6.State Capitol, and time with friends and family

We've been busy the past few days. Tuesday my friend Elizabeth drove up from Buda to have lunch with us.  Wednesday toured the Capitol Building . Thursday we drove down to San Antonio for my nephews promotion ceremony. Friday, My nephew Nick, his wife Erica, their daughter Natalie, my dad and Coral drove up to Austin to hang with us and have lunch.

On Wednesday we toured the Texas Capitol building.  Although it was in the warm in the 80's it was very cloudy so my pictures don't show the beauty of this building.

We were able to find parking right across  the street. 

The African American memorial . 

The goddess of Liberty. She sits at the very top of the Capitol dome, she has a sword of justice in one hand and a gilded Lone Star in the other.

Our own private accessible entrance in the back. 

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The Rotunda and dome.  On the floor are the six seals of the countries whose flags have flown over Texas. France, Mexico Spain, the Republic of Texas, the United States and the Confederate States of America.

The dome is 218 feet above.

Ryan looks very authoritative behind the desk in the Governors room

There are steps to get inside the Senate chambers and Supreme courtrooms so for accessible entrance you go inside a little room off the side of the hallway. That is where you find these little elevators.  When we opened the door to the room it was dark so I reached inside to turn on the light, only to find this Texas Ranger sitting in the corner. Scared me half to death! He just looked up and said, Howdy, I was just taking a little break in the quiet room. I'm like right, you were taking a nap! Anyway he jumped up and helped us figure out how to use the elevator.  He walked with us through the Senate chamber. Told us the Senate is quieter than the House of Representatives, mostly because they are old and have been there forever . Not everyday you get a personal escort from a Texas Ranger :)

While inside the building we heard chanting outside on the grounds of the Capital. Ryan was curious as to what they were doing .  He kept asking me what they were doing I said go ask them.  He actually did. If you know Ryan this was not easy for him to do. He asked a few questions and we had a nice conversation. While we don't agree with everything she said we were able to listen with an open mind and gain a little different perspective. Honestly, once we stared asking specific question and what she felt would be a good solution she didn't have any good answers either.

Thursday we drove to San Antonio to watch my nephew Nick get promoted to Smsgt.  Very proud of you!  I'm glad the timing was right that we were here for this. Also was good to see my dad and meet Coral. They flew to Texas from Florida to be part of this event as well.