It took almost all day Sunday to move ourselves to our hotel in Ventura. There were no mishaps, but we were kind of tuckered out when we finally got settled.

Monday we went to the Reagan Library. It changed a lot since I saw it. One thing that didn’t change was the overpowering presence of the building. Besides being very impressive architecture, it is situated on the top of a mountain overlooking Semi Valley. Very impressive views.

The changes were mostly good. They used to display hundreds of the gifts that Reagan received from other heads of state. Most of them are no longer displayed. Instead, they did a very effective job of describing the tenor of the times, then described how things changed during Reagan’s presidency. I mostly appreciated their presentation. They included some things that were unrelated, such as a steel beam from the 9/11 attack on the New York World Trade Center. (GW Bush was president.) Understandably, they skipped over some things I thought were important. For example, they mentioned nothing about Iran-Contra, Oliver North, or North’s secretary (who sneaked classified documents out by hiding them in her underwear). A very nice addition was the plane Reagan used as Air Force 1. We spent most of the day in the library and felt it was time well spent.

Today (Tuesday) we did a walking tour of Ventura. The highlight was the Mission Basilica San Buenaventura. Strangest fact: this was the only mission that had wooden bells.

We’re going viral! When we were in Tucson, we visited a carriage museum. They were filming a short and asked if we would be willing to participate. You can see us in this 7-minute video. If you are impatient, skip ahead to 6:20.

Tomorrow we take our longest train ride: Ventura to San Diego.