Day Two: We Like Ike

Our morning in Abilene started out with an amazing breakfast at Abilene’s Victorian Inn.  Adrianne and Joe Potter served up coffee and fruit parfaits.  The parfait was made with vanilla yogurt, homemade granola, and a whole variety of fruits, including kiwi, peach, grapes, blackberry, strawberry, banana, and cantaloupe.  It was very yummy!!  Then we received orange juice and were served baked bacon and coconut praline French toast with warm maple syrup and sweet cream! Oh yes, it was as great as it sounds!!  It’s by far the best breakfast I have had in a very long time!! 

We ate breakfast at a table with a couple from Salina, Kansas.  They were only on a weekend getaway for their one year wedding anniversary.  They were newbies to the bed and breakfast thing as well so we all marveled in the breakfast together.  With each dish, we lifted our eyes in awe and finished each crumb off as if we hadn't been fed in weeks.

After our wonderful breakfast we headed towards our much anticipated first destination of the Eisenhower Center, including his Presidential Library and Museum, boyhood home, and meditation chapel that is his and Mamie’s final resting place.  As I'm sure will become a theme, we enjoyed the 24 minute introductory video on Dwight the boy, soldier, and president.  The brief introduction put us in the mood to venture around the grounds and partake in all the center had to offer.  We walked across the courtyard to the museum, which started out with his childhood and progressed through his General years in World War II and then touched on his presidency.

The museum portion took us about two and half hours to meander through the exhibits.  We learned a lot of interesting tidbits about our boy Ike.  For instance, he worked 81 hours a week at a creamery in Abilene to help put his brother through college.  Knowing he'd never afford college on his own, he enlisted Uncle Sam's helping by enlisting in the military and becoming a cadet at West Point.  Ike's wife, Mamie was originally from Denver and that's where they married.  We got to see the trendy Eisenhower jacket up close and personal.

We got see documents and photographs related to the rebuilding of Europe after World War II.  This included documents and images showing the enormity of recovered loot taken during Hitler's deplorable push for domination.  

Also on display were one of 40 copies of Hitler's Mein Kampf and Eisenhower's staff Cadillac from the war.  The last section of the museum dealt with his presidency.  The boy from Abilene was called upon once again by his country for help.  He obliged.  The exhibit showed his return home from the war and then discussed what he did until announced his presidency in front of the theater in Abilene.  Then exhibit after exhibit showed what live was like in America while Ike was president.  There were lots of things of his including his desk he had wired to record conversations, the podium made by IBM that a had a timer on the back, and even his stove from the White House.  Apparently, Ike liked to make chili on it.

 

We were at the museum for about three hours so there are a million other things about this museum that are awesome but I'll have to talk about those at some later day.  Maybe random blogs...When I was on vacation, I saw... 

After going through the museum we walked around the courtyard to the Library.  Holy Marbel, batman!  I'm not sure what the specifics are as to how much marble was used inside of this place but it was a lot!  A lot!  HUGE amounts of marble.  It seemed too ostentatious for a man we were just told via a massive museum was humble.  The library was not open at the time we visited so we just got to see the entryway and waiting area.  

After that we toured his boyhood home where he grew with 7 other people in the house and then we went to the chapel to see where him and Mamie are buried.  The chapel was huge and covered in more marble!!  The inside was peaceful and surrounded by beautiful stain glass.  From behind the railing we viewed the stone markers and continued out the door.  As we were leaving we heard the sound of plastic clink to marble.  The guy that had come in behind us had dropped is lens cap over the railing and down onto the marble flooring near Eisenhower.  He looked horrified and said something like, "Oh boy, I'm in a bit of trouble now." It was a moment of silent hilarity.  We left the poor man to find his own solution to his problem.

And with that...this blog must come to a stop.  More will be added at another time.  This was only half of day two's adventures.  Still to come is the visit to the Oz Museum and deciding on the fly to seek our another bed and breakfast in Independence, Missouri.  And I have tons of great pictures too!!

At posting time, we're just outside of St. Louis staying at a Holiday Inn Express. We're off to see the arch and who knows what else.  Another day, another adventure.