July 14, 2008 - Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
We drove down to Los Angles to catch the cruise boat.  Before coming into LA we stopped at Simi Valley to visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
 
As you might except, the library/museum is exceedingly well done.  Classy, like the man himself.  It's on top of a hill and is the only thing up there.  There were quite a few people there this Friday morning. 
 
The great man's famous brown suit and jelly bean jar.
 
Replica of the Oval Office.  Probably as close as I'm ever going to get. 
 
Although two friends of mine worked at the White House and have been in the Oval Office for a picture with Presidents.
 
 
 
The situtation room. 
 
You went through this winding path starting with Reagan's childhood and through his career.  It ended in this big atrium featuring Air Force One.  Normally seeing a 707 on statis display isn't that big a deal, but the way they did it here was most impressive.
  
The mural behind Air Force One shows every Presidential aircraft.
  
Including the U.S. Navy S-3 Viking which President Bush flew out to an aircraft carrier.  He received some political heat for it from the left but I thought it was pretty cool! 
  
Air Force One overlooked the valley below as if it was flying. 
 
Air Force One has a lot of polished aluminum on it.  I asked a docent about it -- every so often a large team of volunteers polishes the aircraft. 
 

The obvious question, of course, is how they got the airplane up on top of this hill and into the atrium. 

Well, the short answers is they built the building around the airplane.  First they disassembled the airplane and trucked it up the hill in pieces.  They put it together in its final position.  Then they jacked it up and built the concrete columns underneath the gear.  Then the built the atrium building.  Some pretty impressive engineering if you asked me. 

 
What can you say?
 
Truly a great man.  Rest in peace.
 
 
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