Lo-o-o-ng and Lovely Day.
We did a little homeschool trip to visit Missouri's Capitol with the Dains. Shirley lives near the Capitol and took off of work to join us.
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| Phoebe photography |
Last time I was here to visit Shirley, the Capitol was behind orange netting, the ground was bare dirt and there was a lot of restoration going on. It is back to its stately self.
We ate at Arri's Pizza first. Busy place! Which must mean it's good.
Thomas Jefferson welcomes you in.
Harrison dabbing. This will embarrass him one day.
The Grand Staircase.
The oldest and youngest kids of the group.
We visited the museum part first.
Shirley!
Jonathan took a selfie at this display and then made it their screen background.
This is Thomas Hart Benton.
I had to take this picture of him since we were not allowed in the Thomas Hart Benton mural room for dubious sounding reasons about the pandemic.
Looking up at the bronze chandelier.
We went up there, by the way. Up behind that banister.
Sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives listening to our tour guide.
Out to Central Dairy to get ice cream.
Then we went back to the Capitol to find Ed Lewis.
We had seen his wife earlier that day. Mr. Lewis taught Brittany (Morris) Dain in high school, and he taught Phillip and I in college. He and his family were members at First Christian Church here in Vandalia for many years. Anyway, years pass by, and now he is a Missouri State Representative.
We went back to the gallery, this time to watch the representatives in session.
Some action!
This is the board that tells you who voted how. We found Ed's name so we could see if our votes lined up with his. 😄
They voted on 5 or 6 things. They moved pretty quick, so I can tell a lot of work takes place off the floor. Phoebe was especially interested in the issues being voted on. Jonathan just thought there were "a bunch of bills that shouldn't exist and shouldn't be passing because it is none of the government's business" which he texted to let me know he was ready to go home.
It was a long day. I don't blame them for being tired. But I kept telling mine that we probably wouldn't be back here anytime soon, so we were going to get everything out of it that we could.
Mr. Lewis sponsored legislation pertaining to substitute teachers which passed while we were sitting there observing. Kind of neat!
Representative Mitch Boggs was a homeschooler himself, and he came up to see us and take us around to some off-tour areas of the Capitol. He let the kids sit in his official chair and shared soft drinks from his mini-fridge.
We are up in the Whisper Room.
You can hear someone whispering from far away. We are high up, above the Bronze Chandelier from a previous picture.
Then we went up, up, up some more to the tippy top and stepped outside to see the rest of Missouri! (We're gonna feel that climb tomorrow.)
Do you see the top dome with a statue on top (Ceres, the goddess of agriculture is the statue)? We were right below those columns. We walked all around the rotunda with fresh wind on our faces.
One view from the top.
The governor's mansion is in the near distance. The Missouri River on the left.
Whew! What a fun day. My favorite part was watching the representatives in session. The kids might not have a favorite part right now because they're pretty exhausted. It was fun to go with friends! Thanks, Dains and Shirley for being part of the day!
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