Beyond the 'Burg: T-giving in SoCal

Hey everyone! Well, as we said in last week's quick post, we traveled to Southern California (San Diego area) for Thanksgiving to visit Ben's family, as well as for Ben to do thesis research at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. We have a couple hundred photos, so we'll spare you most of those, but we're posting a few. More will come in a post above. We had a layover in Atlanta of about 2.5 hours, so my parents and brothers met us for dinner and a brief visit (see above photo of us in parking lot at the airport, where we were getting some "fresh air").

Overall, the week was a fun one, though I must say that I think I've read and seen just about enough material on Nixon for awhile. And I'm not even the one doing the thesis, so I can't imagine how Ben feels. Aside from the work, we were glad to get time with Ben's family, and I was happy to also spend time with my good friend Susan from Atlanta (who is out there doing her internship for med school this year).

This picture may be familiar to those who can remember the Nixon resignation:

Same helicopter, August 9, 1974:

Inside the archives - Ben's dad pretends to find an amazing discovery in the archival material (we'll have to leave it to Ben as to whether there was actually any ground-breaking information within his research):

The Nixon Library is in Yorba Linda because that was his birthplace. Below is the front of the library, as well as the house in which Nixon grew up (restored for visiting/touring):

Both nights after the library closed, we took advantage of the unique things in the area: first, Downtown Disney, where we went to a cafe and walked around; second, El Adobe Restaurant in San Juan Capistrano, which was Nixon's favorite restaurant when he lived there (since we, of course, hadn't had QUITE enough of Nixon yet and wanted to be sure to get the FULL Nixon experience...plus, their Mexican food is just downright good!).