Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Day 20–Texas Capitol & Bullock Museum, Austin, Texas

 

We have been fortunate to have encountered some great weather. By all accounts the temps here have been about 10 degrees above normal.

Today we  visited the Texas Capitol building with the first building constructed in 1851. In 1853 the capitol went up in flames and a new capitol was then constructed of Sunset Red granite and was completed with the placement of the Goddess of Liberty statute  on top of the dome in  February of 1888.

Our first stop was at the visitor center across the  grounds from the Capitol.  It was also a nice building with a cross-cut model of the dome of the capitol building on display.

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The Capitol building is quite spectacular with beautiful architectural lines.

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Once inside we were greeted with the lovely sound of a chorus singing in the Rotunda. They were from Virginia and were doing a program at the Capitol. We were lucky enough to be there at the right time to hear them.

 

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We took a guided tour of the building, but since there were so many stairs, for once in my life I had to give in and take the elevator.

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I told Ron to take the stairs because I know he likes to take advantage of any possible good photo ops but he insisted on taking the elevator with me  so I wouldn’t get lost!!!!!! (So True)

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Texans are very proud of their state and make sure that they show it in as many ways as possible. All the doorknobs have the state seal embossed on them and all the hinges have the state capitol embossed on them as well.

 

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Looking Up!!!

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Looking Down

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      Looking Across                                                 

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After the tour we stopped at the Capitol Grille for a quick lunch. It is the cafeteria in the Capitol  not be be mistaken for THE “Capitol Grill.” LOL

Normally we would walk the grounds and take in all the area has to offer but I’m finding that my walking limitations are worse then I anticipated. We were going to walk the four blocks to the Bullock Museum but my knee was not cooperating despite wearing my knee support so we opted to drive instead.

The Bullock Texas State History Museum has three floors of interactive exhibits. They also have several different I – MAX presentations but they were not open for some reason.

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Every thing is done big here in Texas. The history of Texas is done in a mosaic on the floor of the Rotunda in the  museum.

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After touring and learning the history of Texas we decided to head  back to the CG. The traffic was equally as bad as in Houston and in gridlock at 3:45 pm.  We had a near miss accident at the airport  exit because people drive so fast they have to cut across traffic to barely enter the exit ramp.  Ron  can’t wait to get away from the city traffic and back out on the back roads.

Not sure what we will be doing tomorrow but I’m sure it will not involve a walking tour!!!!!

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