Greetings from the Grassy Knoll!

Who's that in the shadows, under that tree?

Today was our last full day in Texas, and it's been fun, if unbelievably hot. We stopped at Baylor University in Waco, which is a lovely campus, and where they have two resident black bears.

could your name be Oski?

We tried to imagine Cal keeping a couple of grizzly or brown bears on the campus, as mascots for the school. The tree people protesting the stadium expansion would have nothing on the animal-rights enthusiasts sure to flood the campus if they did that in Berkeley.

We got to Dallas pretty early but were able to check into the hotel and walk around the historic West End, which is a very cool neighborhood (not in the climate sense, 100 degrees again today!). The areas is a mix of very old warehouses (its right next to the original rail yards in Dallas, from 1872), turned into lofts and offices as well as new buildings built in a similar style, lots of brick facades and nothing higher than 10 stories. There's lots of restaurants and shops, and the light rail system connects right in the middle. This area must have been crazy when the Super Bowl was here in February.

The West End is also the location of Dealey Plaza and other sites associated with the JFK assassination - a park and memorial, designed by Philip Johnson, and the Sixth Floor Museum.

Johnson's imposing, but calming, JFK memorial

clever logo

We walked around Dealey Plaza first, standing where Abraham Zapruder took his famous film, and looking up at the window was a little strange. There are even X's on the street marking where the limo was when JFK was hit.

The window

Zapruder stood here - note the Old Red Courthouse in the distance

The museum was much more elaborate than we expected. The main exhibit, titled John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation is mostly photos and text on boards.Unfortunately, no photography is permitted in the museum, so all of these images are taken from the website.

typical exhibit element, photos and text

The sniper's corner, preserved behind glass

The view of Dealey Plaza and Elm Street, from the windows in the photo above, are a bit chilling, knowing what happened that day. The accompanying audio tour did a nice job of connecting the wall panels together, with interviews from witnesses of that day, police recordings, news broadcasts. The exhibit also covered the events immediately afterward - Lyndon Johnson taking the Presidential Oath with Jackie Kennedy and Lady Bird at his side, Oswald's arrest and killing by Jack Ruby, and the societal impact of the assassination.

A silent (except for military drums and bugle) film showing how reactions to the assassination around the US and the world, with a lot of footage of crying mourners, was quite emotional.

The museum has the model of Dealey Plaza that the FBI built for the Warren Commission, pretty neat. Both the Warren Commission report and the House Select Committee on Assassinations reports are discussed, as well as some of the conspiracy theories. The Museum comes down squarely in the single-shooter, Oswald-did-it camp.

The FBI's Dealey Plaza scale model

Well, tomorrow we say farewell to the Lone Star State, off to Oklahoma. It's been fun, but it's not like we're thinking of moving. Talk to you later!