Capitols in the Capital Cities

A capital time in the capitols in the capital cities... Unless I was describing Washington, D.C. Then it would be a capital time in the Capitol in the capital city. Lest my readers are confused, I direct them back to this explanation for the uses of capital vs. capitol vs. Capitol. Yes, I digress right up front in this blog post and I take delight in it. Years ago...literally years ago... I'm old enough to say that now... As in about two decades ago, when Neil and I were first married, we used to like to speak in e-prime, just for an intellectual exercise. This is when one excludes the use of "to be" in all written or spoken text. For example, instead of saying, "The speaker was good." One might say, "The audience liked the speaker." Once upon this was quite easy; this time it took me 10 minutes to come up with a simple example after rejecting 15 others that all used a form of "to be."

But, I digress. How I digress.

I've been visiting capital cities lately and when I'm there, I've been visiting their capitols (because to say "state capitol" would be redundant; it is implied by the spelling). In April I visited Austin for a conference and in the early spring Texas heat, I hustled myself down to the capitol for a tour. Neil was here in Washington with me recently and we went for a semi-private tour of the Capitol. Just last week I was in Springfield, Illinois giving a keynote talk about child abuse and neglect deaths (because I was up for a really good time and so were my audience members) and at some point I realized that I could visit the capitol there, too. Even better, Springfield is home to many Abraham Lincoln sites, so I took in some of those, as well.

I don't have wonderful, magical things to say about these adventures, other than I love them. I'm a sucker for any kind of tour, really. And, a tour of a capitol is just that much more exciting.

Here we are inside the Texas capitol. It's a large and lovely building. Can you believe that as a part-time legislature in Texas, it is only in session for five months, every-other-year?

This picture shows the tiered structure leading up to the dome. Each of those squares is a portrait of a former Texas governor. The current governor is placed on the first floor. When his/her term is over, the portrait is moved one position to the left or right, which means that all of the other portraits must move one position over. And, of course, some of the portraits must move up to a different floor. We were told that this takes about a week's worth of work to accomplish.

Here you have the inside of the Texas dome. See that star in the middle? First, it is obviously the "star of Texas." But, it is also eight feet across. That's something, no? The "star of Texas" is all over the dome - hidden in door hinges, door knobs, chandeliers, and the like.

I think this was the Senate chamber in Texas. In the Senate they vote with their fingers: 1 finger = yes; 2 fingers = no; 3 fingers = present. I presume that 1 finger is the index finger. I wonder how many times the middle finger has been used? In the House chamber, they use a lighted button system for the same - yes, no, or present.

This is a nice view up to the dome in Texas. Including the figurine on top of the dome, it is 306 feet tall. Our tour guide said that this made it taller than the U.S. Capitol dome and then added, "And, that's no accident." Okay, then. Welcome to Texas, Emily!

These kids were giving a concert in one of the court yards at the Texas capitol.

Now we are onto the tour of the U.S. Capitol with Neil. We got a semi-private tour, which is offered by everyone's U.S. senators' and representatives' offices. All you have to do is call and ask. We got a tour from the office where I am working, along with two tourists who were visiting the area.

First, I showed Neil around the Senate Office Buildings. We ate in the Senate cafeteria. We could take no pictures there, as they are not allowed. It is a security threat. But, here we are in a lovely courtyard inside the Russell Senate Office Building.

 These columns help to support the U.S. Capitol dome. It is made of cast iron and weighs about 9 million pounds. No, that is not a typo.

The beautiful Capitol dome. I have nothing more to say about that. It's beauty speaks for itself.

The rotunda frieze artistically depicts the history of the United States. There is no more room to "add to the story," but we were told that other parts of the Capitol have art displays depicting events as recent as the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

I cannot seem to corroborate it with any Googling, but we learned that one of the artists who worked inside the Capitol painted flowers that he made up - apparently those that existed did not suit him. They are located all over the Capitol and they are lovingly called "the D.C. rose" or "the rose of D.C.," (if I got that story right).

We were taken to a room which is the former gallery for the U.S. House of Representatives, now called Statutory Hall. Placed around the room on the floor are plaques, indicating where especially influential men (because they were all men) once sat. Adams really liked this one specific seat, because of the acoustics afforded him in that one location. It allowed him to listen to conversations on the other side of the room. Our tour guide even demonstrated it for us!  

Then onto Springfield. Allow me to start by saying that Springfield has one of the smallest airports that I have ever visited. Maybe the smallest airport. There are a total of four gates. Here's a little word of advice: Do not make the mistake in thinking that there is a cafe available once one has gone through security. There is not. Make sure that you have coins or single dollar bills with you, because there is no change-maker for the vending machines. And, if you are like me and made the mistake of arriving 2.5 hours before your flight and thought you'd have a little beverage and a treat from the vending machines and then discovered that you only had a $5 bill and the machines only take $1 bills...well...and then you think that you're going to die without said snack... I mean there was no way I was going to work on a paper without those snacks. So, after about 20 minutes, I went back out into the ticketing area, got some food and single dollar bills, and when I returned to pass through security? It was closed. Yes, they close the security lines in this airport. Someone took mercy on me and about four security personnel who had just ushered me and me alone through security had to come back to work, start up the machines, and so on. So, take it from me. If you're going to fly out of the Springfield airport (SPI), do not show up early and regardless of when you arrive, make sure to bring plenty of single dollar bills with you.

The Springfield capitol. It was getting a lot of visitors that day. I was one of many!

It is actually quite lovely inside.

It is much more elegant and majestic than what Texas had to offer (that is not a criticism) and sometimes even more ornate that the U.S. Capitol. Somehow I had forgotten that this is where President Obama got started in politics. So much important history between Lincoln and Obama - and it's all there to be enjoyed by everyone.

The dome. We heard a story that the dome had not been cleaned for something like 100 years and it was almost totally black before it was cleaned in the 1980s to reveal this beautiful dome.

More beauty inside the Illinois capitol. My taxi driver said that they had used colors together that she never would put together, and yet they were so beautiful. What a wonderful observation.

I walked from the capitol across town and saw the old Illinois capitol. This is where Abraham Lincoln served.

Then I made my way to the Lincoln Presidental Library and Museum, which just opened in 2002. I can't recommend it enough. In truth, there is so much to see in Springfield that is related to Lincoln - his home, burial site, former capitol, and more.

 Indeed. Don't we all miss Abe - or the spirit of Abe? From Abe to "the Donald." How can this be possible? Don't worry. I won't digress this time.

As it turned out, it was "Girl Scout Day" at the capital in Illinois. I was told that there were 1,000 Girl Scouts visiting the capitol that day. I think that I saw about 900 of them and heard 999 of them. Some of them were handing out little plastic bags with items inside that were called "portable X." Another woman on the tour with me got a thread spool with a very thin strip of toilet paper wrapped around it - "emergency toilet paper." I got a fish to keep me company. I think that I'll name her "capitol." Or would it be "capital?" Or "Capitol?"