Historical Austin

This post is kind of the hodgepodge of the Capitol/downtown experience. The Capitol of Texas is an incredibly beautiful building and I loved the tour! After the tour of the inside, we took a walking history tour of downtown Austin. I love the shot above, of the walkway up to the Capitol building!

Below is a picture of the top of the Capitol building, where you can see the goddess at the top and also the seals of the "Six Flags" that have flown over Texas (Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, the Confederacy and finally the United States).

It was a very interesting story of how the Capitol building was built, but it's too long to put on here. But basically, Texas sold some land in the panhandle in order to pay for the building to be built - and the materials (I believe red granite) were basically given to them because nobody wanted that at the time!

We happened to be there on the anniversary of the Alamo, so they had people in costumes at the Alamo memorial on the front lawn of the Capitol, reading every single name of the people who died that day. They even rang a bell in between each one. It was very neat to watch.

This is a little bit further down the path - a memorial to Confederate dead.

This historical district was amazing - so much history here!!

And of course, who could forget famous Sixth Street! We went out and walked around on Sixth Street the night before, but after 2 piles of vomit and tons of Mardi Gras madness, I was kind of DONE with it.

On the tour, they took us through part of this hotel - the Driskill Hotel. It has a lot of history attached to it and it was absolutely magnificent inside.

As you can see, the lobby is incredibly fancy.......

It's like something out of a movie!

Ummmm.....I would like to see the inside of this suite!!

This room has a lot of history attached to it - Lyndon B. Johnson had his first date with his wife, Lady Bird Johnson in this room!

It was a great tour and a fantastic quick trip to Austin - loved it!

Senate Chambers

And just the opposite of yesterday, here is the Senate Chamber of Texas! It was beautiful and I actually liked it better than the House of Representatives.

Look - even the door hinges are personalized for the Capitol!

And here is the majestic Senate Chamber of Texas....

It seemed much more spacious and less crowded.

Once again - I loved seeing "In God We Trust"....

Here I am - soaking up the Senate!

The head of the room looked very White House-y.....

The desks were very traditional and each Senate member had their name on a plate on the back of their chair - cool! Oh, and notice the black phones on the left side of each desk....I'm not sure who's calling them during session, but they each have a phone!

Here's a close-up.....

I love the engraving on the podium - a very nice touch.

And these chairs were along the side window - with holes poked in them so the light shines through to show the design - so neat!

And just like the House, the Senate has a gallery up on the second level - for guests??

Here's the Senate Gallery up top....

I was just in awe of how beautiful and traditional it looked - and so well cared for.

I saw this under the desks - a Bill Box, personalized for each Senator. I hope they are reading them!!

It's located underneath their individual desks.

There was a service dog on our tour - what a cute pup, being very respectful in the Senate Chamber!

Playing "House"

To continue my little blog-tour of the Texas State Capitol, today's post is dedicated to the Texas House of Representatives - here is the view when you walk into the door above......

The desks are kind of old fashioned, but absolutely beautiful!

On the top of each desk is their electronic voting buttons - green for 'aye', red for 'nay' and I don't know what the other buttons mean. It's so weird to think that these silly little voting buttons can change your life - for the good or for the bad!

Very majestic-looking.....

A little bit of technology involved, but I love that it still says "In GOD we trust" under it.

And here's what those voting buttons are connected to - the green/red lights will show up next to your name once you vote at your desk.

This is the 'gallery' above the front of the room - I'm assuming special guests get to come and watch the proceedings.

Every chair has the seal of Texas on it - fantastic!

It was a very regal room with lots of character....

These are the doors that lead into/out of the chambers...

Even the doorknobs are 'Texified"!

This is leading out of the House of Representatives, back out to the rotunda....And straight ahead is the Senate.

Capitol Adventures

During my trip to Austin, I obviously HAD to visit the Capitol of the great state of Texas! And here she is in all her glory......

Notice the goddess at the top - she is the 2nd one (the 1st one is in my blog from last week - at the State History Museum).

The grounds were beautiful - and are probably even prettier right now since the trees have been sprouting leaves like crazy in the last few weeks.

This was a cool display in the floor of the rotunda inside the Capitol building. It has the Republic of Texas in the middle, and then all of the seals of the countries that have reigned over Texas in the past (hence, "Six Flags" - France, Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederacy and the United States).

Here's a view up into the beautiful rotunda....

The Texas lone star at the top!

The inside of the Capitol was absolutely magnificent - just gorgeous. This is the lobby, just after the metal detectors. :)

In that lobby, I saw this fancy door - "Governor's Business Office". I asked one of the armed guards if that really was Rick Perry's office or if it was just an old sign. He said that it really is Rick Perry's office and he comes and goes from that door all the time. So cool!

This plaque was just below a painting of the surrender of Santa Anna to Sam Houston. It's a memorial to all of the Texans that died at the Alamo that led up to the eventual victory of Sam Houston over Mexico.

I just love these fancy doorways! I don't believe that the State Treasury is still located in this office anymore......

Gorgeous views in the rotunda....

And of course, G-Dub, our former governor....

Everything is so perfect and ornate!

One hallway off of the rotunda - it's for the House of Representatives' offices and the opposite hallway is for the Senators' offices.

Each doorway has plaques next to it, saying what Representative or Senator occupies that office and if they have any special distinctions.

I just couldn't get enough of this stairway! It leads up to the Senate and House of Representatives chambers.

I became obsessed with the rotunda......

This is the entrance from the lobby to the rotunda....

I think it's funny that someone slipped a note under the door - seems so elementary for such a fancy door. Don't they have mailboxes somewhere???

And here's one of the security guards - wearing his cowboy hat like the rest of them, in pure Texas style. LOVE it.

More rotunda obsession....they had pictures of all of the past governors of Texas lining the wall. And when a governor is done with his service, his picture goes right at the end of the rotunda wall near the entrance and ALL of the other ones get shifted one place around the rotunda and then to the 2nd floor and then to the 3rd floor, etc. I bet the maintenance people hate when a new governor is elected! But in Texas, it's not very often......

This is a much better view of the rotunda floor, where you can see all of the countries that ruled over Texas represented. It was beautiful!!