08.10.09

08.10.09

Washington State Capitol

We started our morning by driving down to Olympia, Washington to the Capitol building.  It's a really stately building (ha!  duh...), extremely magnificent compared to Juneau!  There are several "matching" buildings on the grounds that house various branches.  The flags on the grounds were all at half mast.  A soldier from Washington had been killed that week in Iraq, so they were honoring him.

We took a tour and learned so many things about the building.  That's Ryan in the rotunda...

All of the light fixtures are from Tiffany, and were so beautiful.

While in the Reception Room, the guide was talking about the antique piano and said it would be really nice if someone was there who could play it since it really sounds so beautiful.  Of course, I immediately said, "He can!" and pointed to Ryan!  He was kind enough to throw out a little Mozart, and it really was beautiful!  He said he didn't mind:)

The chandeliers in the House and Senate Chambers.

Over the balconies in the Rotunda... These are supposed to represent "Fire Urns" like they had in the government areas of ancient Rome.  And I'm sure I got that wrong, but you get the idea...  they are in front of the flags from each county.

More of the Rotunda...

The grounds outside were nice, too... and it was another beautifully, cool, no humidity day!  We were loving this weather!

Ben and Carly... in case you were missing them.

We had our picnic lunch outside on the grounds, after getting our Christmas Ornament from the gift shop. 

In the afternoon, we drove down to Oregon.  We stopped in Portland to check it out and were sadly not impressed.  We did, however, stop at Powell Books because our Guide Book said it was the biggest book store in the US.  I believe it!  We spent some time there (pretty happy that it was color coded!) Carly got the kids version of "Marley and Me" and immediately started reading it.  

We caught a picture of Mount Hood... you might remember it from our FIRST day of pictures, flying over it.

We got a hotel in Salem, Oregon and went out for Mexican food at El Matador.  Another "Drive By" choice, and it was REALLY yummy!  We were missing Ti'juana Flats!  We called Renae for her birthday!

After dinner, we went swimming at the hotel then crashed in our room catching up with iCarly.  Hey, a new episode came out while we were on vacation, and iCarly and iBen were very excited to see it!

Bed... we stay pretty busy!