It's funny. We "collect" presidential museums and this one has been about five miles from our house since 2013 and we've never been there. So, in the interest of being a tourist in our own home town, we finally went.
The museum is on the campus of SMU, which is a beautiful campus off North Central Expressway. It's one of the nicer presidential libraries that we've visited. It's also the newest. It cost about $26 to get in and you'll need to pay for parking across the street. We were in the museum for about three hours and the parking was $10. It's open Mon - Sat from 9 - 5 and Sun 12 - 5.
The first thing we saw when we went in were the displays of gifts received from other countries /regions. This one was one of my favorite. It shows some jewelry presented to Laura Bush by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. These displays are in the lobby of the museum.
The next thing I saw was the courtyard and this bronze statue of George W and George H W Bush. The statue is bigger than life size. It makes me look look like a small child. But it's cool. These guys are only the second father/son pair to be president (the first being John Adams and John Quincy Adams).
There are two sides to the museum. One side is the permanent exhibit on the presidency. The second is a rotating exhibit. Unlike his dad's museum, this museum seems to glaze over his years prior to becoming president. There are columns like these that show his younger years.
There's a short film called "A Charge to Keep" can be seen shortly after walking into the museum itself. It's a cool little warm-up for things you'll see in the library. It's only a few minutes and, I thought, worth a viewing.
In addition to being governor of Texas, George W. Bush was also part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team.
His collection of autographed baseballs is on display. He has one signed by Buck O'Neill, one of my favorite baseball personalities.
While I didn't always agree with some of Bush's politics, I did agree with some of his programs. No Child Left Behind had good intentions. I don't think it went well, though.
George W. Bush was our "9/11 President". That was a big part of the museum. This is a photo of the president being told about the attack.
Some twisted steel from the twin towers.
Newspaper headlines, a speech and, holy cow! Look at that phone! I thought Bush did a decent job of pulling everyone together during this event. It was awful and I can still remember where I was and what I was thinking when it happened.
The replica of the Oval Office during his years as president. This museum is the only one that actively invited you to sit down and touch things in this space. There was a photographer would take your photo behind the desk and docents that were ready to answer questions. Everything in this room was a replica.
When you stepped outside of the Oval Office, you see the Texas Rose Garden.
The replica of the columns you see outside the White House.
The view of some of the native Texas plants in a field behind the museum.
We had come back inside when a docent flagged us down to tell us that this would be the final resting place of both George W and Laura Bush. Hopefully, the trees on either side will have grown enough to cast some shade over that spot before they are laid to rest.
Also on display were clothes they wore to state dinners. This was for a state dinner with Queen Elizabeth.
As we all know, Air Force One is the plane that carries the president where he needs to go. Did you know that it has 4,000 square feet inside? That's bigger than my house! And they don't just get airplane food. They get the good stuff. There was a lunch menu there where the options were Harvest vegetable soup and a BLT with avocado and mozzarella cheese. Yes please!
A letter to Bush from Bono. That's how you know you're famous. When you get a letter from Bono!
This was very cool. Decisions Point Theater allows the people in the room to select one of the issues that Bush had to deal with as President. The majority rules. Then you get to hear all the briefings that Bush received on the subject, including "breaking news". From there, you make a decision on what you would do. All the votes are gathered and reported at the end of the session. It only takes about 5 minutes to do one issue. But it shows you that there are really no easy answers. I don't know why anyone would want that job.
Portrait of Army Captain Florent Groberg done by George W. Bush. Can you imaging having your portrait painted by an ex-president? Bush is a good portraitist.
At the end was a short message from George W. and Laura Bush.
The lobby of the museum. I love the mural at the top.
The special exhibit on the other side of the building was called "Freedom Matters". Inside there were several displays on how various minority groups gained rights. In the exhibit above, the minority group was women. There was also a civil rights display as well as one for marriage equality.
Around the top of the room was kind of a timeline of evolution of freedom for everyone.
After we left the museum, we drove around the campus for a bit. As I mentioned, it's beautiful. I love all these amazing buildings. This is the Laura Lee Blanton Building. The Blantons were a very wealthy philanthropic family.
This building is the Frances Anne Moody Hall. The Moodys are a very wealthy and philanthropic family from Galveston. I believe they also have Moody Coliseum on this camps as well.
The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum was pretty cool. The guy had several crises to deal with: 9/11, the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, just to name a few. But I can see why he was voted the president that people would want to sit down and have a beer with. He comes across as very personable.
As we went during the week on a random Monday, there weren't many people there but it was still busy. I'm glad we finally went. As we left, we found ourselves wondering what took us so long to go.
