George Bush Presidential Library and Musuem

Our temps are in the 80's.  It has been raining a little each day and the skies are overcast, but that is okay.  We are able to leave our blinds open when the sun is not shining and I can see out. Scout is even happy with the cooler temps.  She is very happy walking these days.  We are supposed to be having this type of weather all week!

Mama surprised us with a new toy.  We were surprised because we are way over our dog budget with everything I have needed lately like my boot, supplements and my vet visit.  I will have to take some photos of it later.

Stay tuned for Mama's report on what they did this weekend.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Happy That It is Monday And He Can Rest

We visited the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum on Saturday.  As I mentioned last week, we visited the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum a few years ago and really enjoyed it.   I was excited about visiting the George Bush Museum because I lived through his presidency.

I was excited during the drive because we were off the interstate. I actually saw open spaces again.  There were cows and horses.  Jeff commented that people say if you visit Houston or Dallas you are not seeing the real Texas.  I have to agree.  I could live in Texas if I was outside of Houston.  Houston is way too big for me and it is so congested.

The museum is located on the campus of Texas A&M University. 

George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

We had to go through security and then we were greeted by a friendly man.  He told us that we would not actually see the library and we could not check out books.  The library is open to scholars.  We knew that from our visit to the Eisenhower Museum.  We were then told a movie was starting in five minutes and we didn't want to miss it. We hurried and bought our tickets which were just $7 a person and that was for the entire visit.

The movie was shown in a very presidential looking theatre.  I should have taken photos.  The seats were a blue velvet.  It was very pretty.  The hostess told us the Bushs' actually have an apartment across from the library and they visit often.

I am not positive, but the Bush apartment may be on the top floor of this building.  Mrs. Bush is often seen walking her dogs according to the hostess.

George and Barbara are actually going to be buried on the grounds.  Their daughter, Robin, who died when she was three, has been moved to their cemetery on the grounds. We were told we could visit her grave site, but when we arrived there was a gate saying renovations were being made and it was closed.

The bridge to the grave site.

 The movie showed the life of President Bush. It was really interesting. He spoke through much of it. He is quite funny.  I felt as though the story of George and Barbara was a love story.  I really enjoyed the movie.

After the movie, we then entered the museum.  The museum takes you through the entire life of President Bush.

Presidential Limo

The Seal

President Bush

Mrs. Bush

Various family photos

Items that belonged to Mrs. Bush's mother

Replica of Mrs. Bush's wedding gown.  Their wedding photo is in the background.

Their first car.  A gift from Mr. Bush's father.

Mrs. Bush does needlepoint.  Items she made early on in Mr. Bush's career.

Close up of the needlepoint purse.

Statue of Mr. Bush.

A display of elephants (Republican party symbol).  I had to take this photo for my Blogsville Ladies Crochet Society.

Replica of the Oval Office.  Supposedly, this is how it was decorated when Mr. Bush was in office.

Another view of the Oval Office.

Replica of the office at Camp David.

Camp David Office

Dog treats in Camp David office.  Scout would love to have this.  She could get her own treats.

Actual piece of the Berlin Wall.

Replica of the Situation Room

Kuwait Door - this was a gift from the Kuwait people.

The door is engraved with the names of all the US soldiers that died in Kuwait.

Saying goodbye to Washington.

The two Bush Presidents

Statue outside of museum.  It was inspired by the Berlin Wall coming down.  The horses symbolize the human spirit being set free.

We really enjoyed our visit here.  There was much more than I took pictures of, but this gives you a glimpse of what the museum has to offer.

There are currently 12 Presidential museums with a 13th coming next year for President George W. Bush.  We have now seen two of them and we would like to visit all of them.  Who has Presidential museums?  Hoover, Nixon, Franklin D. Roosevelet, Ford, Truman, Carter, Eisenhower, Reagan, Kennedy, Bush, Johnson and Clinton.  We should have visited Truman's when we had the chance.

After our visit to the museum, we ate at a restaurant featured on Diner's, Drive-Ins and Dives.  I will write about that tomorrow.  It was different and fun!

Patty

It's Friday?

This has been a strange week with a holiday falling in the middle of the week. It doesn't seem like it can be Friday, but Mama says it is.  Fridays are hectic for us. Okay, hectic is probably not the correct word.  Mama just has more to do on Fridays.  She takes us for our morning walk no later than 5:30 a.m. and then she gets the laundry ready to go.  Dad drops her off on his way to work.  Then she walks back while it is washing. She then walks back to put it in the dryer and then she comes back and either takes us for another walk or fixes breakfast. She then goes back and gets the clothes and brings them back here and puts them away.  Then, we go for another walk.  She then showers and gets dressed.  It sounds exhausting, doesn't it? LOL  In the afternoon, we clean so that the place looks nice for the weekend, but it never looks clean longer than Saturday afternoon.  We do not know what happens, but it always looks trashed on the weekends.  Tonight, the folks will go grocery shopping.

The tent campers left yesterday. Check out is 11 a.m., but they left at 1 p.m.  I'm sure they were not impressed staying here. It is really not a campground.  It is a RV park.  There is a difference. 95% of the people who stay here are long term people.  We do not have a shower house which is unusual even for a RV park.  It doesn't matter to the folks because they shower in the RV, but a lot of weekend campers use a shower house instead of their camper shower.

Banfield called yesterday to follow up on me to make sure I was doing okay after my vaccine. We were surprised they did that because we don't think our vet even does that.  My surgeon does, but not my regular vet.

Mama said to smile, so I am.

LOL, I'm so funny!

Made you laugh!

Time to attack the hedgehog.

A baby panda is making noise on the TV, very strange.

Last night, Mama fixed Baked Tilapia with Tomatoes and Olives. Yes, she is not a fan of fish, but it was on the Emeal menu and she can tolerate Tilapia normally.  We only got a small taste of it because it had garlic and onions, but it was good. Mama said it was good because it had so much stuff on it that she couldn't taste the Tilapia.

 2-4 tilapia filets (cooking spray, salt)
1 Roma tomato, chopped
1 can olives, drained
½ c chopped white onion
(¼ c olive oil, ¼ t red pepper flakes,
2 T bottled minced garlic, 1 T lime juice)

In greased 9x13” baking dish, place tilapia filets. Season with salt. Combine tomato, olives, onion, olive oil, pepper flakes, minced garlic, lime juice and spoon mixture over fillets. Bake uncovered, 20 min at 400°.

She added grated Parmesan Cheese to it because she thought that sounded good.

The full meal, steamed green beans, garlic mashed potatoes and the Tilapia.

The folks may visit President George Bush Presidential Library and Museum tomorrow.  This is Bush Sr's library.  It is located in College Station, TX which is about 90 minutes from us.  They visited the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene and loved it. Mama didn't think she would, but it was very interesting. She hopes President Bush's library and museum is as nice.  Dad told her to find a place to eat in College Station, so she will be reading reviews today and drooling over the menus.

Have a nice day!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Making Mama Laugh Today With My Facial Expressions

I Had Ants In My Boot!

Yep, I had ants in my boot yesterday.  I can't remember the movie, but there is a cowboy having his feet shot at so he jumps around.That is what I looked like. Mama took my boot off and wiped the ants from my feet. That was strange.

I went to the vet yesterday for my annual vaccines. We went to Banfield Pet Hospital.  They are located inside Petsmarts.  Our vet had told Mama they were expensive. They charged about $20 more than what he charges.  However, their hours are convenient and now my records are available at any Banfield that we happen to visit.  They were very friendly. The vet asked why I was wearing a boot and Mama told her about my corn.  She had never heard of dogs having corns.  We were not surprised. It is our understanding that it is a greyhound thing. Mama showed her the information on how to remove them.  She was very interested it learning about it, so we left the information with her.  Hopefully she will learn more about it and will be able to help the next greyhound that comes in.  She gave me an exam and would you believe that she even took my temperature?  I told her that I could hold the thermometer it in my mouth, but she said she had a better way.  Ack!   Mama did not take a photo of that, thank goodness.  She gave me my shot and then I was happy.  I knew that was it.  She gave us treats.  Scout refused to eat hers, so I ate it. 

Eating my treat.

Waiting for the vet.

Scout waiting for the vet to see me.

Mama likes the convenience of Banfield while we are traveling. If we were really sick, she would try and find us a greyhound savvy vet, but for our annual vaccines this seems to be a good place for us to go.

I was exhausted after my vet visit.  The folks went out for lunch.  They ate at Willy's Ice House again. There are two places that Mama wanted to eat at again and this was one of them.  This time she had a BBQ/Cheddar Burger.

Breaded mushrooms - nicely seasoned

Dad's crawfish sandwich

Mama's BBQ/Cheddar Hamburger - it was better than it looks.

Last night, Mama fixed their Emeals meal.  It was simple.  It was just brats with chili without beans on top with cheese and onions.  Mama liked it. She has leftovers for lunch today.

The party house was quiet yesterday.  Well, there was music, but not a wild party like we expected.  The campers with their tent were gone all day. There tent blew around some in the wind. 

The folks sat outside waiting for fireworks, but came in because the mosquitoes were bad. We watched the fireworks from inside the RV.  They were very loud because the public display was just a few hours away, but Scout and I did fine.

Dad either has a cold or it's allergies.  Mama is not feeling too good this morning either. She says it could be allergies.

Independence Day!

We had some new people move in last night.  They look out of place here. They are real campers. They put a tent up and tents are now allowed. The park manager spoke with them about it, but we are not sure if they were told to take it down.  They have two barking dogs and two kids. They are probably just here for a few days.  This is really not a good place for kids. There is nothing for them to do but fish.

Mama says she doesn't want to be invited to the party house. LOL  They sound like they are in their 20's.  It is definitely not her scene. We expect the party to be quite loud today and tonight. We just find it interesting that they can play their music so loud 24 hours a day.  

Mama made Chicken Pitas last night. She was not impressed with them.  The pitas had chicken, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and Feta cheese.

The folks are going to sit outside tonight and watch the fireworks.  Scout and I will stay inside where it is safe for us.

Stay safe everyone and have a great day and night!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Celebrating His First Fourth In His Forever Home

Ready For The Fourth

The RV park is decorated for the fourth of July.  The flags are out on all the posts like they were for Memorial Day.  They have not put the banners out around the Club House or fences yet though.  We hope they do because it makes it look quite festive. It's my first 4th of July being adopted!

The lady that helped Mama with the awning when we first moved here left yesterday.  Mama was sad when she saw they had left. We didn't get to say good-bye. We have our blinds closed in the mornings if the sun is out because it gets too hot in here.  We don't hear anything that is going on outside, so they left without us knowing.  We went over and checked out their site. They have a lot of shade, but their site costs more and Dad doesn't want to move. We should be leaving here in a few weeks anyway.  We don't know where we are going yet. 

There is a subdivision that backs to our RV park. There is a guy who plays music very loud 24/7 and every light on his house seem to be on.  Mama noticed it the first day we were here.  She thought maybe he was dead and no one knew it. She asked the park manager about it and she said that the police have been called several times and there is nothing that they can do about it.  We don't know when he sleeps.  We don't hear it from our motor home, but if we walk down the road into the other RV section, we hear it. He plays pretty good music, but it has to be so annoying to all his neighbors.   Last Thursday and Friday, he had parties. It was really loud. People were laughing, singing, etc.  Saturday, he added a band to his party. I think that upset the neighbors because there was silence for a few hours. I just cannot imagine having to live next to him.  I bet he has a huge party tomorrow night.

The view from our window. It's a Crape Myrtle.  

Me watching the firemen that are down the street from us. 

Mama fixed pitas with pepperoni last night.  It was basically a pita with pizza sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. It is baked for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees. She said it was pretty good. Tonight, she is fixing pitas with chicken fajita strips.

Dad is off tomorrow!  I am going to the vet for my distemper vaccine.  Mama thought it was due at the end of the month, but I am set to expire on the 7th.  We will show the vet my corn, but Mama said unless they are greyhound savvy, they probably won't know much.  Dad wants her to take the  printouts on how to remove corns, but she will not ask them to do it if they don't seem to have any knowledge on it. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Excited That Dad Is Off Tomorrow

Houston Museum of Natural Science

I am going to start off the blog this morning telling you what we did yesterday and Joey will finish up with his thoughts.

Yesterday, we visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It is located near downtown and is about a 45 minute drive from our RV park.  There is a parking garage that is attached.  It is $10 to park.  It was very nice to just park in the garage and walk directly into the museum. We did not have to walk outside.  The museum has various prices.  If you want to see the permanent exhibits, the price is $15.  They have a Titanic exhibit which is $27.  We decided not to see that one since we visited the Titanic Museum in Branson, MO and saw a lot there. Jeff surprised me by adding the butterfly exhibit onto our tour. It was $8 a person.  I thought it was a little pricey when we were already spending $15 a person for the main exhibit, but I did really enjoy it.  You are able to watch butterflies hatch and then walk out into an area where they are flying all over. There is a McDonald's inside the museum which I was very happy about for a few reasons.  1) I have not had McDonald's in eight weeks and I had been wanting it.  2) The food prices were about $.50 more than other McDonald's, so they were not inflated by much.  3) The food was good, unlike the food we had at NASA and McDonald's cost less.

I really was not looking forward to seeing the museum, but we heard many good things about it.  There were things that I enjoyed seeing such as gems, shells, butterflies and I found some of the items from the Arctic and Indians interesting.  Jeff enjoyed the dinosaurs and there were a lot of them, 30 to be exact. I thought we would never get through that exhibit.  It was the size of a football field.

Termite mound.  Jeff said he saw these in St. Thomas

A chart that we were given as we entered the area with the live butterflies.

Waterfall in butterfly area

Ceiling in butterfly area.

One of the many gemstone carvings of Harold Van Pelt

One of the 30 dinosaurs in the Hall of Paleontology

...and another one

Giant Armadillo - supposedly like were quite large at one time.

Largest snail shell in the world

Another view of the shell

More shells

Gold nugget

Another dinosaur as seen from the second floor.

There is a room with jewelry and very large gem stones.  It was dark inside with only lights on the gems and jewelry.  I did not take photos there.

We arrived early around 10 a.m. and left at 2 p.m.  There were large lines to get in as we were leaving, so I am glad we arrived early.

Last night, we decided we wanted Mexican for dinner.  There are many restaurants near us, so I decided to check the reviews. We finally decided on Lupe Tortilla.  The reviews said that they had the best fajitas in Houston and also their tortillas are homemade and paper thin and just the best.  I decided I had to see for myself.  They serve a salsa that is not traditional. I am not quite sure how to describe it. It has tomatoes, onions and maybe a few peppers.  It is not a red base though.  It is clear. They also bring a hot bean type of dip with the tortilla chips.  I really liked both of them.  I ordered the The Original “Beeg Sucker” Burrito Flour tortilla filled con beef, frijoles, covered con chili gravy queso. Served with tomatoes, onions and shredded lettuce. I chose to upgrade it to the fajita beef instead of regular ground beef for $3 more.  It was really good.  I loved the fajita beef and the chili sauce was really good.

Burrito

Jeff ordered the fajitas with chicken, beef and shrimp. He also ordered a side of grilled corn on the cob.  His food took up half the table. I asked him if he thought they were the best fajitas he has ever had and he said they were good, but probably not the best. We have found that in Houston, fajitas are not served with green peppers like we are used to in Missouri. This one had one pepper.  It is interesting to see the differences in food here compared to at home.  Most of the Mexican restaurants here serve two types of salsas with their tortilla chips and I like that. 

My attempt at showing Jeff's food.  It is not all in this photo. 

The hats are the lights.  First time I have seen that.

Here is Joey's report:

I am doing really good wearing my boot!  I love that I can go wherever I want now.  I can walk on the gravel and the asphalt.  It's very likely that the next place we stay at will not have as much grass, so I'm glad I can walk on other surfaces without hopping.  You should have seen me this morning. I walked to the far lake and then we walked all the way to the other end of the park and to the firehouse.

How do I look?  Mama says I look pretty spiffy.

Walking with Dad yesterday.

That's all I have to say today.  Mama seems to have talked enough for both of us.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Likes Being Booted