Today we start at the LBJ Lyndon Baines Johnson Museum. This museum is on the campus of the University of Texas. The first two levels have collects of the office. We strolled along the items, a lot of movie clips, plenty of paintings. The neat one, I thought was a Norman Rockwell painting of Lady Bird Johnson. 
Her name was given to her by a nurse maid of the house and stuck throughout her lifetime. But, the president was born in Johnson TX, yes named after his grandfather who built his home there. There are five floors of historical documents and above them another floor of exhibit. The most impressive item for me was a gold, diamond encrusted with emeralds on a sword and scabbard. It was given by a Saudi. This had a massive staircase of limestone that was really impressive, I suppose it was made after the man who was massive himself.
They steered us to a neat café, Hoover’s Cooking at
Her name was given to her by a nurse maid of the house and stuck throughout her lifetime. But, the president was born in Johnson TX, yes named after his grandfather who built his home there. There are five floors of historical documents and above them another floor of exhibit. The most impressive item for me was a gold, diamond encrusted with emeralds on a sword and scabbard. It was given by a Saudi. This had a massive staircase of limestone that was really impressive, I suppose it was made after the man who was massive himself.They steered us to a neat café, Hoover’s Cooking at
http://www.hooverscooking.com/ .
It is located in a small strip mall, heavily frequented, looked like 120 people or so could eat there. The tables are lined with brown butcher paper. Food comes out on a plastic serving platter and was rated by Zagat as a Soul food restaurant. Shirleen’s Spinach Salad had other vegetables and smoked mushrooms. I, a Catfish Po’ Boy, more like a Lobster roll, it had finely chopped lettuce with a light mayo, chopped pieces of tomato with a nice sized portion of fish. Coffee was a good good cup to sip on.
Off to the Capitol. We could see it but it was not easy to see where to park. Let’s start at a different letter of the states name TEXAS, I pick A as ASTEX, this comes from the many things they have the word encircled on, many items and that’s when I came up with the idea of starting with a different letter. The most different item at the capitol was the door hinges. They were about 8 X 4 and had the words Texas Capitol. 
It is located in a small strip mall, heavily frequented, looked like 120 people or so could eat there. The tables are lined with brown butcher paper. Food comes out on a plastic serving platter and was rated by Zagat as a Soul food restaurant. Shirleen’s Spinach Salad had other vegetables and smoked mushrooms. I, a Catfish Po’ Boy, more like a Lobster roll, it had finely chopped lettuce with a light mayo, chopped pieces of tomato with a nice sized portion of fish. Coffee was a good good cup to sip on.
Off to the Capitol. We could see it but it was not easy to see where to park. Let’s start at a different letter of the states name TEXAS, I pick A as ASTEX, this comes from the many things they have the word encircled on, many items and that’s when I came up with the idea of starting with a different letter. The most different item at the capitol was the door hinges. They were about 8 X 4 and had the words Texas Capitol. 
The use of marble, rich woods, pecan, oak and walnut plus others refinished Senate tables and chairs, nice to see the keep the old philosophy. The couple next to us asked where we were from, I said Mankato, and she said I go to school at the College, small world. Bob our guide has been doing it for 6 months; another guy was following us with a pad and pencil. Ask if he was auditioning for the job, he said yes, he liked to volunteer. They talked about the six flags that flew over Texas and the battle of San Jacinto with Sam Houston. Shirleen reminded me that we had had a luncheon with Ann Richards who was governor of the State at that time, of course there were hundreds of others.
A lot of history I never learned and now too much at one time. As we were sitting in the senate chambers, I noticed a neat tattoo on the arm of the guy sitting down next to us. I gently got up and took the pix, everyone that sports a tattoo should have their state outline on them somewhere, preferably on there exposed arm like him. 
Well we had time to try and squeeze in another activity, Lady Bird Johnsons Wildflower Center. She, as we remember was famous for her push in Beautifying America. This was a nicely put together stone structures and pea gravel paths. I noticed a couple plant beds that had pea size glass bottle fragments. This reminded me of the time I was at Texas A & M in 1974, they had just made a tar road with a glass similar to this size in it. John K. and I went to look for the road as it had just been mentioned on TV before we left Mankato. There were a number of wildflowers blooming, the state flower Bluebonnet, a ground cover. And one tree which we found out was a mountain laurel tree, purple flowers on the picture.
Then the Texas Land and Cattle restaurant again, Shirleen the Cowgirl rib eye, I a half order of Ribs. Decent meal but enough I enough. I had wanted to find Austin Land and Cattle Co. missed it this trip, sometime later. Jerr
No comments:
Post a Comment