Chasing Teddy.

Standing at the entrance to Roosevelt's Home. (Photo Credit: Liberty Schauf)

Last Saturday, for the first time in my life, I stood in a room where a President of the United States was birthed. I touched the stair railing of his boyhood home (it was the only thing we could touch...).

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, is the only president born in New York City.  His boyhood home can be toured at 28 East 20th Street in Gramercy Park/Union Square area of Manhattan.

Did you know that the Teddy Bear was invented in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt?  Also, he apparently drank a gallon of coffee a day.

I know we learn about Presidents in elementary/middle/high school, but these tours make learning so much more fun than reading in a history book.  It has actually peaked my interest in reading his biography.  His mom was born and raised in Roswell, Ga., from a very confederate family.  And his dad was a fourth-generation Dutch New Yorker, and he was one of the founders of the American Museum of Natural History in 1869.

While waiting for the tour to begin, I had my first stare down with a city squirrel.  (Photo Credit: Liberty Schauf)