Capitol visit

Yesterday's visit to the St. Paul capitol building was a lot of fun. (I even found easy parking on the street with no meters!) We toured with AFS exchange students who are in scholarship programs--they are very bright and highly motivated kids. One of the host parents is a state representative, so we had the rare opportunity of sitting in the seats of the legislature (which is not in session now). We didn't get to vote, but we say the little buttons on the desk and sat in the original chairs and the wooden desks from the early 20th century when the capitol was built.

We got to go up to see the gold horses, representing earth, rain, wind and fire. The view was incredible up there too--we could see downtown Minneapolis and the sites of St. Paul, including the Cathedral down the block.

One of the girls left her backpack up there, but after security cleared it, she had it returned. One of the highlights of the tour was seeing the new portrait of our famous former governor, Jesse Ventura. Other governors were pictured with favorite things--a horse, a Minnesota letter jacket, and even one portrait with a governor's wife. Jesse had his lit cigar (which of course he couldn't smoke in the capitol building). The portrait had just been commissioned the day before--there were still fresh flowers in a pot next to the portrait. Ventura was gazing out into space, with his hand resting on a statue of "The Thinker"--harking back to his campaign days, when the former wrestler turned politician had the slogan "Jesse the mind"--formerly he was known as Jesse the body.

My favorite part of the tour was seeing two gophers facing each other, hidden in the ornate decor of the wall over a doorway. We are the gopher state, although we also learned that there are no gophers in Minnesota--only a 13-striped short-tailed squirrel or something like that (I think that's what we would call a chipmunk.) After our visit, we went to the equally impressive cathedral that was built about the same time period as the capitol. Then, off to the Mall of America before going home and collapsing in bed.

Till next time,

Suzi