2012 Presidential Side Trips

I have shared quite a bit of the fun places that I find in my travels but as I look back at my 2012 travel posts I find that I have been remiss in what I have not shared of my site seeing.

I confess, I am a bit of a presidential history buff…not so much wars and politics (although both are fascinating) I am more pulled in by the men themselves and the lives they lived.  The architecture & furnishings of these landmarks are so interesting and sometimes even inspirational.  So, often if I am in a city where there is a presidential historic site I will try to take some time and take a visit.

It all started a long time ago probably when I was living in near Hyde Park New York (home of FDR) and couple of years ago I decided to couple my interest with my business trips so I would actually see some of where I was travelling.

When I was in Long Beach CA for business in 2010 I knew the Reagan Library was nearby so thought it would be a great idea to stay a couple of extra days and see a bit of the west coast which included the Reagan Library.

President Reagan walking down the halls of the
White House...and me waiting for him to
catch up

President Reagan's Oval Office Desk

I ended up spending the better part of a day meandering and being reminded of some of the major historical events of our generation.  It was a wonderful day and the mountainous landscape surrounding the library made for a very peaceful serene afternoon.

View looking out from President Reagan's Library

In 2012 my sites included:

A March visit to President Lyndon Johnson’s library in Austin:

LBJ's Oval Office reconstructed

A side trip to President Johnson's ranch/Texas Whitehouse in Fredericksburg TX:

LBJ's Texas White House
photo source

An April visit to the Texas Book Depository at Dealey Plaza in Dallas:

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

A July visit to Wheatland the home of President James Buchanan our only bachelor president:

Wheatland - James Buchanan's Study where he wrote his post-Presidential memoirs

And finally a visit to President Abraham Lincoln’s summer White House in Washington DC:

Wow, President Lincoln was a tall man...life sized statue & larger than life
sized me (ha).

I also visited President Andrew Jackson's home The Hermitage in Nashville last year (I shared this visit here):

Andrew Jackson's The Hermitage

In the next few weeks I’ll write a more detailed post for each of these visits because there is so much more to share than I can put in one summary but I did want to share some of my non-shopping travel adventures.

Linking on Savvy Southern Style, A Stroll Through Life

Hit the Road Jack

I do a bit of travel for my job…not too much but enough to normally keep my wanderlust in check.  For some reason though my trips tend to be scheduled in clumps, generally May and October end up being the busy months.  Well, this year one of my regular conferences moved from May to April and I shook things up a bit and decided to attend a new conference which has kept me on the road for all but two days out of the last 2+ weeks.  Last week I spent a few lovely days in Orlando and this week my conference just happens to be in Nashville.  Since my job does not require a ton of travel I do like to take advantage of scheduling a little extra personal time on some of these trips and doing some site seeing/shopping.

Last week in Orlando I had a couple of lovely days with my Aunts who spend their winters near Orlando.  I had done a bit of “Google-ing” prior to my trip hoping to scope some cool resale shops out but really did not have much success with my pre-trip research.  Odd since you would think Florida would be the perfect spot to find all kinds of vintage goodies.  Luckily the Aunts knew exactly where to go.  We saw some really lovely antique shops in Leesburg but let me tell you there were few bargains to be had…I found a couple but really had to work for it!  The places we went while were not great for finding bargains were great for seeing what similar items are really selling for in a retail establishment.  So all in all not entirely a loss, plus it really was fun to explore with my Aunts.

One of the highlights of my Orlando visit...sad but I really miss
The Waffle now that I'm in Boston

So here I am today, in Nashville.  I have been here several times and I’ve really enjoyed every visit.  It’s such a welcoming city and so much to see and do – I haven’t even scratched the surface.  I arrived on Sunday with a few antique shops on my list to see and really just open to find whatever else came.  My first stop however turned out to be The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home.  This beautiful plantation has more of the original contents from Jackson’s residency than any other presidential museum in the country – pretty impressive considering we’re talking about over 175 years.  Even the wallpaper on many of the walls is original of that time!

Here is a link to their website The Hermitage I highly recommend spending a couple of hours on a lovely day touring the house and gardens!

One of the highest priority things on my list was to check out Mike Wolfe from American Pickers new Antique Archeology shop.  I did a bit of digging and found out that his shop is to be located in an old factory (Marathon Motor Works) that only produced cars from 1911-1914.  The building now houses artist studios, shops & even a brewery.  From what I could find online the Nashville Antiques Archeology is scheduled to open in April – couldn’t find a specific date, just April so I figured I’d take a chance and hope for the best. Today after my last meeting I plugged the address into my GPS and optimistically headed that way only to find…..I was out of luck.  They do not appear to be open as of yet.  As I’ve said before (and I’m sure I’ll say again) though sometimes it’s about the journey and this is how I have to look at this.  It was a beautiful building and really cool to see it and learn about the short life of Marathon Motors.  Next time I’m in Nashville though you better believe I will be planning a revisit and here’s hoping it will be well worth the wait!

Yet to be opened Antique Archeology Nashville-style

Tomorrow I head to Atlanta and I have so many fun things planned I can’t wait…several antique shop stops along the way (all mapped out of course), The Auction Kings - Gallery 63 Auction, Dogwood Festival, Steeplechase, dining at some of my old favorite haunts as well as visiting with some very special folks.

Some links for some of these awesome things:
The Dogwood Festival
The Auction Kings Galery 63
Top Chef's Richard Blaze's Burger Palace
South City Kitchen
Ballard Design's Backroom
Scarlett Scales Antiques
Serenite Maison