CAPITOL COLLECTORS
While visiting a state capitol a couple years ago, our guide told us that my husband Larry and I are considered "Capitol Collectors," because we like to visit state capitols. We both liked that label, so we've adopted it and continue to add capitols to our collection. To date, we've visited 31 of the 50 state capitols in our good ole US of A. And yes, they are all different. Last month, after a Caribbean cruise, we took a road trip and visited #29, #30, and #31.The capitol above is in Tallahassee, Florida. As many times as we've visited Florida (many!), we'd never gone into the panhandle. We were surprised how "unpopulated" it is compared to the rest of Florida, complete with large areas of pretty much nothing but trees and a few mobile homes. Even the capitol city is smallish and surrounded by trees, trees and more trees.
The historic capitol, circa 1845, is quite handsome and is a grand museum. Note the red and white awnings on the windows. That is quite unique. Just behind it, you can see the 22-story newer capitol building peeking up. A visit to the top floor offers grand views of the surrounding countryside, as well as the city near the capitol.
Our next stop was Montgomery, Alabama. Surprisingly, this was our first ever visit to Alabama. The capitol (ca 1851) is very nice and we enjoyed a guided tour, which turned out to be private since no one else showed up on a Saturday morning. This was the capitol where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as President of the United Confederates States back in 1861. There's a star on the porch to mark the spot and his statue is right out front. It was that nation's capitol for about six months before it was moved to Richmond, Virginia. There's a lot of history in this place. It was especially lovely to visit a capitol city on a Saturday when there was no traffic and we had our choice of free parking places. Ahh...if only it was always that simple (:
Contrast no traffic in Montgomery, with the Monday morning traffic in Atlanta, Georgia, and it is total opposite ends of the spectrum! There were at least eight lanes of traffic pouring into the city - and parking was rather pricey as well. Nonetheless, we found a good spot and it was not as difficult as we'd feared. We had a nice visit to this handsome, gold-domed building.
The capitol of Georgia was built in 1889. The place was hopping during our visit since they were in session. We were able to sit in for a while in both the House and the Senate and observe how they conduct themselves. It was most interesting! We actually watched the Senate pass about half a dozen bills in a short period of time. It CAN be done!
Well, these are the latest additions to our capitol collection. Wonder which capitol will be on the list next? Only God knows the answer to that question. We'll look forward to seeing what He has in store for us. God bless your day!
