Traveling with the Grobmyers Day 6 January 31, 2024

 We said goodbye to LA this morning and fought the traffic south and east to visit the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California. We weren’t that far away but with traffic it took a while. I could live in Santa Barbara, their traffic is what I would call normal everyday traffic. The LA traffic makes we want to be medicated to ride in the passenger seat. Five lanes wide and bumper to bumper and that was between 9 and 10 this morning. The drive was worth it because the library was great.

The birds were made special for Nixon. And he gave them to foreign dignitaries when they visited.

So Elvis drove up to the White House and asked to see the President. So a guard came and said the King is here to see the President. They say we don’t have a royal dignitaries coming today. No Mr. President, it’s the King of Rock and Roll. So he met with Elvis. Elvis brought him a loaded gun as a gift. Nixons daughters were not happy that they were not told he was in the house.

Trisha Nixon’s wedding dress and the dress Pat wore.

Both Nixons are buried at the library. They passed away about 10 months apart.

His birthplace is also in the grounds of the library in the exact location that his dad built it. The house was built from a kit. When they built the library they asked Nixon if he wanted to have the home place turned to face the library and he said no this is the way his dad wanted the house to be and that was fine for him. The bed in the picture was the bed he was born in and the quilt was a friendship quilt his parents were given for their wedding. The house is surrounded by these trees that the elder Nixon planted over 100 years ago.

This is the Presidential helicopter. It is the one he left the White House in for the final time.they are restoring it now and are going to build a pavilion to put the helicopter, Nixon’s woodie wagon, and his Presidental limo.

We wrapped up our time at the Library and went about 15 miles away to the most magical place on Earth. Tonight we spent some time at Downtown Disney. Dinner at Naples. We walked though the Grand Californian and they are ready to celebrate Lunar NewYear.

I’m trying to figure out if I can pull of fairy wings or a tiara.  Which do you think.

Today’s flora and fauna.

Tomorrow will be an early morning. We have breakfast with Minnie before the park is open. Got to get those castle pictures with no one there. We had breakfast with Minnie the last time we were here and Chip and Dale sat at the table with us and there were lots of characters.

Traveling with the Grobmyers Day 5 January 30, 2024

 This morning started with a tour of Warner Brothers. The backlot was very busy with filming because the shows are very far behind from the writers/actors strike. We saw the actual sets for Friends and Big Bang Theory.

They have the Central Perk Cafe set up to look like the Friends set.

The backlot was currently filming Abbott Elementary, Young Sheldon, and Bob ❤️ Abishola. See if you recognize some of the locations.

And a few other places that might look familiar to you.

Some costumes 

So we were talking to a couple of the guides while we were waiting for the golf cart. They asked if we have been before. We told him he came during the ER heyday when George Clooney was still part of the cast. He said I have some good George stories. He said that he liked to eat at the place across the street, Smokehouse. So we tried it. Very nice place. We shared some ribs that fell off the bones. The two tables around us were talking film schedules and post production. And yes George was a regular there. They have a table set aside as “his” table but he didn’t eat there. He ate in a dark corner so he could eat in peace. 

Next stop was Hollywood Forever Cemetery. We saw a few graves of famous people.

To end the afternoon we drove up to the Griffith Observatory. We can see it from our hotel so we thought we would see great views of the city. We drove up there and the city is so hazy you really couldn’t see anything. So we didn’t want to pay to park and see haze. So we drove back to our hotel for a little while. We are meeting some friends for dinner, so today is in the books for sight seeing.

Tomorrow we head to Anaheim and maybe the Nixon Presidential Library.