§ 'Da Capitol....

This post is the last of the photos I found on the unmarked disk. I finish the series with the Texas State Capitol building in Austin Texas. I found the whole day spent touring the capitol and its grounds filled with statues and more the most fascinating of the entire trip! And as we waited in line to enter, the one thing that caught my eye was the brass door hinges! "Texas Capitol". A photo follows below....

The Capitol's exterior walls are Texas red granite from Burnet County, while the interior and walls are Texas limestone.

The roof, encompassing 85,000 square feet, is made of copper.

the Texas Capitol covers three acres of ground with approximately 18 acres of floor space or 192,374 square feet of available office space. When completed in 1888, the building contained 392 rooms, 18 vaults, 924 windows, and 404 doors. Approximately 566 feet in length, 288 feet in width, and 302.64 feet from grade line to the top of the star on the Goddess of Liberty atop the dome

It is the largest of all domed state capitol buildings

The Capitol was officially completed on December 8, 1888, six years and ten months after construction began.

The building contractors were paid for construction with 3 MILLION acres of Texas land...it eventually became the XIT Ranch [the largest fenced in ranch in the WORLD]

Due to its location, the Rotunda is also a “whispering gallery.” Thanks to the echoes created by being underneath the dome, people in other parts of the Rotunda will be able to hear everything you say

Read more
6000 Miles of fence on the XIT Ranch




Seen above: Door hinges, the captiol dome's statue, Sam Houston, Stephen Austin, staircases intracasies, view of Austin from Texas House of Representatives.




Seen above: Texas Lone Star light fixtures, Capitol Rotunda, Texas Senate [2 photos], Texas House of Representative, and oil painting of Santa Anna and Sam Houston where Mexico Surrendered!!  [Santa Anna, standing in white britches and blue coat, Sam Houston Reclining -Texas Revolution]

§ Texas Day Tripping Continued...

I haven't composed a blog post in a long while; I had a bad case of food poisoning and it took 4 days to even begin to see any improvement after spending most of my time lying on the couch with my cellphone or sleeping. I finally broke down and had Bud buy me some OTC 'meds' before I started feeling better. At least enough to eat something other than rice and potatoes. I still am slowly recouperating from this nasty bout. 'Twasn't any fun.

I will now continue the saga of Texas' birthplace...Washington on the Brazos. The museum on the park grounds. It was a small museum but loaded with a lot of history. I didn't take too many photos 'cause I was busy reading all the plaques that were explaining what I was looking at...

And YES Ginny...you questioned about Texas being a country itself! YESSS, it was. It was the Republic of Texas before becoming a state of the union. In fact, the map below shows that Texas was much much larger than it is today...the boundaries going way up into what is now the state of Wyoming!!

After leaving Washington, we stopped at Comfort Texas. Erik wanted to see a memorial there. Then, on to Frederickburg, Texas to another museum [World War] and some wine tasting!! The wineries of Texas Wine Country have been producing award-winning wines that have earned honors around the world. Wine production in Fredericksburg dates back to the original settlers who used the native mustang grape to produce wines. Fredericksburg is a highly populated German community!!! The famed Admiral Nimitz and his family built a hotel here [hence the world war museum I suppose]. Two particular sections of the museum interested me most...the USS Lexington [which is now permanently docked at Corpus Christ's North Shore and is now a museum!!] And the section of the Destroyer Escort USS Tabberer [pronounce TAB er er] DE418. After world war two, in the late 50's and 60's Bud was stationed on the USS Tabberer!!

The high winds and seas continued to batter her on the 18th. By 1830 [6:30 pm], her mast and radio antennas were gone. At 2130 [9:30 pm], a signalman trying to rig an emergency antenna sounded the "man overboard" alarm. Tabberer rushed to the rescue. Once on board, the sailor reported that he was from USS Hull and that his ship had gone down about noon that day. Thus, she was the first ship of the U.S. 3rd Fleet to learn of the tragedy of 18 December 1944.
Typhoon Cobra...Tabbberer received many medals.




DE418
And the image above and to the right of Tabberer is 'the weakest link [anchor chain link]

§ The Birthplace of Texas...

As some of my blogging visitors are from Texas, you know that Texas Independence day is March 2nd! This year, 2023, marks 187 years...

Washington-on-the-Brazos is known as "the birthplace of Texas" because, on March 1, 1836, Texas delegates met in the town to formally announce Texas' intention to separate from Mexico and to draft a constitution for the new Republic of Texas. They organized an interim government to serve until a permanent one could be formed

source: Here

The delegates adopted the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836, signing it on the following day. They adopted their constitution on March 16. The delegates worked until March 17, when they had to flee with the residents of Washington, to escape the advancing Mexican Army. The townspeople returned after the Mexican Army was defeated at San Jacinto on April 21. Town leaders lobbied for Washington's designation as the permanent capital of the Republic of Texas, but leaders of the Republic favored Waterloo, later renamed Austin. [More on the capitol in another post]

We visited Texas' Birthplace...






Next stop...the Museum at Washington on the Brazos. A small museum but filled with so much history!! [By the way, the Black Vultures seen above, were EVERYWHERE!]
Note: The river seen is the Brazos, the gray clapboard building is where it was all delegated and signed to have Texas become independent.

§ Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder....

These photos were taken just after sunrise along the park's beach in Rockport, Texas. I didn't realize it'd be like it was as the sun was peeking over the horizon, until it was up in the sky for about 15 minutes. I was walking along the trails and not paying much attention 'til I actually looked! LOL




This park, along the beach bay has been in the midst of a huge renovation since damages from hurricanes. I always like walking here very early in the morning...at the end of the trails, there is a rookery where several species nest in the Spring months.

This will be my last post for a while! I will be...

§ Day Trippin'...Part III

I walked to a field to inspect the flowering bluebonnets! And as a reminder from one year to the next, I always try to get a photo from a "Top" view since the blossoms from that angle always [to me] resembles a kaleidoscope! And just like a kaleidoscope, each blossom is different. This is only part of what I saw of bluebonnets and Texas Indian Paintbrush [orange blooms]...