Day two started with a trip to the George Bush Presidential Library and Archives. I've never been to a presidential library so I didn't know what to expect. As I arrived I decided the whole thing seemed somewhat absurd. I can't imagine going to the Justin Trudeau library or the Steven Harper library and can you imagine what the Donald Trump library is going to look like? It was still an interesting experience. They had a full mockup of the oval office and the attendant was very knowledgeable though I did stump him with some of my woodworking related questions on the furniture.
They didn't push a political agenda too much with the exception of the 'The Bush Tax Cuts' and the 'No Child Left Behind' exhibits. I suppose Obama would have Obamacare and half the country would think that would be too political. One of the wings hosted a 'Liberty and Laughter - The Lighter Side of the Whitehouse' which was fun as it showcased the sense of humor of most of the recent presidents. I'm assuming it was a few years old as Trump wasn't represented. There was also several recent Bush paintings. He's actually not that bad.
After the library, I took the train downtown to the hotel I'd be at for the conference and then went to check out the place that JFK was shot. There were several grassy knolls so I'm not entirely sure which one was related to the second shooter discussion. The book repository was also a lot closer then I was expecting. I took a bit of time to listen to some people with flyers speaking. No one mentioned JFK was still alive but there was a lot of talk about the cover up by the government. A few blocks away was a memorial where I discovered his middle name was Fitzgerald. I'm not sure I knew that until now.
It was a lot easier for me to get around today as everything I was interested in was downtown including the conference where I'll be for the next three days. There are two separate utility conferences in the same location so there are a lot of vendors and it's a giant conference hall. I checked in and got my swag. Highlights were a chocolate bar and some gummy bears. My day will start at 8:30a tomorrow with Rick Perry as the key note speaker. I suspect oil and gas will play a big part in his speech.
I spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the buildings in downtown Dallas. The most impressive was the old court house that had been turned into a museum but had since permanently closed. I checked in the window and the first exhibit was a Pegasus. I see them everywhere down here and I knew there was a gas station with that as a symbol but I haven't really figured out the full history. There is a giant neon one on top of my hotel which has been there for 80+ years. I'll have to do more research and try to get a picture. I didn't even know it was there until researching this blog section.
I thought my day was over but there was a lot of noise outside my hotel. I went to investigate and realized there was a viewing party for the Dallas Mavericks. AT&T has a square nearby with a giant video screen where they were showing the game. The warm evenings and people made for a fun atmosphere though they did lose and are now down 3 games to 0. One more home game while I'm here. Hopefully they win. Always fun to be in a city when one of their sports teams wins a playoff game.
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