admission fee ($16) you walked into this room which images set to music (I wanted the soundtrack, but alas, didn't see it, if it exists, in the gift shop) on the upper portion of all the walls around you. There wasn't any narration, but Jon, I think, picked up on what they were trying to do when he said it showed different people achieving the American dream. I remember the dancers and a gymnast that looked like Nastia Liukin. Then there was a big collage that was populated that was made up of regular people and presidents. The whole thing was very inspiring.
Next we went into the exhibit area. The first part had panels representing President Bush's values, like faith and family. After an overview video, we moved into a section on the election, with election night clips and the certified Florida results. The next part I found the most interesting - things he did in his first 100 days arranged in different displays which contained things like No Child Left Behind but also something I wasn't familiar with (or didn't remember), the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (now the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, according to Wikipedia.) The section on 9/11 included names of the victims as well as a minute-by-minute account of the president's activities that day (someone must follow up him around and record everything?) including "calls not completed" (must be no one answered?) to Rudy Guiliani and a call from Hillary Clinton that someone else answered. Also interesting - letters stamped in red with "Seen by the President" and President Bush's speech notes. He used a Sharpie to make notes (and in his correspondence, making it somewhat hard to read) and underline words to emphasize (in most cases, almost every word was underlined.)
We splurged and paid for the museum photographer's photos of us in the Oval Office (the light was coming in such a way that the only good angle was theirs.) The Rose Garden recreation wasn't as impressive - probably because there weren't any blooming roses! I'm happy to say that I received all 6 dog bones for helping "Barney" do tasks around the White House, but the coolest thing was Decision Points Theatre, where we were tasked with making a decision about how to handle the economic crisis (our group's decision - I voted for Iraq after hearing the last four groups had picked Hurricane Katrina). You could pick different people to listen to and get advice from and you'd periodically be interrupted by news reports. You than had 10 seconds to make your final decision (bail out the banks or not) and then it told you what President Bush did and he then told you why he made that decision.
There didn't seem to be as much "stuff" as the Ford Museum, but I enjoyed it.
With our stomach schedule being off because of the early breakfast and time change, we decided to go get dinner, even though it was only 5. I didn't feel like steak or tex mex (we had recommendations for both from one of Jon's co-workers) but I did feel like barbecue. The AAA book told us there was one near the campus, so we made our way to Peggy Sue BBQ. I had a half pound of baby back ribs coated with a brown sugar glaze that was out of this world, with new potato salad (really good), and whole kernel corn. For dessert, I thought about the homemade peach cobbler but decided to go with the fried coconut pie and ice cream. Yum yum!
After dinner, Jon wanted to walk around the SMU campus. It looked like there was something going on as there was a sign about "event parking" at the parking garage we passed. Then we saw people who were dressed up heading toward a building on campus. I decided to ask someone, and they said they were going to a Straight No Chaser concert. I was familiar with the a capella group, having seen them on PBS while I was in Denver. (Their biggest song is their take on the Twelve Days of Christmas.) We decided to see if there might be tickets available, deciding we wouldn't pay for more than $30 a person. While we were about to go up to the box office window, a guy came up to us and asked if we were looking for tickets. He said he had extra tickets, and was looking for the face value, $47.50 each/$95 for two. I said we were looking to pay $30 each. He brought it down a little bit, going to $70 before meeting us at $60. This was our second time today wondering if what we were doing was legit.
We went back to the car to drop off my leftovers and then walked back, taking our walk around campus, dodging sprinklers, before going back for the show, which featured opening act Caroline Glaser of The Voice (our second opening act in a week with someone from The Voice - the first was with Josh Groban on Monday at the TD Garden - and third this year (the other being with The Band Perry and Rascal Flatts). Her accompanist/guitar player/violinist/duet partner (all the same guy) was amazing. The show was a lot of fun, with comedy interspersed with REAL GLEE CLUB-STYLE SINGING. And it was unexpected. And we got a great deal (with the Ticketmaster fee of $9.42 each, the tickets would have cost us $113.94!)
George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum: B+
Peggy Sue BBQ: A
Straight No Chaser: A
-- POSTED BY COLLEEN
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