California Trip: Ronald Reagan Library

I think all the pictures for this post are ours. I don't think I have any stolen-from-Google images. Enjoy!


The closest I'll ever get to meeting the great man himself. Until heaven.





Take a look at the picture above, and read the caption below. They say history repeats itself...



Just a few of his belt buckles. Some are his, many were gifts. He could have worn a different one every single day of the year, and still had a few left over.


He LOVED Jelly Belly beans. So somone made a portrait of him entirely out of Jelly Belly beans!


This is not a sketch. This is a portrait of him made from every word in his inauguration speech. Is that cool or is that cool?


Speaking of cool...

THE Air Force One. Not a replica. The one actually used during his Presidancy.


Marine One, the helicopter version of Air Force One.


I love these pictures.



An exact replica of the oval office when it was occupied by Ronald Reagan.




An actual piece of the berlin wall that Reagan ordered to be torn down.


The view from the grounds of the library.



He final resting place.

As presidents go, Ronald Reagan was a great one. I'm excited to bring our children here someday.

Contact Your Senators ASAP

The Senate is voting in the proposed healthcare bill tomorrow, so we need to contact our senators tonight and tell them to vote NO on ObamaCare.

If this goes through, it will spell disaster for our country. We're already burdened with unimaginable debt (thanks to Obama's bailouts and stimulus bill). This plan will only pile on billions more.

Even more importantly, we don't need the government getting involved in our business. It isn't the government's job to run our banks, our car companies, our insurance companies, and our hospitals. I don't know when it happened, but so many have adopted an "entitlement" attitude, thinking that it's the government's duty to provide them with free healthcare. It's not.

We don't need healthcare reform, especially the kind that the government is proposing. We have the best healthcare system in the world. We need health insurance reform, and it could easily be done without the government controlling the whole system.

If you want to look at the facts yourself, here is a study done by Price Waterhouse Cooper that spells out exactly how bad this will be for America. The Heritage Foundation posted a summarized article of the study, that you can read here. (Thanks Callie for providing the links on your blog so that we could pass on the message.)

I urge you to contact your own Senators, as well as the Senators on the list provided on the Hugh Hewitt blog. You can send them a short email telling them that you are aware of the Price Waterhouse Cooper study, that you don't support ObamaCare, and that you would like them to represent your interests by voting "no."

Short, simple, and to-the-point. And so important! More government programs = higher taxes. More government involvement in our lives = fewer freedoms for Americans. Protect freedom by using your freedom of speech to tell our Senators that you don't want this.

Then pass it on.

California Pictures: Magic Mountain

Here are few, completely stolen-from-Google, pictures of a few of the best (in my opinion) roller coasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain. I stole them from Google because we took exactly zero pictures while we were there. We were too busy having fun. :)


Can you guess what this ride is called? Do you want to know why it's called that? Check out that first drop, close to the right side of the picture above, or in the center of the picture below. That drop is FOREVER long. I went from excited, to horrified, to almost sick before that drop ended.

It nearly killed me. I loved the rest of the ride, but that first climb and first drop will have you begging for the rapture to take you right then.



This ride is called Deja Vu. You go forwards through the ride, and then you go backwards through the ride! Does that sound nauseating enough for you? We went on this 40 minutes after we ate. I had my eyes closed for 80% of the ride. Otherwise, I think I would have been wearing my lunch. I may never do that one again.


This is one ride that absolutely nobody should go on. This is the wooden, old-style roller coaster that rattles your brain. It's 0% enjoyable, and 100% agony.


I LOVED this one. It's called the Riddler's Revenge. I'm not sure why. But you stand up in it. Which sounds scary and unstable. But it's awesome!


This one is called Tatsu. It's supposed to be like you're riding a dragon? Or you are the dragon? I'm not sure. But you sit down, and then the jack your seat backwards so that your back is parallel to track. If you put your arms out in front of you, it seems like you're flying. I was so scared to go on this one, but by the end of it, I was laughing like a crazy person! I loved it!


Okay. This picture. I'm sorry. I couldn't find a real picture that showed the ride accurately. So this was my best option. Anyway. My favorite ride was this one. It is also a wooden roller coaster, but it's smooth, and it's not called "The Terminator" just because. It actually uses the theme really well before you get on the ride, to get you all psyched up for it. Loved it!


I guess this would be a good time to tell you that these pictures aren't in order at all. This was the first ride we went on. It's called X2. Do you see the seats? How they are on either side of the track? That's because the seats rotate strategically throughout the ride to up the thrill. And it was thrilling, all right. So thrilling, I had my eyes closed for at least half of it. I couldn't handle it. But it made every ride after that seem a lot more manageable.

I looked for these pictures specifically because they were the most exciting of the 12 or 13 rides we went on that day. If that doesn't seem like a lot, that's because the line-ups for some of these were anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half. Plus all the walking in between. But it was enough for me. I was more than happy to exit the park at 8:00 pm.

So that was Magic Mountain. Next up, pictures from the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum.