May 12, 2019 - Sunday
Mother's Day and Nicole's Birthday!!!

First of all, a BIG Happy Birthday and Mother's Day to the most amazing Daughter (Nicole) and Mother of our 2 Grandsons.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there.  We are in New Haven, CT, which is the home of Yale University.  It's very Rainy, Windy, Cold this morning.  We slept in knowing we didn't have any place particular to be till 1:30pm.  Yale being the monarchy of New Haven, we felt we had to do a tour of this prestigious college and the only tour is at 1:30pm.  The tour was mostly outdoors except for 2 library visits,  (Sterling Memorial and Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Libraries). 

Yale was built 1701, and is a private Ivy League research University.  The most popular majors include: Social Sciences, History, Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies, Engineering.  The cost to attend for 2018-2019 is $73,180..YIKES!!  This includes Tuition, Room, Board, books and personal expense ($3750). The campus size is 345 acres and has a little over 12,000 students. My camera lens is not big enough for this place. 

Theodore Dwight Woolsey was the 10th President of Yale University and served for 25 years.  The statue erected in his memory, now displayed on the Old Campus.  You will notice his Gold toe.  This is because Woolsey enjoyed the Crew and when he kicked the boat they would win.  So students now rub the toe for good luck and it has been rubbed so much, the toe is Gold in color. 

The Beinecke Library is a masterpiece.  The exterior windows to the library are made out of  1 1/4" Granite mined from Vermont.  These granite windows are the only source of light into the building reason being is to help preserve the rare books.

The first substantial book printed in the West with moveable metal type is the Gutenberg Bible.  Before it's printing in 1455, books were either copied by hand or printed from engraved wooden blocks which these processes could take months or years to complete.  There are 21 completed copies of the book and the paper version resides at Yale's Beinecke Library. It is believed to being the most valuable book and it's last copy sold was in 1978 for $2.2 million.

The Sterling Memorial Library is the main library of Yale University.  The library still houses the Dewey system which is not being used but, they thought it was unique to keep the history within the library.  

We ended our day with dinner at the "Texas Roadhouse" restaurant.  WOW!!!  I have been to one in Florida and this one is no different.  Excellent good food, service, and atmosphere.  The place was packed.  Fortunately they have a unique reservations system where you call and get a reservation number for the time you want to reserve.  When you show up, you present the number and you are moved up the list from the walk ins.