Bush Presidential Library

I made my first ever visit to a Presidential library, and I started it today with a visit to the George Bush Presidential Library on the Texas A&M campus in College Station. How neat. The part I visited was the museum, which took a look at the life and Presidency of the 41st President of the United States. I really liked the way they showed his life, the different stages of his life, and the U.S. and world history that was going on at those stages, so it was like telling a history of the U.S. and the world and showing one man's journey through it. Different themes were: World War 2, the Cold War, the brave men and women in our military, and even taking to the west, being an entrepreneur, and trains! I didn't know the Bush family was so fascinated with trains!

What was really cool was the temporary exhibit on trains (which I mostly skipped due to lack of time), had a display of "the golden spike" - THE actual golden spike that connected the transcontinental railroad. It was neat.

But, one thing that really struck me about Bush's presidency was how so much world history happened during it (and of course they're going to hype that up, but it's still the truth). In the orientation video, Bush even said something like: "So much happened during my Presidency, I'm not saying that we made it happen, but we experienced it." The Berlin Wall fell, and so did the Soviet Union, the Cold War ended, the "new world order" began, the Iraq war conflict, apartheid ended in South Africa, and many other key events. I even got to walk through just a small portion of an Air Force one plane.

I wasn't even expecting to stop at this library today, but I had just an hour or two of time to fit it in and I did. Once I was there, I was fascinated and wish I had more time to read every detail. And now I'm even more anxious to get to the Reagan library. I'll be sure to schedule a good half-day there, minimum.