Mr. Smith goes to Austin!!!

[indianasmith]

This weekend I took 8 kids from my school to compete in the State level of the National History Day fair. (We've won regionals for years, but have never advanced past State to Nationals.
 After the kids were done competing, we walked around the State Capitol building for awhile and I took some pictures. It is a gorgeous, enormous building, well worth the visit if you have never been there.


 Standing straight under the dome looking up.


 One of our former governors; you may have heard of him.


 A famous painting of the Battle of San Jacinto.


 Here I am in the State Senate chamber.


 And in our State House of Representatives chamber.


 In the State House chamber, I found a portrait of our hometown hero from here in Greenville - Audie Murphy. 28 decorations for
 valor in World War II, then he went on to become a popular film star in the 1950's.


 Here is the first and third President of Texas, Sam Houston, who also served as a United States Senator from Texas
 and governor of Texas. (He was also governor of Tennessee for awhile, but we don't talk about that! )


 This is where our State Supreme Court meets.

[indianasmith]

Here is a great view of the floor mosaic under the capitol dome; the center star reads "The Republic of Texas."
It is surrounded by the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of France, the Republic of Mexico, the Confederate States of America,
and the United States of America (for you non-Texans, those are the "Six Flags Over Texas"!)


Even the door hinges have the Capitol logo on them!


After the tour, we went and ate lunch at the County Line BBQ - a "must visit" if you ever go to Austin.


After lunch we did a little rock climbing in Bull Creek Park to work off the meal before driving home!

[Allhallowsday]

Great pix!  Looks like a wonderful time. 

[Jack]

Good lord, is that about 5 pounds of ribs you've got there?   

Just kidding, that's a beautiful place an it looks like you had a great time Indy 

[Flangepart]

Dude...the lunch pic? You look like a Bond villain over his vittles just before he offs an underling...just sayin...

[Umaril Has Returned]

Now THAT'S a meal!  But then again they make everything bigger in Texas. The all-natural Samantha Anderson, aka "Samantha 38G" is a great example 

On other notes though, Audie Murphy was quite a guy. His story "To Hell And Back" was quite a movie.  And with Toyota recently ditching CA for Texas, it looks like the futre for Texas is so bright that you're gonna need shades. Texas is the place! 

[indianasmith]

What can I say?

I LIKE FOOD!!!

And yes, Texas is a pretty awesome place to live.

[lester1/2jr]

I didn't come up with this but: Jorts W Bush

[Javakoala]

That couldn't be a painting of Audie Murphy. Too tall.