I've long been interested in the life and legacy of John F Kennedy, so it didn't take a great deal of convincing when my friend Adam Rainier suggested that we fly to Dallas for the 50th anniversary of the assassination. We did our homework on the subject by watching Oliver Stone's JFK, and reading up on the latest conspiracy theories on the many brightly colored, bold lettered websites that litter the internet.
We applied for the lottery to receive one of the 5,000 tickets for the Commemoration, but we didn't win and were therefore resigned to watch from one the many enormous screens placed outside the main event. The weather was in the upper 30's with light rain.
Many protesters were on hand to assure that most of us couldn't pay respect to our late president in peace. A large group followed the radio entertainer Alex Jones around as he chanted "1776!" and "Freedom!" repeatedly into a megaphone and drew an even larger group of worried DPD officers. He apparently thought that it would be effective to engage the officers in a debate about free speech in the middle of the street.
A highlight of downtown Dallas for me was eating at a burrito place called Just Mex. The nice fellow who took our order was wearing a well used blank baseball style cap that had the words "Just Mex" hand scribbled in sharpie on it. Stay classy Dallas.
For the ride home, we had a sweet Amtrak cabin all the way. Much good food was eaten, as we were not allowed to miss a meal time :-) Once we boarded the Coast Starlight, then things got really deluxe.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip. I'm really happy we were able to go.
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| Wy' East from above. We snagged a couple of Alaskan Amber ales and the very last two cheeseburgers on the food cart. |
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| Dinosaur National Monument on the Utah/Colorado border. |
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| Looking out of the 7th floor window from the infamous Texas School Book Depository building. |
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| A collage photo of JFK made from thousands of tiny photos of Jackie Kennedy. |
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| Jackie Kennedy collage made from thousands of tiny photos of John. |
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| Cheerful protesters make their view very clear. |
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| Apparently this is the WMD Republican dick tower. |
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| Old Red Museum of Dallas County history. |
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| Sixth floor, TSBD building. |
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Event setup for the 50th Commemoration the following day, including the US Naval Academy Men's Glee Club.
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| Mega screens were set up for non-ticket holders. |
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| At one of the many memorials around downtown Dallas |
Dallas PD was everywhere all weekend...
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| To keep guys like Alex Jones in line... |
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| This is how free speech gets done- holding big signs that say "free speech". |
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| The informational displays were quite persuasive. |
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| Planning the next rally |
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| The Ross Perot Museum was absolutely fantastic |
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| The Perot museum featured many wonderful fossils |
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| and a mountain goat for some reason |
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| We also went to the Dallas Symphony, which was amazing and had a fantastic buffet for dinner. |
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| Excerpt from the speech President Kennedy was never able to deliver. |
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| Memorials at the spot on the sidewalk in Dealy Plaza. |
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| Jesus must have loved water fountains because First Baptist Dallas had an enormous castle of a building including a sky bridge over the street and a huge water feature out front. |
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| Texas loves 'Murica so much that they fly two of the Old Glory! |
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| We were fortunate enough to be passing through in the comfort of our Amtrak cabin right as a rare ice storm clobbered West Texas. |
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| Ice on everything. We were slowed a bit due to the crew having to get out and manually inspect all the switches for ice. |
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| Sweet home on the SoCal coast |
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| Sweet abandoned apartment on the SoCal coast |
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| Sunrise over NorCal |
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| Mt Shasta glowing brilliantly |
