Retirement……LOVE IT!

I was interested in going into downtown Dallas, but I would need to find some kind of “bus” tour because I knew Jack would NOT want to drive into downtown Dallas! We didn’t really know what to go see much less how to get around downtown in our own car. I googled “downtown bus tours” and several tours popped up. The one that really caught my eye was a 90 minute tour called “Downtown Dallas City/JFK Tour.” Forty-five minutes of this tour was devoted to the most popular city sites (museums, famous buildings, old churches, sculptures, parks, etc.), and the other forty-five minutes were dedicated to sites and buildings associated with the November 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy. We chose to take this tour on Sunday (Dec. 3) in the hopes of avoiding the bad downtown Dallas traffic. That was a very wise decision on our part! There was very little traffic that day.

The first part of the tour was the downtown city sites. We were given a lot of information about the buildings, parks, etc., but since I didn’t write down any notes, I have forgotten most of it all.  😞  However, I took a lot of pictures! If I remembered anything about a picture, I wrote about it in the captions, SO be sure to read the captions!

Downtown Dallas skyline.

Building used as the “Ewing” building in the filming of the office scenes of the TV show DALLAS. They actually filmed inside the building using some of the offices.

Dallas City Museum in the background.

This historic old church is getting a “face lift.”

MIZZOU in downtown Dallas! Go Tigers! MIZ…

First Baptist Church, downtown Dallas. FBC Dallas Family Center FBC Dallas entryway fountain.

The second half of the trip was following the path President Kennedy’s motorcade took that fateful day in November, 1963, and other interesting places related to the assassination.  I remember exactly where I was when I heard President Kennedy had been shot (5th grade classroom right before recess; our teacher let us girls go to the bathroom, and we were all crying thinking the world was coming to an end). It was a sobering tour, and Jack and I both learned some new things about the President, Jackie, the shooting, Harvey Oswald, and Jack Ruby. It was interesting to say the least.  Here are just a few pictures of the JFK part of the bus tour:

JFK Memorial Plaza in background.

JFK Memorial Plaza monument.

Replica of the limo in which JFK, Jackie, and the Governor rode.

Building from which Harvey Oswald shot JFK (second from the top floor, last window on the right; right side of window is open).

The window where the white card with the black circle on it is the exact location of Oswald. On the street at the spot where JFK was struck by the bullet, looking back to the building in which Oswald was located (window is hidden behind the tree limbs). That green X in the street marks the spot where Kennedy’s limo was when the President was hit by the first bullet. There’s a second X further down the street where the second bullet hit him, but I didn’t get that in the picture. The “grassy knoll” where it was believed a second shooter was located (now it is believed there was no second shooter). The view of the street where JFK was shot from atop the grassy knoll. View of the building Oswald was in, the grassy knoll, and the location of the assassination from the other side of the street.
We had the best tour guide, and she was very knowledgeable about the shooting of JFK.  She showed us the route that Oswald took after he shot Kennedy, the street where Oswald shot a police officer (Did you know he shot a police officer AFTER shooting Kennedy? We didn’t!), the theater where he was when the police found him and arrested him, and the boarding house where he was living at the time.

This is the entrance to the police station back then where Jack Ruby just walked in and stood with the reporters and others. When the police brought Oswald out to transport him to another jail, Ruby shot him. That shooting was actually broadcast on live TV. Did you know that Jack Ruby had cancer at the time and didn’t have too much longer to live?

The rooming house where Oswald was living at the time. The living room of the house where Oswald lived. Fifteen minutes after the assassination, Oswald walked back into this house after shooting the President. As he walked through the living room, the lady who owned the house was sitting on the couch watching her soap opera (you can see the back of the L-shaped couch in the bottom of the picture). Her soap opera had been interrupted by the news of the shooting. She told Oswald, “Someone just shot President Kennedy! Come sit down and watch this with me!” He walked into his room which was just off the living room, grabbed some stuff, and left the house without saying a word. All the furniture in the house is the original furniture from Nov. 22, 1963. This is our tour guide in the photo. This is the small room just off the living/dining room that Oswald where Oswald was living at the time of the assassination. Inside the rooming house was this death certificate for JFK. Something was incorrect on this certificate (I don’t remember what it was), so they had to issue a corrected certificate. This incorrect one was placed in the rooming house.

There was SO much more that we learned on this tour about the city of Dallas and the assassination of President Kennedy.  Jack and I both decided it was well worth the money.  The price for this 90 minute tour was $25 per person!  It was certainly worth the money and I’d recommend it to anyone!

So for now …. “On the Road Again!”

Betty