My aunt and uncle moved to the suburbs of Austin, Texas almost six years ago, and they’ve been trying to get us to come visit ever since. But my extended family is spread across multiple states. Add in my inlaws, and now we’re up to over a dozen.
In other words, they’re everywhere, which makes seeing anyone with regularity near impossible. Thus, it took us nearly six years to make it to Austin.
Anyway.
The trip began with my mom hopping on a plane to Colorado, at which point I joined her for the second leg of the trip. We arrived early in the afternoon and, after getting settled in, they took us on a tour of their suburb.
Our arrival perfectly coincided with the peak bloom of the Texas bluebonnets, which I’d never seen before but which, upon closer examination, are very similar to the lupine that grow in Colorado.
Some of the fields of bluebonnets were interspersed with other flowers, including a particularly bright shade of paintbrush that I’d never seen before either.
We didn’t actually spend much of our trip in Austin itself – more to come on these other outings later – but we did head into the city for a day to visit the LBJ Presidential Library and the Texas State Capitol.
Interestingly, the Texas Capitol was designed by the same architect as the Colorado Capitol, and I could see some similarities. They say everything is bigger in Texas, though, and that’s absolutely the case here, too. From the ground floor to the top of the rotunda is 218 feet (66 m) – tall enough that the Statue of Liberty would fit fully within the dome. When measured from the ground to the top of the statue on the dome, the building is actually a few feet taller than the US Capitol.
At one point, when an addition was needed, they built underground. From the outside, it looks like an upside down version of the dome. I couldn’t fit all of it in one photo, but I got as much as I could.
We began by walking around the grounds, which are enormous in and of themselves. There are statues and memorials on all sides, and it took us quite a while to make it all the way around.
I also at one point walked directly into a solid metal bollard and bruised my thigh. I guess that’s what I get for looking up at a statue instead of watching where I’m going.
(I did not take a photo of the Confederate memorial, but – unsurprisingly – there is one.)
Before entering the capitol, we also stopped at the visitor center, which is located in a building on the southeast corner of the grounds. There’s a small museum inside as well as a gift shop. We didn’t have time to read most of the exhibits because we wanted to catch the next guided tour, but we were able to walk through it all and read bits and pieces.
After passing through a security check, we entered the capitol and joined the crowds of people – more than I’d ever seen in any other capitol building except perhaps Washington DC. We joined the free tour, which lasted about 45 minutes and took us through quite a lot of the history of Texas and the building itself.
On the floor of the rotunda is a seal representing the flags that have flown over Texas: France, Spain, Mexico, the Confederacy, and the US. It was much easier to see the entire thing from above.
After the tour, we were allowed to wander through much of the rest of the building on our own. We climbed as high as the 4th floor and wow was looking down at the rotunda floor from there disorienting. We were a long way up!
And I guess that about wraps up our tour of the Texas State Capitol. This is just the first of four posts from this trip (now that the words are finally mostly cooperating), so stay tuned for more photos and adventures from Texas Hill Country!
Up next: Spanish Colonial History at the San Antonio Missions
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