Dallas, Our Daughter Beth's Family, Finally

Our Granddaughter Marisa, In The Morning

Father And Daughter In Dallas

Well, Dallas must agree with me because I actually slept in until 7:00.  Both Beth and Rami woke about the same time, so we have been sitting around, drinking coffee,  We are planning our day and Evie's tres excited because it might include a Costco stop, perhaps even Central Market, a grocery store that rivals anything Wegman's has.

We left our Hampton Inn around 9:15 and actually had no trouble finding the George Bush Library on the Texas A & M campus, 3 miles away.

Entrance To The George Bush Library

It's just off of George Bush Drive on Barbara Bush Blvd.  We walked around the building that surrounds the library and stopped at the Bush School of Public Service and Government and talked briefly to some students who explained there was a four-year undergraduate degree as well as a two-year graduate degree from the school.

Replica Of Berlin Wall And Wild Horses, Symbols Of Freedom

We then walked into the library, through a metal detector and one of the docents, John Winder, was waiting for us to give us a tour.  He was really a nice guy, very knowledgeable about both the museum, the life of George Bush, and his accomplishments as a President.

Dole And Bush 

And, interestingly, like the docents at the LBJ library, he was in tears talking about a gathering at the library a year or two ago honoring both George Bush and Bob Dole, WW II vets.  His remembering them being serenaded by the Texas A & M Men's choir singing "You'll Never Walk Alone," was what brought him to tears

Selfie In Bush's Replica Oval Office With John And The Oval House Docent

Anyways, John gave us a quick tour, general oversight of the library which took an hour and we then had an hour to go back and see what we wanted in more detail.  It made for a great morning.

The 41st President And The First Lady

And we left we a deeper and more admiring view of George Bush.  What a life, what an amazing man when you look at his life in its entirety, from enlisting in the Air Force at 18, to flying close to 60 missions in the Pacific, to surviving being shot down and rescued, to graduating from Yale in 2 1/2 years, while captaining the baseball and soccer teams and being married and having his first child, W.  All of this by the time he was 23 years old.  His political career involved not only many defeats, twice for the Senate, victories twice in the House and eventually a Vice Presidency and the Presidency.  He was one of the most qualified individuals to become a President in my mind, having been a diplomat in China, our representative at the United Nations, Head of the CIA, as well as a member of the House, a GIANT compared to our current twitter twit.  His Presidency, like LBJ's, has lots to admire, especially his passing of the Clean Air Act and the American Disability Act.  But his Presidency was mostly defined by three major foreign policy achievements: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Gulf War.  We really enjoyed our visit, our tour with John, the friendliness of everyone at the library.  We will be back.

Dallas Skyscape From Car Window

We then headed to Dallas, via # Route 45 as suggested by John and it was an easy three hour drive until we hit Dallas where, like our last visit, the GPS said to get off at a certain exit, let's say 46C.  Well, there was an A and B but no C.  So we went around in circles for 20 minutes before finding our way finally to an exit we recognized, Lovers Lane and we got to Beth's around 3:00.

Front Door Of Highland Park's Gymnast

We were excited to get there, to see Beth for the first time since August, but the most excited, was Cody, their dog who always goes crazy when we arrive.

Cody

Beth and Evie then went to pick up Marisa from gymnastics and it was fun to see her, a happy girl in her freshmen year at school.  Rami arrived about five, ironically having just flown in from a talk in Atlanta and some business in New Orleans where we had been three days ago.  Beth knew we had had enough of dining out so she made up her special shrimp and tomato dinner, over either rice or cauliflower rice because both she and Rami are now very careful and healthy eaters, so unlike Evie and me.  We sat around the living room talking about our trip, Marisa's gymnastics, and Beth and Rami's workouts, yoga and cross fit until Rami and Marisa decided to drive downtown to his office, to pick up a package and stop for gelato.  I went along and we were back by 8:30, with four bowls of various flavors of gelato.  By 9:30, I was exhausted and went up to be bed and Evie soon followed.  It was so good to be in Dallas with Beth and her family.