Capitols and Arches

I'm a sucker for capitol buildings. I don't know why, but I will go completely out of my way to visit them. Over spring break I drove for an hour up to Lansing (nicknamed Operation: Dream Vacation) just to see the capitol and realize that other than that building, Lansing has very little going on. Similarly, in the past year while driving through New York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Minnesota I have gone out of my way just to get up close and personal with the capitol buildings along the way. So on my trip across I-70 from Utah back to Michigan, I stopped off at every capitol building within reasonable distance (I had to pass on Jefferson City, Missouri and Springfield, Illinois, which were 40 and 90 minutes out of my way, respectively).

The first capitol was Denver, and I got there about ten minutes before it closed so about all I had time to do was snap that picture looking up at the dome. It seemed impressive enough though, and I stood on the step in the front of the building where there is a marker indicating that the spot is exactly one mile above sea level. Next up was Topeka, which was undergoing some major renovation so I couldn't go in, but I thought it was pretty interesting to see a capitol building with a bunch of rubble around it - I now feel more prepared for that cyborg uprising in 2019, should it happen. In Illinois I unwittingly stumbled upon the town of Vandalia, which was the state capital from 1819-1839, so I stopped for a tour of the old capitol building. This is the building where Abraham Lincoln served as member of the Illinois House of Representatives, where he was instrumental in having the state capital changed to Springfield. But Vandalia doesn't seem to mind having been stabbed in the back by Lincoln - the town was playing the "Lincoln stood on this very spot" card at every opportunity. And finally, I rolled up to the capitol in Indianapolis, which was closed for the weekend, but it was right downtown so I got to see a lot of the city.


If my road trip had another motif besides capitol buildings, it would have to be arches. I spent my first night in Moab, Utah and spent most of the day hiking around in Arches National Park. Then I visited my friends Nick and Kara in St. Louis and saw the big ol' arch there - although I didn't feel compelled to go inside it, since I did that once when I was around 13 years old so I had already checked that experience off (the picture above was taken at high velocity from the freeway, hence the slanty-ness). And finally, I stopped to stock up on road trip snacks at an Aldi in Illinois and when I stepped out of the store I spied that last spectacular arch across the parking lot.

But the best motif of my trip: seeing old friends (awwww!). My buddy John and his girlfriend Aubry let me crash at their place in Denver and took me out for some dinner and for some scrapbook memories. And I finally got to see the much blogged-about botanical gardens and a Catholic basilica full of amazing byzantine mosaics in St. Louis with Kara and her new little baby H. So many thanks to John 'n' Aubry and Nick 'n' Kara for letting me stay with you.

P.S. Special thanks to this web site for helping me with the whole capitol/capital thing. That's a rule I always forget.