You might recall from my posts about our visit to Juneau in March during our honeymoon, I have a geek's lust for state capitol buildings and plan in my life to visit all of them. So I finished my business in Minneapolis today with enough time to scoop up my college friend, Melissa,who lives in Chicago and coincidentally is here on business, and go on a field trip to St. Paul. (OK, we sort of coordinated it, but it was a coincidence that we both needed to be up here around now.)It was an unexpectedly thrilling visit and here above to your right is the money shot. Unlike the lackluster Juneau building, this one was absolutely an amazing piece of art and history and governmental symbolism. It was quite large, has a huge and beautiful rotunda and was designed by the same fellow who designed, among other structures, the U.S. Supreme Court. Every inch of it was carefully thought out, from the moulding to the stonework to the way that visitors are greeted by a fellow in a black tailed tuxedo and top hat. Yes, really.
We got an earful from a lovely volunteer named Margaret who knew a zillion interesting -- and, truth be told a few uninteresting -- anecdotes about the building, the state's history and even about its comparisons to certain other statehouses. They had info sheets with histories of all the famous quotations on the walls and about each of the form of rock. I got Melissa to pose with Jesse Ventura which is good considering that Jesse's too shiny for you to really see.
So you may be thinking, 'What a dork.' And I do plead guilty. But before you condemn me, just look at some of these photos. And then check out this blog I just discovered where a couple somehow hitchhiked to 50 capitals in 50 days. I'm not quite sure how that's possible -- hitching to Hawaii??? -- but I'll take some time when I'm not running low on laptop battery and read further.
3 comments:
hey steve - i realize you said it's personal but i feel like i know you through your blog and podcasts. minneapolis is known as a place where people with very serious diseases go. i hope you're OK. you're not usually this mysterious about your doings.
My grandparents did the all-50-state capitols thing. They managed to get to the last one, Alaska, on a cruise they took a few years before my grandpa passed away (they also counted Puerto Rico just in case it became a state someday!). Not in 50 days though, it took them about 40 years. I always thought that was kind of a cool goal to have.
Paid my first visit to the capitol building in Helena MT a few weeks ago. It was... um... fascinating. :) Snapped a few pics here.
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