Friday Smiles: Smithsonian Museum Day

It's Friday and time once again to join Annie (at A Stitch in Time) and the ladies at Friday Smiles.  I'm not going to start with any funnies today.  Instead, I want to get right to the museum I visited for Smithsonian Museum Day.

For this museum, I had to do a bit of traveling.  

I visited the Eisenhower Museum, Library, and Boyhood Home. 

I was so glad I took this trip, because I knew so very little about Eisenhower before I visited his Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home.

Many of my international readers may not be familiar with Dwight David Eisenhower.   One can't describe him in a few words, like Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, including planning and executing D-Day and Operation Overlord, or was a 5-star General, or the 13th President of Columbia University, or the 34th President of the United States, or NATO Supreme Commander, or created NASA making it a civilian space agency, or authorized the U.S. Interstate Highway System to name just a few of his successes.  Before becoming President of the U.S., he had no political affiliation and both major political parties asked him to run for President!

This is their new pricing as of August, 2019:

• Adult: $15 Museum, $7 Home, or $20 Combo
• Senior (62+): $12 Museum, $7 Home, or $17 Combo
• Student (K-12/College with ID): $10 Museum, $7 Home, or $15 Combo

You can see why I wanted to take advantage of Museum Day to visit.  After all, they don't call me Dr. E, Queen of Free for nothing! $20.00 (USD) is nothing to sneeze at.

The cost of the home tour was not worth what they were (normally) charging, as they herded us through the downstairs areas.  I stayed longer than anyone else, because I was still taking photos when the next tour started through.  This was the first tour of the day, and I think they were running behind and had to make up the time.  As I understood it, each home tour was to last 15 minutes.

I know people think I'm far too old school to have such a human-centric Ph.D..   However, when I tried to use Map Quest, they wanted to send me the long way, not the fastest way.  I got frustrated and ordered a Kansas map that I could use to plot the trip before I left.

I picked up a couple of note cards while there.  The top card (colored) has young Ike in the center of the card standing with a basket in his hand.  In the bottom card, he has just graduated from West Point and is sitting on the steps of his boyhood home surrounded by his brothers and mother.

I got a later start than I anticipated, but decided I would still get there before the majority of the visitors arrived.  I set my camera on the window sill and shot this as I was driving.

Probably not the smartest move, but I was mesmerized by these wind turbines.  Rain was forecast for the entire day, so I was expecting a down pour at any moment.

Still no rain when I pulled into the Museum parking lot.

I parked in the parking lot nearest the Visitor Center and Gift Shop.

This map, taken from the web site is flipped from where I parked, which was on SE 3rd Street.  I started in the Visitors Center and worked my way around the perimeter.

I was surprised at how few cars were there when I arrived just a few minutes after 9:00 a.m.  I thought there would be masses of people taking advantage of this museum, since it had been closed for renovation for over a year.  

Here is where I began the adventure.  Next week we'll step inside and see what the Presidential Gift Shop and Visitor Center is like.  There is also a 23 minute introduction film.

It's now time to see what others are smiling about this Friday.  Please don't forget to start your weekend off right by visiting Annie for a few Friday Smiles.  We would love to have you join us, too.