The Nixon-vacation connection

I have long associated Richard Nixon with summer vacations, so it was fitting that we visited the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum on the first full day of our California vacation. Let me explain.

On August 9, 1974, as my family pulled out of the parking lot at the Absaroka Mountain Lodge just east of Yellowstone National Park, my father flipped on the radio and we heard the news that Richard Nixon was resigning as the 37th president of the United States. Although I hadn't yet celebrated my tenth birthday, I was already fascinated with politics, due in part to the fact that my father had just run an unsuccessful campaign for Congress. But my particular interest in Nixon's fate had been stoked the previous summer when I spent countless hours at my maternal grandmother's house watching the Watergate hearings. Let me add that I did not initially watch these hearings because I was a young political junkie - rather, their broadcast preempted the game shows I usually watched while I tooled around in my grandparents' den.

So it was with great interest this morning that I paid a visit to President Nixon's library in Yorba Linda, California. Before we began exploring the library, we watched a 28-minute movie about Nixon's career titled "Never Give Up: Richard Nixon in the Arena." The movie was produced before Nixon's death, and it featured his personal commentary about various events. My favorite quotation came near the end of the movie when Nixon, reflecting on his life, quoted Sophocles: "One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been."

The library is well worth a visit if you're in the area. The special exhibit "Man on the Moon: The 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11" brought back a lot of other childhood memories. The "World Leaders" and "Structures of Peace" exhibits reminded me of Nixon's significant achievements in foreign affairs. Because my grandmother was a florist, I was particularly taken with the First Lady's Garden, which was filled with aromatic roses. I was also fascinated with the display of Time Magazine covers featuring Nixon. Did you know he appeared on the cover 54 times - more than anyone else in history? I grinned when I saw the "Keep it Green" t-shirts for sale in the bookstore, a nod to Nixon's creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970.

I have now had the privilege of visiting four of our nation's twelve presidential libraries - including the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri; the Jimmy Carter Library in Atlanta; and the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston - and I hope to cross the other eight off my bucket list eventually. In the meantime, tonight I will get to check something else off my bucket list as we attend the Anaheim Angels-Cleveland Indians game at Angel Stadium. (Out of principal, I refuse to call them the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim. Ridiculous name.) The Swiney family has been on a quest to visit all of the major league baseball parks, and this will be the first of five games that we will attend during our California vacation. Play ball!