Over spring break, I took Cameron to see the
Texas State Capitol building. A few months ago, Cameron had a TEKS reading comprehension worksheet where the main text told about the construction of the Capitol building, and that the pink granite they used glows in the dawn's early light or the evening sunset.
While we were there in the early afternoon, we weren't able to see it "glow", but she was very happy to see that it was clearly pink. Because of the Good Friday holiday (officially a "Spring" holiday for university employees) we were able to park in the garage for free and join the hundreds of other Texans who decided to enjoy the perfect beautiful warm Spring day walking the grounds or touring the inside of the state capitol.
I'm sure everyone thinks their own state capitol is a beautiful building, but the one in Texas is simply grand. We didn't take photos of all the intricate details and artwork, but just take a look at the view of the dome from the inside.
We walked through the Senate chambers and the House of Representatives on the second floor. We spent time looking at and talking about the portraits hanging on the wall. Cameron seemed especially interested in one of
Joanna Troutman, who created the flag used at Goliad. Cameron immediately identified her as Texas' very own Betsy Ross. (Cameron did a book report on Betsy Ross this year.) A few times I caught Cameron looking out the windows from the Senate floor.
We went upstairs to the third floor gallery level, and again visited the Senate and House chambers. Then we went all the way down to the underground extension added in the mid-1990s. The cafeteria had closed after lunch, but we saw the underground courtyard, various office space, a bride having her portraits made, and of course we stopped at the gift shop.
After exploring the building, we went outside to the north lawn. In the past, I've always walked around the south lawn with Pompeo Coppini's grand statues, monuments to
Terry's Texas Rangers and
Confederate Soldiers, but the north side includes monuments to WWI, WWII, Peace Officers, MIA/POWs, Boy Scouts of America, the Ten Commandments, Texas Pioneer Women, and A Tribute to Texas Children.
When we were finished walking around the north lawn, Cameron announced that she was done. So we saved quite a bit of the Texas Capitol and other important sites near downtown for another trip. We headed back to
Silver Belle Ranch to enjoy the rest of our beautiful spring break and Easter weekend.
Even though I cropped these for the blog, I love that the schools have all the student names printed on the photos! My old class photos have full or partial names scrawled on the back (in ink!) in my 8 or 9 yr old handwriting. How wonderful it will be to be able to actually read the names in thirty years.
Here is Cameron's individual photo. What a photogenic child. Of course, I didn't ORDER these photos; the company takes them, then sends a full set of prints and offers to let you buy the whole package for only $44 (or $12 per sheet). I caved last year and bought one, and I'll probably cave again this year and buy either the 8x10 or two 5x7s (for each child, naturally.)
