Dead Presidents- Vacation Part1

The James A. Garfield National Historic Site is nestled in the burbs of Cleveland Ohio. It was the first stop on our short anticipated trip to Maine. WE spent the night at Dan's parents house south of Cleveland and made the drive early. Early enough that the visitor center wasn't open when we got there. We wandered around the grounds till the visitor center opened and got in line (I suppose it was a Saturday...) for a tour of the house. Your quick history lesson: James Garfield was the "front porch" guy. It was the front porch of this house he gave his campaign speeches from. He was the first president that actually spoke for himself. He was shot in office but didn't die right away. He actually probably would have lived if the doctors had just left him alone. But alas medicine isn't what it is now back in 1881.

 Just in case you were curious what a man who had been shot and bedridden for a long time looked like, they took a cast of his face just after he passed.

The famous front porch. 

Moving right along we drove to New York in a hurry to arrive before the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site. Apparently we just barely made it in time. We were the only people there, but there was a nice staff of half a dozen park employees to help us. Unfortunately there was not much to see. There we doing a renovation so everything was moved away or covered with blue fabric. Out tour guide was very interesting though. His tour was more like him acting out a diary than a tour. History lesson: President McKinley was shot. Roosevelt rushed to him as the VP to see if there was anything he could do. McKinley appeared to be on the mends to a full recovery so Roosevelt left for vacation. Unfortunately he had to turn around and hurry right back in his vacation clothes because McKinley died. He borrowed a suit for the official swearing in. 

the Wilcox house.. where inside a president was sworn into office... after borrowing some nice clothes.. They do have a really catchy logo.