While staying at the Bolsa Chica State Beach campground in Huntington Beach, we decided to make the forty minute drive over to Yorba Linda to tour the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, Museum and Birthplace.

The library is located on the former site of the Nixon family nine acre citrus farm and includes the birthplace our 37th president.  We were able to tour the house where Nixon was born and lived as a small child.

Nixon was born and lived as a child in this very house on this very location

The library and museum had many exhibits beginning with his birth and childhood to his years as a lawyer and naval officer as well as his early years in politics.  There were large exhibits on his years in the White House, including his foreign travels and diplomacy with China and the Middle East,  as well as space travel including the moon landing.  And yes, there was a large exhibit on Watergate.  Other presidential libraries had replicas of the Oval Office and how it was decorated during each presidency, but Nixon chose to have a replica of the Lincoln Sitting Room which is where he enjoyed working and spent a lot of his time.

This is the Lincoln sitting room, Nixon’s favorite place to work on the second floor of the White House

We were also able to climb aboard the Marine helicopter used by Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford and was the helicopter Nixon boarded when he departed the White House for the last time.

This is the helicopter that Nixon used when he left the White House for the last time

On display was also the armored limousine used during the Nixon presidency.  The grave markers for President and Mrs. Nixon are located near his birthplace. 

It was very interesting to see the library and museum of this complex man during such a tumultuous time in history.