Hayes Presidential Museum & Library
Woo, well after a fairly successful Thanksgiving (for this family) -- today Sarah & I drove out to Fremont, Ohio to see the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Museum, House & Library. I'm using the fact that going really is extra credit in my American Presidency class, but really I just love going to Presidential sites -- especially the ones in Ohio I haven't been to. n.n
Fremont, btw - is in the Sandusky area of Ohio, so an hour and 40 minute drive West. (Approximately the width of South Korea!) The temperature was 25 degrees today X_X this fact will come into play later. So we go up to this big fancy entrance, and wouldn't you know this is just the for-show entrance -- you actually enter on the side. Ugh. So we go inside, buy our tickets (for admission to both museum, and the house tour is 13 dollars a person. No student discount -.-) Luckily though, cause we didn't want this to take all day, there was a house tour in 5 minutes. I didn't want to carry my coat around all day, so I put it on a hanger.
We walk over to the Rutherford B. Hayes house, and OMG -- 25 degrees is COLD!!! X_X We both noted, by the way -- the vague resemblance to Theodore Roosevelt's house. While waiting on the porch Sarah noticed something about the benches...
They were donated by Kiwanis! YAY! lol, I also snuck some pictures of the interior since no photography would be allowed on the tour...
The tourguide women politely let the two of us in, and jokingly noted that my mother would have some stern words for me not wearing a coat. (There was also an old man with a British accent there, but he disappeared at some point.) Then our tourguide (4real) came, and replaced temp tourguide woman - who then proceeded to ask the same questions, where are we from, have we been there before, etc.
Three things to note about the tour: 1. Now is NOT a good time to visit this site. They have just received a $400,000 restoration grant -- and half the things inside the house (note the picture above) are in storage. Giant paintings, most of the furniture, the real rugs, etc. They are mid-restoration, so alot of power sockets were exposed (she joked about them several times) Sarah later noted how we got "jipped" (sp?). Eh, it happens. It was interesting to see still. The tourlady kept joking about how we'll have to come back in a few years. Haha, yeah, we'll see.
2. The tour managed to completely avoid mentioning the incredibly corrupt election of President Rutherford B. Hayes. It was alluded to in the museum part, but the tour did not mention it at all - the fact that there was a bunch of corrupt political bargains that allowed him to take the Presidency. (Compressed History Lesson: Hayes promised the south to remove anti-segregation-law-enforcing policemen from the south if they gave their electors to him, and in return he would only run for one term. So even though his opponent got 2 million more votes, he ended up being given the victory in 1877.)
3. And finally, the tour guide woman's years were always off! She noted that he was born in 1880 (which is impossible if he was president from 1877-1881. She later said something to the effect of "In 1880, the civil war started brewing, so he asked the Governor to form a volunteer infantry..." The Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865!
Well, the House was average overall. Not the most interesting place ever, but not the most interesting President either. Teddy's house was clearly the coolest President house I've ever been to. But this place had it's charm -- I liked the design inside, Huge ceilings, huge doorways, a dozen bedrooms across several floors with an awesome staircase and "the Lantern" -- their nickname for the top of the central staircase spiral, because light from outside filled the whole house through a few windows several floors up.
The museum was also VERY average. But by far my favorite part of that would be these random paper snowflakes. There were books of them in the giftshop, but completed ones on display. Many had very random themes (tarot cards, Exodus, Noah's ark, Naval vessels...) but the President-y ones caught my eye!!!!
Sarah had trouble seeing what this one was at first, but it's a young Abraham Lincoln chopping wood! That's some pretty impressive sh*t actually!
Here's my favorite, the Presidential Seal one! Haha, so overall average experience. Now I'm at work, getting ready to write my 3 page paper on it for extra credit points. I'm working for 8 hours tonight! X_X what will I fill it with! Actually, I'm betting I'll fill it just fine -- it's just being productive I have to worry about :-/
Song of the Day: "The Time (Dirty Bit)" by the Black Eyed Peas - from their new album "The Beginning" (following up their past hit album The E.N.D.) Haha, the art for the album and the video of The Time (see below) is pretty cool - brings a new 3rd dimension to pixelation. I hope this album is as good as the last one, if so, you can expect the collectors edition of it to be at the top of my Christmas Wishlist.
Sarah did note the AWEFUL rhyming in this song. Particularly Fergie's:
Fremont, btw - is in the Sandusky area of Ohio, so an hour and 40 minute drive West. (Approximately the width of South Korea!) The temperature was 25 degrees today X_X this fact will come into play later. So we go up to this big fancy entrance, and wouldn't you know this is just the for-show entrance -- you actually enter on the side. Ugh. So we go inside, buy our tickets (for admission to both museum, and the house tour is 13 dollars a person. No student discount -.-) Luckily though, cause we didn't want this to take all day, there was a house tour in 5 minutes. I didn't want to carry my coat around all day, so I put it on a hanger.
We walk over to the Rutherford B. Hayes house, and OMG -- 25 degrees is COLD!!! X_X We both noted, by the way -- the vague resemblance to Theodore Roosevelt's house. While waiting on the porch Sarah noticed something about the benches...
The tourguide women politely let the two of us in, and jokingly noted that my mother would have some stern words for me not wearing a coat. (There was also an old man with a British accent there, but he disappeared at some point.) Then our tourguide (4real) came, and replaced temp tourguide woman - who then proceeded to ask the same questions, where are we from, have we been there before, etc.
Three things to note about the tour: 1. Now is NOT a good time to visit this site. They have just received a $400,000 restoration grant -- and half the things inside the house (note the picture above) are in storage. Giant paintings, most of the furniture, the real rugs, etc. They are mid-restoration, so alot of power sockets were exposed (she joked about them several times) Sarah later noted how we got "jipped" (sp?). Eh, it happens. It was interesting to see still. The tourlady kept joking about how we'll have to come back in a few years. Haha, yeah, we'll see.
2. The tour managed to completely avoid mentioning the incredibly corrupt election of President Rutherford B. Hayes. It was alluded to in the museum part, but the tour did not mention it at all - the fact that there was a bunch of corrupt political bargains that allowed him to take the Presidency. (Compressed History Lesson: Hayes promised the south to remove anti-segregation-law-enforcing policemen from the south if they gave their electors to him, and in return he would only run for one term. So even though his opponent got 2 million more votes, he ended up being given the victory in 1877.)
3. And finally, the tour guide woman's years were always off! She noted that he was born in 1880 (which is impossible if he was president from 1877-1881. She later said something to the effect of "In 1880, the civil war started brewing, so he asked the Governor to form a volunteer infantry..." The Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865!
Well, the House was average overall. Not the most interesting place ever, but not the most interesting President either. Teddy's house was clearly the coolest President house I've ever been to. But this place had it's charm -- I liked the design inside, Huge ceilings, huge doorways, a dozen bedrooms across several floors with an awesome staircase and "the Lantern" -- their nickname for the top of the central staircase spiral, because light from outside filled the whole house through a few windows several floors up.
The museum was also VERY average. But by far my favorite part of that would be these random paper snowflakes. There were books of them in the giftshop, but completed ones on display. Many had very random themes (tarot cards, Exodus, Noah's ark, Naval vessels...) but the President-y ones caught my eye!!!!
Sarah had trouble seeing what this one was at first, but it's a young Abraham Lincoln chopping wood! That's some pretty impressive sh*t actually!
Here's my favorite, the Presidential Seal one! Haha, so overall average experience. Now I'm at work, getting ready to write my 3 page paper on it for extra credit points. I'm working for 8 hours tonight! X_X what will I fill it with! Actually, I'm betting I'll fill it just fine -- it's just being productive I have to worry about :-/
Song of the Day: "The Time (Dirty Bit)" by the Black Eyed Peas - from their new album "The Beginning" (following up their past hit album The E.N.D.) Haha, the art for the album and the video of The Time (see below) is pretty cool - brings a new 3rd dimension to pixelation. I hope this album is as good as the last one, if so, you can expect the collectors edition of it to be at the top of my Christmas Wishlist.
Sarah did note the AWEFUL rhyming in this song. Particularly Fergie's:
"I was born to get wild!
That's my style!
If you didn't know that,
Well, baby, now you know now..."
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