bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- We left at 9:20 to go the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley. It took about 40 minutes to get there, driving from San Fernando Valley to Simi Valley.  We chose the Library because it was pouring rain today, so an inside visit was in order. We drove over a mountain between the two valleys; the clouds were low so it was pretty foggy. The air cleared a bit when we drove down into Simi Valley.

The library is at the top of a mountain on the far side of the valley. Driving up the road to the library, there are these flags on each of the streetlights.

One flag for each president. What we did not realize driving up was that the back side had some presidents or some American picture. President Obama is not there yet.

Here is the entrance to the library.

Tickets cost $21 each. The first item you see on the tour is this picture.

Second is this statue.

From here, you go to a movie about the Reagan Presidency. There were a lot of exhibits about his life and the presidency. We finally reached the Oval Office.

We walked down some steps to the entrance of an exact replica of the Oval Office. In the Presidential Libraries, there are only two exact replicas. The other one is at the Clinton Library. Truman’s is not to scale. The docent told a story about how in 1991, just prior to the opening of the Library, President Reagan came in for a tour. When he saw the Oval Office, he stopped and said it is not right. the ceiling was too low. When he was told that it was too late to change it, as they were getting ready to open, he told them : Fix it! and walked out. That is why you now walked down to the Oval Office exhibit. The dug out the floor, 4 feet to make the room taller. Also, if you note on the bottom of the desk, there is a line that goes across. The desk was too low, and when President Reagan went to sit in his chair, he bumped his knees, so they added a couple of inches to the desk. Many of the artifacts, including everything on the desk, except the phone are original. As are the photos behind the desk. Also this jar of Jelly Belly jelly beans.

I asked one of the docents about Jane Wyman. There is a lot of Nancy, but we saw nothing about Jane Wyman ( the President’s first wife). The docent said that there was one picture of her, but that she chose to not be in the Library as she was not involved in the Presidency. We did not see the picture. There were some pictures of Ron junior and Patti,  but no pictures of Maureen or Michael, that we noticed. Interesting…. 

The Library has the original Air Force One plane, which was taken out of service just after President Reagan’s Presidency ended. President George HW Bush, rode it in one time while President.

One time when Bob was on travel for work, he and a fellow worker went to the Library. Air Force One had just been delivered and he was able to take a private tour of it, before it went on display! He was even able to sit in the seats. Now you cannot touch anything!

You are able to take a tour of the plane, but are not allowed to take any pictures inside.

Above is the configuration of the plane. When we entered, they took a picture of us, which we decided to purchase.

We were also able to see the Presidential limo. Note the license plate!

We also saw the Presidential helicopter.

There was also an exhibit of Christmas trees depicting the history of the nation in 10 year increments. Here are a few.

There was also a wall with information about the Secret Service.

Once we finished the Reagan exhibits, we moved to a Walt Disney exhibit. Disney and Reagan we long time friends, but this exhibit was in celebration of Walt Disney’s Treasures. The exhibit is there from July 6 2012 through April 30 2013.

 

Walt Disney’s drawing table. Next is a picture of his office. It is exactly like it was the day he died.

Remember the old Disney movies? At the beginning of each movie, they always showed a book.. this is the Sleeping Beauty book that they used.

This is the actual costume worn by Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins.

Who can forget the Flubber car!

The model for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Tommy Sands and Annette Funachello’s costumes from Babes in Toyland.

Glenn Close’s costume from 101 Dalmatians.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow White and Peter Pan.

There was a lot more!

From here, we went to the inevitable gift shop, then outside.

This is the back of the Library. The square stone is a large piece of the Berlin Wall. Here is the other side.

And next to this, at the garden was this sign!

Finally, we walked over to the president’s grave, overlooking the valley.

From here we went to lunch at the First Street Family Restaurant in Simi Valley. We returned home and took a nap! We ate dinner and watched the movie Iron Lady, from the local Redbox.

Sunday- We did our usual Sunday tasks, then after lunch, we took the dogs and went to Paramount Ranch.

“In 1927, Paramount Studios purchased 2700 acres of the old Rancho Las Virgenes for use as a “movie ranch’. For 25 years, a veritable who’s who of Hollywood practiced their craft at Paramount Ranch including director Cecil G. Demille and actors Bob Hope, Gary Cooper,and Claudette Colbert…. In 1953 William Hertz bought the southeast portion and built a western town which was used in The Cisco Kid and Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater. In 1980 the National Park Service  purchased a portion of the property.”  The western town may look familiar to you as it was used as the from 1992 to 1997 for Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

You can hike, walk, bike or ride your horse through the park.

Since there were a lot of rocks on the trails, we did not walk far. The LAST thing I want to do is injure my ankle again! So we left and drove to Ventura, about another 20 miles north on I-101. Our first stop was at the beach. The dogs are not allowed on the state park beaches but were allowed on the city beach.

After walking the dogs, we went into town, past the courthouse and followed a scenic route to a park, overlooking the city.

This is San Buenaventura Mission. We did not go inside, since we had the dogs.

Directly across from the mission was this fountain and a walkway.

Someone had put detergent into the fountain. Next to the fountain was this mural.

Down the walkway was this mural.

We walked by the stores with the dogs. I ran into an olive oil store and bought some cranberry oil/vinegar for a chicken marinade.

We returned to the car, and drove back over to the beach. We drove north on the beach road to Surfers Point where we watched the surfers for 20 free minutes! You had to pay to park in the lot, but could park on the road for 20 minutes to check out the surf.

I tried hard, but I could not get a picture of anyone actually standing on a surf board.

We started home, planning to stop at Los Olivos Adobe Historical Park. We had passed this on the way into town and Goggled it. This is Ventura County’s only remaining Monterey-style adobe home from the Rancho era – California Historical Landmark No. 115 that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. They do tours on Sat. and Sun., but we missed the last tour.  We will have to go back again!

We returned home to settle in a watch TV.

Monday-  We woke up to Roxie vomiting, on the quilt, so it went into the washing machine! Back to work again. Bob dropped me off and then went to Miller Honda to have them fix the clunking noise in the back of the CVR. My thought is it is the rotors, but then what do I know! He sat there until 1:30, when they finally told him it was the rotors, and they had to order them!  So he has to take the CVR back on Wednesday.

This is my first day with my own floor. I have a med-surg. floor with 20 patients. As soon as I saw the floor on my tour, I knew this was where they would put me, as it is under construction!

A little bit about West Hills Hospital. It  has about 236 beds and  was built in 1968. They are totally renovating the hospital.  If you look at the hospital from the sky, it looks like a pair of binoculars. Two round columns, 6 stories high, with a new ER, ICU and burn ICU in the back. They are known for their burn ICU.

Here is my desk.

This is the view from my desk!

Tuesday- Today we woke up to Roxie vomiting and having bloody diarrhea, again! That dog will eat anything! So we did our usual thing, No food for breakfast, and Bob cooked some chicken and rice for her. Poor baby, she looked miserable!

Work is getting busier due to the holiday. Tomorrow will be really busy!. It is the Director of CM’s last day. She has been promoted to the corporate level, so there was luncheon for her. Pizza and ziti. It was nice.

Bob had a phone interview with  Home Depot for a holiday position in the plumbing dept. It started with a computer interview, then he was moved to a live person. Since the clock is ticking, we are not sure that they are going to want him for such a short period of time. Next step is an actual job interview at the store. Will just have to see!

Wednesday– Roxie is back to normal! A very busy, stressful day at work. I had seven discharges, so it was pretty busy. Bob went to Miller again and this time they actually fixed the rotors! When he picked me up there was no clunk!

We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Although it received 3 stars on Yelp, it was mediocre at best. We returned home, I put on my PJ’s, flaked out in the recliner with two dogs in my lap, and promptly fell asleep!

Thursday- Happy Thanksgiving! We had pancakes and turkey sausage for breakfast. At 12:00, we left to go to Mimi’s café for our Thanksgiving dinner, which was excellent. Could not beat it! A three course meal for $15 each. They were very busy!

We returned home in time to watch the Redskins beat the Cowboys! Great day…. We also watched the Avengers DVD from Redbox.

Friday-  Back to work again. I did UR reviews all day. Bob picked me up, we ate dinner and watched the movie Double. It was pretty good, with a lot of strange turns in it!

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