North Carolina Capitol

It wouldn't be a McGregor Vacation without a trip to capitol buildings... Yes, we planned out our trip to hit as many as possible!  Our first stop was Raleigh, NC.  The first thing we noticed about this building was how WONDERFULLY symmetrical it is!  I love order.

As we are finding, most Capitol Buildings have BEAUTIFUL grounds... this time Ben and Carly discovered many cannons and guns, which they thought were pretty cool.

This was a REALLY moving statue... I actually caught my breath when I looked up and saw it for the first time...  A Vietnam War Memorial.

                                    

We were visiting right after Father's Day, and someone had put these cards in the gun.

And a flag that was in the grass at the base of the statue.

Inside.  When we first went in, a receptionist was standing behind this desk explaining the "Self Guided Tour" to us... she went over a brief history of the State House (NC's is now a just a museum).  She brought up that the first one was made out of wood, and burned to the ground (a common issue with MANY of the State Capitols) so "they built this one to be FIREPROOF".  And probably no one will find this NEARLY as entertaining as we did, but please, appreciate the fire alarm pull station which we were staring at while she was telling us this.  Ok, we are admittedly easy to entertain.

The Library... it has been refurbished to how it looked in 1859.  Loved it.

The House of Representatives.  Ryan got ahead of me at this point and I called out, "Ryan, where are you?" and he answered... "I'm in the House".  Again, easily entertained.  They do not pass bills here anymore.

Looking up into one of the smaller oval shaped domes.

Senate Chambers... again, restored to 1859 era.  Loved the top hat! 

We also enjoy all the old light fixtures...

And I personally enjoy all these cute people.

Carly with our Capitol Book now bearing the North Carolina stamp!

The Fire Proof Lady was kind enough to snap our picture as we were about to leave.  They have a very interesting statue of George Washington in the rotunda... the artist who sculpted it in the 1800's was Italian and had obviously never seen GW, so he went with a picture someone sent him, and decided he needed to look like a Roman Emporer.