Sited in Yorba Linda, Orange County’s most northeastern city, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum celebrates the accomplishments – largely but not exclusively in international relations – of the 37th U.S. President, as well as his resignation and “rehabilitation.” While most of the museum content will appeal more to adults and teenagers ($23-29 per ticket) than younger children ($19 each), exhibitions cover diplomacy in the Middle East, Vietnam, and China, and discussions of Nixon’s impact on the environment, opportunities for women, and politics. Recreations of the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, and East Room enable visitors to picture themselves inside the White House.
The facility’s library houses thousands of video and audio recordings, hundreds of thousands of photographs, and tens of thousands of gifts, as well as preserving Nixon’s childhood home and the helicopter that took him away from the White House after he resigned in 1974. Both the former President and First Lady are buried on the property with publicly accessible gravestones. Roughly 20 minutes from Disneyland in Anaheim, and just down the street from Fullerton, the Nixon Library and Museum is near Manon, Blue Scoop Creamery, and other good local restaurants and cafes. Parking is immediately outside the front doors, and free.
