SAN DIEGO VISIT DECEMBER 2012 NIXON LIBRARY AND BIRTHPLACE

 

We used a timeshare week beginning Dec.1 to visit the San Diego area. The timeshare resort was in Solana Beach near the Del Mar racetrack. We had a  nice one-bedroom 2 bath unit equipped with a flat screen TV and even a dishwasher! This was our first road trip in our newly-acquired 2008 Prius. We got 44 mpg on the way over and 47 mpg on the way back.

On Dec. 3 we visited the Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, about 80 miles north of San Diego. While it rained on the way up, the rain was mostly over with by the time we arrived and when we left 3 hours later the sun was peeking through the clouds once in a while. I was no fan of Nixon, but the visit prompted me to read for the first time the Woodward and Bernstein book “All the President’s Men”.

The focusing problem with the pictures in the first posting of this series of blogs was not in the camera but in the software and my not understanding quite how it worked. Now that I have learned, I have deleted the fuzzy images and inserted the sharper  ones. 

This display told about  Nixon’s campaign for the U S Senate in 1950. He used a yellow Mercury station wagon and he stood on the rear fold-down tailgate for speeches.

And here is the front of the car. I do not recall having seen a Mercury station wagon of this vintage before.

 

One of the displays was statues of world leaders with whom Nixon met during his career in politics. Shown are Winston Churchill, Charles Degaulle and Konrad Adenour. There was a disclaimer in a sign that Nixon had selected the persons whose statues appeared and their presence did not constitute and endorsement of any by the Library.

 

This is a replica of the Lincoln Room of the White House.

And here is his limo.

 

Jo in front of Nixon’s birthplace, a rather modest home which then was in a citrus grove. The building has not been moved.

 

Closeup of the inscriptions in front of the house.

 

Behind his birthplace is the helicopter in which Nixon often flew. The picture below gives an idea of its size. It would carry 18 passengers. 

The following are shots in the Rose Garden behind the main building.