Bear- Stanley visits THE CAPITAL!!

For Stanley's last hoorah in Texas, we decided to visit the state capital of Texas- AUSTIN!  Most people would think that Austin is full of cowboys, farms, and all things western-but on the contrary, it's actually deemed the "Music Capital of Texas" and "Live Music Capital of the World."  It hosts so many music festivals and attracts so many people to them.  It's full of art, music, outdoor activities, and the lifestyle of the people living here are very close with nature.

We headed to Austin early Saturday morning and decided to talk Harley with us since we would be outside most of the time.  He loves riding in cars!  We stopped at a wonderful BBQ place for lunch and it tasted so good.  Stanley and I couldn't handle the hot sauce, so we had to eat the Rudy’s sissy sauce-Mmmm so good.

 When we first arrive, we stopped at the heart of the city, the Capital Building.  Stanley wanted to learn more about this building and the history of the capital.  So later we looked it up on the internet.

The capital building was erected on March 2, 1885 by Elijah Myers, the architect.  So it is 128 years old.  It only took 3 years to build because on April 21, 1888, it was opened to the public.  It’s built on 51.4 acres of land in the middle of Austin, Texas.  It is a beautiful park with lots of walkways and trees.  There were also several statues and monuments along the premises.  It has been renovated several times to keep it updated but at the same time keep its historic culture alive.

The reddish brown color of the building is due to the red-granite that was used to build it. 

If you look closely at the pictures, you can see the Goddess of Liberty perched at the top of the rotunda.

It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect too.  The architecture was amazing to observe.  But we didn’t go inside because we brought Harley with us on the trip and they didn’t allow pets inside; although most of Austin is a very pet-friendly place.  It was such a perfect day to walk around and enjoy the nice, warm, breezy Texas weather.

In 1993, the $75 million, four-story, underground Capital Extension was completed to the north, doubling the square footage available to Capital occupants and providing much improved functionality. Though the extension encompasses 667,000 square feet (62,000 m²), nearly twice the floor space of the original building, there is little evidence of such a large structure at ground level, except for extensive skylights camouflaged as planter rows.

 There are 17 monuments on the grounds of the capital.  We took pictures of a few of them. The first one we saw was this gate.  This is the original gate that demarcated the property of the capital grounds.  Stanley got a picture by an original photo of the gate when it was first built.

  The "Great Walk" of black and white diamond-patterned pavement shaded by trees is one of the oldest parts of the capital. It has been kept the same since it was first constructed as shown in the photo.

The four oldest monuments are the Heroes of the Alamo, Volunteer Firemen, Confederate Soldiers and Terry's Texas Rangers, and flank the tree-lined Great Walk.

Terry’s Texas Rangers. The 8th Texas Cavalry, (1861–1865), popularly known as Terry'sTexas Rangers, was a group of Texas volunteers for the Confederate States Army assembled by Colonel Benjamin Franklin Terry in August 1861. Though lesser known than The Texas Brigade, famous for their actions during the Battle of Gettysburg, the "Terry Rangers" distinguished themselves at several battles during the Civil War. In four years Terry's Texas Rangers fought in some 275 engagements in seven states. The unit earned a reputation that ranked it among the most effective mounted regiments in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. 

 The Confederate Soldiers.  On the monument, there are a list of all the states and dates in which they seceded from the Union. Arkansas seceded May 6, 1861.

The 10 commandments displayed on the capital grounds.  It was first deemed

 unconstitutional for them to be displayed on the grounds, but in late June 2005, the

Court ruled that the display was not unconstitutional and could be displayed for all to 

see as the visit the capital.  

Just as we were leaving the capital grounds, we ran into another Flat Stanley.  

He said he was from Wisconsin.  That’s just a couple states over from 

Bear’s neck of the woods!

 We walked up and down a very popular street in Austin's Downtown area- South Congress Street, 
otherwise known as SoCo.  It was full of little shops, outdoor tents selling goods, restaurants, and
 funny looking people (as Stanley put it).

South Congress is the Street we’re walking down right now.

There’s a very popular wall art on South Congress in which a lot of people take 

their picture; especially those getting married.  This ‘graffiti’ has been here for years 

apparently, and no one paints over it because it is such a cool wall to take a picture.  

Hubby and I couldn’t resist and had to take advantage of the wall.  

Stanley volunteered to take the picture for us… J

There were so many shops and tents with people selling their goods, that we couldn’t 

get enough pictures to show the enormity of it all.  The tents behind Stanley were selling

jewelry.

We were getting pretty thirsty on our trek across Austin, so we stopped at a little snack 

bar.  Harley was allowed on the deck, so we ate outside.  It was so nice to have 

my Harley eating a snack with Cody, myself and Stanley.  Harley was even served 

water in his own bowl!  The Austin citizens really appreciate their animals. 

For dinner, we ate at a place called Homeslice Pizza. 

It was DELICIOUS! 

It was New York style, and very, very cheesey…

Afterward we had some of Austin’s famous 

Amy’s Ice cream.  Also very delectable.

 

 This is a statue of a bat.  Yes, a bat. The Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge 

in downtown Austin is the spring and summer home to some 750,000 bats with up to 

1.5 million bats at the peak of the bat-watching season. It's the largest urban bat colony

 in North America. It was too dark for us to see the bats, so we didn’t get any pictures 

of them flying.

We had an amazing time with Stanley while he visited Texas.  

We hope to run into him again on his travels across the world.  

Thank you all for this opportunity for us to be his host family.  

Bear should receive some trinkets along with Stanley from his adventures in Texas.  

We sure will miss him.  Thanks again and have a wonderful rest of the year.

         

Love Always,

Cody, Jordana, and Harley.