Texas Trip - Part 1: capitol building

Earlier this month, John and I traveled to Texas for 10 days.  We visited several cities {note: blog entries about the trip are not in chronological order}.  While staying in San Antonio, we did a day trip to Austin to see the state capitol building.  There is also a visitor's center for the capitol with lots of interesting information about the history of the capitol and of Texas (the building is designed by a man from Iowa and search the 'net for XIT Ranch for the story about how some Chicago guys helped "settle" Texas with the world's largest ranch).

Inside the dome

 

Info about the rotunda floor representing the flags flown over Texas.  We had learned at the Alamo in San Antonio how Texas has been a part of six different countries.

Walking around the building, I noticed the ornate, protruding door hinges.

The ornate door knobs and hardware also caught my attention.

  Look at the open hinges of the door (you can click on the photo for a larger image) and you can see the inside says "Texas Capitol".

After our visit, we found our personalized Texas Rangers badges (no, we didn't buy them).