Before and after....

I'm glad they removed that second sign or else I may not have fit underneath it anymore.  I've gotten taller (and my socks have gotten shorter!) since 1977.

I've just posted a new Lyndon Johnson page with photos of my travels to many LBJ sites.  It includes well-known places such as his library and ranch in Texas, as well as more obscure places such as his memorial on an island in the Potomac and his home in Austin which, for a mere $3000 a night, could be yours as a vacation rental.  Click the photo below to visit my new LBJ page...

Presidential Burial Sites

Last week, I visited Gerald Ford's burial site at his presidential museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  I had visited his museum once before (when I was 14 years old), but that was back in 1982, when President Ford was still living.  This return visit has now completed my journey to all presidential burial sites.  Click the photo below to visit my President Burial Sites page to see one photo from each of my visits (from 1975 to 2016):

A Pennsylvania President with a Forgotten Memorial

More primaries today in the 2016 presidential election. Today's biggest prize is Pennsylvania, and today's post is for the only president who was from that state. He is the most recent president who, like Hillary Clinton, previously served as Secretary of State (and that was over 150 years ago!). He is the only president whose birthplace is marked by a pyramid.  He is the only president whose bedroom I've actually slept in. The US Congress commissioned a memorial to him, but it is in an obscure location, DC's Meridian Hill Park, and historians consider him to be one of our worst presidents, so the National Park Service barely mentions this memorial on its website. Click the photo below, at the memorial with my friends Kristin and Carol, to find out who this president is (and why I've slept in his bedroom!)...

The Third Party Candidate Who Finished Second

This year's election cycle has included a more than usual amount of speculation for a third-party run for the presidency, either by Donald Trump if he does not get the nomination or by an establishment Republican if he does.  There have been several mildly-successful third party runs in the past 50 years, such as Ross Perot's wild ride in 1992, Ralph Nader's run in 2000 that debatebly handed the presidency to George W Bush, or the last third-party candidacy that actually won electoral votes, George Wallace's racially-charged run in 1968.  But 1912 was the only time in our nation's history that a third-party candidate actually placed higher than third in the voting, and that run was made by a man who had formerly served as president.  When you click the photo below, you'll not only find out who that man was, but you'll also see why he was sworn into office in this unusual location:

  

A president who lived in Cuba?

President Obama's recent trip to Cuba was historic in that he was the first US president to visit since the embargo (in fact, the first since Calvin Coolidge over eighty years ago).  However,when John and I visited Cuba last month, I had another US president on my mind - one who actually briefly resided there.  Click the photo of the palace where he lived to visit that president's page and find out why:

 

A Vermonter wins New Hampshire

Yesterday's Democratic primary in New Hampshire was won by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.  The last time a Vermonter was in the White House was almost a hundred years ago.  And that president, because of an unusual circumstance, took the presidential oath of office twice (both times in very private settings).  And of course, I have visited both sites :-)  Click the photo below to visit the page and find out the story of why...

New Hampshire

In celebration of today's New Hampshire primary, I post the page of our only president to hail from the Granite State.  Click the photo below to visit my page for our fourteenth president: