Texas State Capitol

Chris needed to be in Austin for business for a few days last week, so I went with him. His full day of meetings found me walking around Austin's downtown area exploring shops and visiting a building that I'm embarrassed to say I had never visited before:

The Texas State Capitol building!

I wondered the grounds a bit before joining in on a tour of the building. For it being a random Wednesday afternoon, I was surprised that about twenty other people were in the tour group as well (they give tours about every 30 minutes).

Our tour guide did a great job of mixing facts in with interesting stories.

That's her explaining the six flags that once flew over Texas. The seal is underneath the big dome and it's hard not to look like a slack-jawed-yokel when staring up at the dome's ceiling.

To give some perspective on how tall it is-- that star is eight feet across. Here's another way:

See those tiny men in the center of the photo? That's not even half way up!

One of the things I found particularly interesting was the attention to detail. Check out the regal looking elevator:

Or the chandelier in the House and Senate rooms:

(You can't really tell, but each light is a letter and it spells out "Texas")

Even the door hinges are ornate:

Each one weighs over 7 pounds!

Here's a photo of the room where the Senate meets:

And the House of Representatives:

If I ever had political aspirations (which I absolutely do NOT) I think I'd choose to run for a position in the House, since their chairs look far more comfortable. I probably shouldn't include that tid-bit on my fictional campaign flyers...

A trip to the (very large) basement of the capitol gave me this neat view of the building:

It was here that we learned that we have the tallest state capitol of all the other states (which, as a Texan I expected to hear). Our tour guide hesitated and admitted that Louisiana's capitol building is technically taller but, "they built a tower, not a dome... so they don't count." Darn right they don't! Here's to Texas and our tallest capitol building in the Union!