St. Paul State Capital

Welch, Minnesota
Treasure Island Casino RV Park

Dave, Sherry, Bill and I left this morning for a tour of the State Capital.  Even though Dave knew all the different ways to get there and find a parking place, he'd never been to the Capital before.  How many times do you know people who live in a place for 20 years, move away and when then come back to see the sights?  

We've seen a lot of capital buildings but this one ranks very high.  

From a distance it looks like a lot of other capital buildings.

As you get closer, you can see it's going to be a good one.

And then you see this one is very special.

We  didn't have long to wait for our tour.

I was surprised there wasn't any facts and figures given nor did they have a brochure which included any.  I saw this plaque off in a corner which had the only facts about the building.  One interesting fact I learned was that Minnesota has more shoreline due to all the lakes than California, Florida and Hawaii combined.  

 Our guide told us the architect who designed the Capital was Cass Gilbert. 

The building was tastefully done with lots of different marble.

This was the Governor's Office.

It was very ornate and beautiful.

The Governor's  room is used for meetings and press conferences.

The House of Representatives was the second room we toured. 

I think the House of Representatives was my favorite room. I noticed a portrait of Lincoln behind the Speaker's desk. 

Part of this is a statue and part of it is a painting that blends together.  

Our next stop was up a very long spiral staircase to the roof. The Cathedral in the background is taller than the Capital.

We walked around the rooftop to the front of the building to see the Quadriga.  

Daniel Chester French did this sculpture but he let one of his apprentices do the horses because he was better than French at sculpting horses.

Here's Dave, Sherry, Me and Bill in front of the Quadriga.

Our third and last room to visit was the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The ceiling was beautiful.

This Capital building was the third one built.  It opened in 1905 and took nine years to complete.

It was a beautiful day for the tour and we all agreed we enjoyed it.

Dave had a check engine light on in his truck so we stopped at an auto shop to check the error message.  The message suggested a problem with the transmission fluid and some emission valve so we made a quick stop in Walmart. 

We pulled into the RV Park and Dave was going to come over and download his pictures.  He came to the door and said it would be a while because they had water running everywhere.  

We ran over to help and water was coming out everywhere on the trailer.  Bill and I walked over to the water connection and the electric cord was laying in it.  

 The photo doesn't begin to show how much water there was.

I can't believe in a RV Park as big as this one, or with security and the shuttle going through someone didn't see all the water and at least shut it off.

Dave found the problem immediately.  The foot pedal on the toilet got stuck.  The furnace is under the toilet and it was running.  Dave opened it up and water was everywhere.  He shut off the power and 12 volt system.    Lucky for Sherry the water ran down the steps and not into the bedroom carpet.  Everything in her bottom kitchen cupboards was wet.  It ran through the kitchen and into the living room.  We helped them empty out the basement and try to dry things up.  Sherry has 3 portable fans so we ran an extension from our electric and put them in front of the furnace.  The day was the driest since we've been here and the towels dried like we were in Arizona.  Dave had to empty the black tank so the water that was left in the toilet would go down.  They handled the problem with finesse!

Turtle Safely.......