As the saying goes, "Everything is bigger in Texas!" and that starts with the Texas Capitol Building. We visited the Capitol Building on our first afternoon in Austin. It was built in 1888 and is actually 15 feet taller than the capitol in Washington. It is quite spectacular to see and is made out of pink granite - it was just a shame that the dome was covered in scaffolding when we were there.
There are many monuments in the capitol grounds but Pia and Ella's favourite was the Monument to Texas schoolchildren!
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| The interior of the Capitol dome |
crafting their own inventions out of recycled materials in the Design Studio. Pia made a Bird Jar, a special type of bird house, and Ella made a "Pinkalicious telescope', which turns everything pink when you look through it!
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| Pia, hanging upside down like the millions of bats that live in Austin under the Congress Ave bridge. |
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| Ella took on the job of vet with gusto and cared for many dogs, cats and bunnies. |
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| Pia and Ella create a feast for me to tuck in to! |
On the Sunday, we all went to the Botanical Gardens in Zilker Park. These were absolutely beautiful and included a lovely butterfly garden.
It was also in this spot that dinosaur footprints from millions of years ago have been found...
left behind by a dinosaur just like this one.
There was also a lovely Japanese garden, complete with a little tunnel through a cave, stepping stones which the girls loved going over and over, and a waterfall.
In the afternoon, we drove out to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Gardens. One of Lady Bird's legacies as First Lady was that she invested much time and money into beautifying the landscape of Texas and encouraging people to care for their local environment. Fall was not the best time to see wildflowers - the Texas state flower, the Bluebonnet, was not in bloom - but we did see some great examples of Texan cacti and native plants.
On the Monday, the girls and I walked through the campus of the University of Texas (again one of the biggest - the university sports stadium seats 110,000 people!)and visited the Texas Memorial Museum, which houses 4 floors of Texan natural history.
Finally, on our last day in Austin, we went to the Texas State History Museum, with its enormous star out the front. The 'Lone Star' is everywhere in Texas! We watched a great IMAX movie on the story of Texas and saw a reconstruction of the famous Alamo, where the battle for independence was held in 1836. I did not realise that Texas was once part of Mexico, then fought to become its own nation in the battle of Alamo. For the next 9 years Texas was recognised as its own independent country before becoming part of the United States. We also saw many examples of Texan inventions, especially in the areas of technology and space. The museum obviously promoted the state well because at the end of our stay Ella declared, "I want to live in Texas!"
We have now been back from Texas for a week and are enjoying having Jeannie and Sophie, James' mum and neice here to visit. I will fill you in on their visit in my next post.
Please tell Ella that Eva and Matilda would very much like a 'Pinkalicious Telescope' each! And they would also like a bird jar but wondered if they could catch other things in it, too, like beetles and bugs?
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