Ides of February
I hope everyone is doing well this morning! February has gone by in such a flash! I wanted to share this little post about our Valentine's day and President's Day!
Jordan and I talk about all the interesting things to do and see in our area but we never seem to have the time to visit all those interesting landmarks. The DFW area is a huge place full of museums, zoos, activities, etc. Last summer we explored the Perot Museum and this time, we decided visit the 6th Floor Museum. I recently finished reading "Killing Kennedy" by Bill O'Reilly and thought it would be interesting to see the artifacts from the book. It was pretty timely because Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday and it seemed fitting that we would tour the 6th Floor so close to President's Day!
Top Left: This is a picture of us on our way into the museum! The museum is confined to the 6th and 7th floors of an unassuming building and the rest of the floors are used as office space. The building is of course, no longer the Texas Book Respository but I think it would feel a little strange to have a daily office job in such a place!
Top Right: This is a picture of one of the campaign posters for Kennedy and Johnson. I'm sure this was a bold poster back in the day but the floating heads look a little weird to me. Today, campaign posters are so heavily branded with logos and colors.
Bottom Left: This is a picture of the newspaper published a few days before Kennedy's visit to Dallas. I think it's interesting that the newspaper was allowed to post something so important as the President's location. It's also interesting that the route was approved by the Secret Service despite the sharp turn at Elm Street which would have forced the President's motercade to slow way down (making it easier for a sniper to take a shot).
Bottom Right: This is a model of Dealey Plaza showing a white string from the 6th Floor window to the President's Motorcade
It was quite somber to learn about Kennedy's assassination but we found it very interesting.
Top Left: This is a picture of the "snipers nest" made my Oswald. At the time, the 6th floor of the Book Repository was being renovated so there wouldn't have been many people on the floor to catch Oswald. Even without crowd, can see that Oswald built a wall of boxes to conceal himself.
Top Right: This is the actual window from where Oswald took his shots. The boxes are replicas in this scene.
Bottom: This is what Oswald would have seen looking out the window. You have to imagine that the trees were smaller but Dealey Plaza hasn't changed much since the 60's.
Left Top and Bottom: Jordan and I took pictures in front of a big Kennedy poster.
Right: This is the exterior of the building.
These are a few pictures from the street. It's a little scary running out in the road to take a picture but we managed.
Bottom Right: I tried to show the full length of the street which actually has two "X's" from different shots (indicated by my handy blue arrows). The first shot (left side of the frame) is where the "magic bullet" hit Kennedy and wounded his neck. The second shot on the right side of the frame is where the fatal shot hit Kennedy. Evidently, it has been heavily debated whether it was the 2nd shot or the 3rd shot that killed Kennedy.
Our morning in Dealey Plaza was certainly educational. If you're ever in Dallas, I would recommend it as an excellent self-guided tour. It cost us around $30 for two people and you can see the whole thing in about 2 hours at a leisure pace. In preparation for Presidents Day, the museum just opened a new exhibit with Oswald's wedding ring on display. The gold band has fueled a lot of controversy since it has a stamp of the Russian hammer on the inside.
That afternoon we decided to grab lunch at a Dodie's in Rockwall. We've never been to this place but thought it might be nice to enjoy some seafood to celebrate Valentine's Day! Incidentally, our friend, Sandy Bates was at Dodie's performing famous jazzy love songs. Gotta love some Elvis "Heartbreak Hotel"!
Top Left: Selfie in front of the restaurant.
Top Right: Sandy performing! We had great seats!
This is a cool mardi-gras themed restaurant so it was quite timely for fat Tuesday.
Our food was amazing!
After dinner we took a walk on the pier and it was quite chilly! The last time we "walked" around the harbor I sprained my ankle badly. This time, we had much better luck!
Selfies in the chilly air!
Jordan also bought me some Valentine's day flowers which I loved! I'm writing this almost 2 weeks after V-day and these flowers are still going strong!
I separated the flowers between two vases so I could enjoy them in our bedroom and in the kitchen!
Speaking of plants, we've also been working to get our yard ready for the Spring so we've been trimming up our trees. The bushes need attention too but we'll take it one step at a time.
Below is a before and after picture of our front yard Live Oak tree. We had a tree guy thin out the tree so that it has room to grow. We probably should have done this a year ago but at least the tree is still "young." I think the tree looks great and I'm expecting a lot of growth this Spring!
Doesn't the tree look taller now?
Well, that's all for today! Happy almost Leap Day!
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