Simi Valley

 Last weekend Lisa and I went to Simi Valley to visit our good friends (and also Lisa's cousin) Thomas and Vicky McCormack. We used to go and visit them quite often but as the kids got older our lives got more complicated and we just didn't make it up there as often. We drove up Friday night and Saturday morning I went for an early morning run in the hills north of Simi Valley. Vicky and Thomas live in that neighborhood near the freeway. 

When I say I "ran" through the hills that may be a bit of an exaggeration since those hills are steep. In some places it may be more accurate to say that I "climbed" through the hills.  The hills are beautiful and I loved running through the rocks and trees etc.

After I got back and showered we headed out to see the Reagan library. I've always wanted to go but never had the opportunity. This was the opportunity since it is right outside of Simi Valley. 

I learned something new this weekend. A presidential library isn't a library at all. It is actually a museum. The museum was pretty cool. They had a Lincoln exhibit there and I learned a whole lot of stuff about Abraham Lincoln that I didn't know. 

In addition to the history of Lincoln and Reagan the the "library" also had several other interesting things. First of all, Ronald Reagan is actually buried there. That was pretty cool. 

Another interesting item is a section of the Berlin wall. The coolest exhibit that have however is the Airforce 1. I didn't know this but up until Reagan the airforce 1 was a Boeing 707. Reagan ordered a new one that was a 747 but it didn't arrive until Bush was president. When it came Bush gave the old one to the Reagan library. I actually got to walk through it and everything. Very cool. It was interesting to see the old equipment they had in there. Laptops that were about two inches thick and a VHS player. You don't realize how much technology has improved until you go back twenty years and take a look. That stuff was state of the art back then. 

After the library we went out of Italian food. We then spent the night with the McCormacks and went to church with them the next morning. It was cool to the Stevensons there. They used to live in our ward. Now they live in Simi Valley.  

One of the three surviving hats that Lincoln owned.

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10 Weird Coincidences between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy

1. Both presidents were elected to the House of Representatives in ‘46:

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

2. Lincoln and Kennedy’s name each contain seven letters in their name.

3. Both presidents were elected to the presidency in ‘60 and inaugurated in ‘61:

Lincoln won the election in 1860 and his inauguration was held on March 4, 1861.
Kennedy won the election in 1960 and his inauguration was held on January 20, 1961.

4. Both defeated an incumbent vice president for the presidency:

Lincoln defeated Vice President John C. Breckenridge.
Kennedy defeated Vice President Richard Nixon.

5. Both their vice presidents and successors were Southern Democrats named Johnson.

6. Both Johnsons’ were born in ‘08:

Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808.
Lyndon Johnson was born on August 27, 1908.

7. Both men were shot in the back of the head and in the presence of their wives.

8. Both presidents were shot on a Friday.

9. Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theatre. Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln, made by Ford.

10. Both John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald were killed and never faced trials.

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