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The Capitol of Texas at AustinMar 14, 2009
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Well, we finally made it to Austin. It was a dreary day, but not as cold as the past 2 days and no rain.
Texas seems to have had a hard time settling down with a capital city. There were 14 cities serving as capitals before statehood under Spanish and Mexican rule and as the Republic of Texas. Austin was finally selected as the permanent capital in 1839 by the Congress of the Republic. The current capitol is the 4th in a series of buildings in Austin to house the seat of government for the Republic and the State of Texas.
The capitol is constructed of Texas red granite on the outside and Texas limestone on the inside. The builders agreed to take land as payment for the building project instead of cash. The land, 3 million acres on the Texas panhandle, became the XIT Ranch. Texans were real proud of their capitol, boasting that it was taller than the National Capitol in Washington, DC.
There is no doubt this building belongs to Texas. There is nothing that doesn’t bear the mark of Texas, either the outline of the state, the “lone star”, the state seal, or the name, “TEXAS”.
We toured the capitol with a guide, starting in the rotunda then continuing to the second floor Senate and House of Representative chambers. Without the guide, we toured the third and fourth floors. The grounds were the greenest we have seen since we arrived in Texas. They will be gorgeous when the trees are fully leafed and the flowers are in bloom.
After our tour of the capitol and grounds, we got the “dillo” for a ride around the downtown business district. The “dillo” is a trolley which passes each stop approximately every 11 minutes. The stops are a block apart for a distance of about 15 blocks. There are two routes—one running north/south and one running east/west. For 50 cents each we got passes good for 2 hours. We could hop on and off at any stop as many times as we wanted during that 2 hours. We got on the north/south trolley and rode down to the intersecting stop for the east/west trolley. By riding to the end of this route we were just a block from REI. How convenient is that?
We really enjoyed our visit to the capital. However, there is a lot to Austin that we didn’t have time to see. We didn’t get to the historic district at all and there were several churches and the Austin Museum of Art that we would like to spend some time exploring. I guess those things will have to wait until our next trip to Texas.
We are planning to leave here on Tuesday. The next two days will be spent in preparations for that move. Since starting this trip in January, we have been visiting and exploring cities and towns around south Texas. We have walked through a lot of historic districts and examined a lot of architecture. Our focus is going to change now. For the next three weeks or so we will be exploring the natural beauty of Texas in Big Bend National Park and Guadeloupe Mountains National Park. We’re ready for a change; we’re both excited. It’s gonna be fun.
