A Trip to the Capitol

When Cris and I first came to Texas in June, we made a trip to Austin with his cousin Rey.  Being our first time to Austin, we wanted to check out the Capitol Building - and Rey's friend Debbie was a great tour guide. 



Debbie is the Chief Assistant to Houston's Senator Mario Gallegos.  She gave us some great history, took us onto the senate floor, and let us hit some gavels.  The Capitol building itself is enormous and gorgeous, with really intense detailing.  Being in that building was one of our first exposures to serious Texas pride - the Texas name and infamous star were everywhere.  And just look at these door hinges!

As Cris and I were gawking at the awesome hinges and secretly wishing we could have one, Debbie informed us that there had been a recent door-hinge-crackdown, as many had been stolen.  Also interesting to note - the Texas legislature is only in session for 5 months, every odd numbered year.  Many of the legislators hold jobs outside of their work in the capitol as they only practice their political hobby 140 days every 2 years.  Apparently, Texas is already runnin' smooth, and only needs attention every once in awhile.

I could have spent a whole day looking at the architecture of the building - it was built in 1888 and was based on 15th century Italian style architecture.  True to Texas style, this this is the biggest Capitol building in square footage - second only to the National Capitol.  But, to make up for 2nd place in footage, Texas outdid the height of Washington's building by 15 feet. 

After we explored the upper parts, Debbie took us down below - and half a building still awaited! In 1993, they built below the capitol, and expanded the space to twice its size.  Down in the chambers of Senator Gallegos, we got to experience a minute of congressional life.  We sat in some very senatory leather chairs, tested candy from everyone's desk, looked at the walls upon walls of law books, and peeked into the (many!) cabinets of liquor that help get through all those 140 days of law jargon.  Cris and I both love the series West Wing, and so this political, fact-filled tour had us feeling like Jed Bartlett's staff, and was a great way to get us stoked about moving here.

A month later, when I drove down with my friend Erin, I was so excited to show her the capitol.  I had talked it up for days!  By the time we made it to Austin, the building was almost closed.  All the chambers were locked, and custodians were cleaning around us.  I remembered one specific view I wanted to show her - so we sprinted through the building.  Of course we got lost at every turn, and finally found a window that might have been it - I couldn't remember exactly - but it was dark anyway, so black was all we could see.  To salvage our last few minutes, we played a game of finding who we would want to marry among the statue heads of 19th century senators that circled us.  So, I wasn't the great tour guide that Debbie was, and I couldn't even show Erin my favorite door hinges . . . but she did productively eliminate all 19th century politicians from her prospective marriage pool.