Virginia State Capitol - Richmond, VA

Richmond, Virginia - # 13 on our list of capitols to visit. Nice, very nice indeed! We didn't make it there in time for the guided tour but we were able to do a self guided thing which was nice, but we do prefer the guided ones. Lots of history packed in for this one!

Raleigh North Carolina

In addition to meeting up with Rebecca's friend from China, our trip to North Carolina included having dinner with my 5th grade boyfriend, his lovely wife and BEAUTIFUL daughter. His wife was a former classmate too so we had lots of fun talking about some of our antics in Physics class and just a good time catching up. Dwight enjoyed telling my children that he was my old boyfriend and that I had broken up with him. Of course I had to add that it took him about 2.3 seconds to ask my best friend out. Now how is that for just plain ol' funny?

Then it was on to Raleigh to visit number 12 on our list of Capitols. I'm a little on the OCD side when it comes to scheduling things so I had us down to visit the Capitol at 11, which their website had listed as a tour time and then had it planned so that we would be at the beach right at check-in time. Well, the website was wrong-ola and we had to wait around until 1 for the capitol building to open and the tour wasn't until 2 so we just did a self tour thing. While killing time waiting for it to open we were able to walk around the downtown area, have a snow cone and visit the North Carolina history museum. I would really like to go back to Raleigh again so we could see more of the area, it looked very pretty!

Virginia & North Carolina

We've added two more Capitol's to our list! Raleigh, NC & Richmond, VA. Still a lot more to go ...

Updated Capitol Map

I know I've been remiss in getting this updated ... but I have one minor technical problem along with a non-technical problem. A friend of mine updates this for me, because well, hmm - I don't know how he does it. He NEVER keeps the original of the map or the cute little pin so every time I need it updated I have to go search through thumb drives and find them. Add to that another little pesky problem. When I asked said friend to help me with this, well actually to do this for me, I requested a map with a push pin because that's what you would do if the map was hanging on the wall, right? Well he didn't understand why it had to be the pin and not some other little designation like a dot or a star but I wanted a pin. Which then made me endure this whole thing said friend used to tease me about, that it's all what Carolin wants. So ... long story, but now it's updated. And this time he even updated it without also harrassing me. That would be progress.

Speaking of progress, 11 down - 39 to go. How in the world are we going to get the rest of them visited is a great big question mark!

Lansing - State Capitol Visit

If you've been following along on the blog for a while you probably know the real reason we visited Michigan, so that Ryan could tour another state capitol. I told Brian that while we may not be able to get to all 50 of them at least it's helped us visit some places we probably would not have ever gone to before. I think this makes #12 for him.

This visit certainly didn't disappoint, we had a wonderful tour guide that seemed tickled that such a young guy has a goal of visiting all 50 and said that typically she only sees retired people with a similar goal. Does that mean Ryan has an old soul? ha.

Some interesting things about the capitol, the architect also designed the state capitol for Texas and Colorado. The floor on the ground level is made out of glass blocks and has lights under them, really interesting to look at. As you went higher in the building the floor looked concave. Just wish my shots of it could have shown how really neat it looked. Then there is the dome. Wow. I should have looked through the book before I started this post so I could quote some facts, but just didn't so please forgive me. You can read more about the dome here. Looking up from the rotunda is very beautiful, it's something like 160 feet up to the top of the eye of the dome and provides a glimpse into the vastness of the sky which is represented by a starry sky. Very beautiful. There were matching 'Michigan' chandleliers too that were designed for the building that feature elk and shields inspired by the states coat of arms. Even the hinges for the doors had the same design.