I’m so happy that I got to visit the Obama Presidential Center at the end of June! Probably most people have heard that it’s hard to get tickets. Well, let me tell you my story. I saw that it was opening on June 19 and I was already going to be in Chicago for a family wedding the last weekend in June so I wanted to get tickets. Then I saw the date they were opening it up to purchase tickets online and I set a reminder on my phone. When I woke up that day the first week of May I decided to check out the website and I was put in a virtual line to buy tickets. It may have asked me if I wanted to be put in that line, I don’t recall. But it was still a couple of hours away so I waited. When it finally opened up I was shocked to see that the first 3 time slots were already sold out for June 29! I felt so lucky to get these tickets especially after I saw how quickly all the tickets sold out.
My daughter was my date to the family wedding and we planned to spend the day together to visit the Obama Presidential Center the Monday after the wedding. In a word: overwhelming! I will do my best to relay what I saw and show some of the over 200 photos that I took. It was so nice to be there, to see all the history and to hear encouraging voices from the president and his wife as well as other people. There were many videos and photos throughout. It was impossible to see everything.
My daughter decided that we should take public transit and I was more than happy to give up my driving in Chicago tasks because by that Monday I was very tired of driving in Chicago! The only thing about taking transit that day? There was a heat dome that descended upon Chicago, as well as other parts of the midwest, that very day! It made for an interesting day and it reminded me how lucky I am to live in Los Angeles where we don’t have that awful humidity. Well, we have some but it’s nothing like in the midwest.
We got to the campus about 20 minutes prior to our time slot so we checked out the gardens and the Nancy Pelosi pavilion. Luckily there was cloud cover just as we got there so that helped a little. Then we approached the front door about 10 minutes before our time slot and they let us in! They suggest starting on the second floor and to work your way up.
The second floor is entitled Toward a More Perfect Union. It starts with selected history of the United States and what the visitor’s guide describes as historic roots of change-making. These are “iconic historical moments that helped shape the lives and values of President and Mrs. Obama” as stated on the website. It travels on through Barack and Michelle’s upbringing and onward towards his political campaigns. I couldn’t photograph all of it but these photos will give you an idea of the displays. Between each of the floors you are treated to a close-up of the painted windows on the north side of the building. I tried to capture the Museum of Science and Industry between each floor. I didn’t include all those photos but this gallery includes a couple of them.
The third floor: Working for the Common Good beginning with Democracy 101 describing civic basics. Then onto President Obama’s policy priorities and his accomplishments.
The fourth floor: The People’s House. From the website “Take an intimate look at the First Family’s years in the White House. Learn how the White House was transformed into a vibrant home made for everyone.” It’s on this floor where they rebuilt a replica of the Oval Office as it was in 2014. There was a line to get into it but I felt it was worth it. There was a volunteer taking photos of those who wished to be pictured sitting at the resolute desk. Some of the photos in the next gallery were taken while videos were playing so admittedly not the best quality photos but I wanted to include some of those as well. So many of the videos affected me greatly. At one of these videos two people were seated. One gave a heavy sigh when it ended, the other as well but also saying “I sure do miss him!!” You’re not alone ma’am, you’re not alone. Towards the end of this next gallery you’ll see samples of letters that were selected for President Obama to read. After those photos I included snaps of the video describing these letters and how Obama replied to them.
One last floor of the museum is entitled We The People. Again from the website “Reflect on the collective responsibility we have to our democracy and join a community of change-makers past and present in action.” I must have gotten tired at this point because I don’t have very many photos of this floor. My eyes and head were full of information and images. Did I mention how overwhelming it was?
Finally up to the 8th floor for the fantastic views of Chicago and Lake Michigan. I reveled in seeing the Museum of Science and Industry because it reminded me of when I was a child in the outskirts of Chicago taking field trips to that museum. The view of the skylight, entitled Sky of Hope, displays actual words from Obama’s 2015 Selma speech and if you zoom on that photo you will see some of those words.
Included in this final gallery are photos that didn’t fit into the other categories. I wanted to get close-up photos of the portrait of President and Mrs. Obama but there was a line to take photos and I didn’t want to make people wait. The photo outside of the statue of President and Mrs. Obama: when we arrived there was a line to take your photo with the statue and we didn’t want to wait in the heat thinking that we’ll catch it on the way out. The photo below was a quick photo with someone else having their photo taken because, alas, there was still a line and I wanted to capture the statue so this is what I have. The other photos are from when we entered and before we got to the second floor which is the start of the museum.
I thoroughly enjoyed my tour and I highly recommend it. At the moment, the museum is still very popular. So, if you’re planning to go, do plan plenty of time in advance so that you can get tickets. Here is a link to the website for more information:
travels with toby 