Saturday, November 10, 2012

L'Etoile du Nord!

Today we got to spend the day sightseeing and touristing in the Twin Cities, MN with Jacquelyn and Jude.  We had such a great time seeing (and tasting!) St. Paul, thank you to J & J for their excellent hospitality!

Good morning!  Kylie and her aunt having some quality get-to-know-ya time.

Our tourist activity of the day was to visit the Minnesota State Capitol.  As we've said before, they're America's Palaces!!  Here I am getting into the mood by acting out a statue out front.  I make a decent Floyd Olson, right?!

There it is!  When the weather is good, tours of this building go out on the roof to see those golden horses.  Apparently 65 degrees, sunny and gorgeous is not good enough weather.

 Jac & Jude getting in on the statue copying.  Good work guys!

There's the rotunda with the star of the north.  According to our guide, it represents Minnesota's fourth branch of government, the people.  (wtf?!)

 Here is the House Chamber, forever ruined by the unoriginal, added later and completely awful mural over the speaker's head...according to the guide.  She was something of a building purist...

Learning about government and history is fun!!

What??  Mr. Colvill???  Did he head west later in life to found our beloved Colville?!  The world may never know!*
(*the world does, in fact, know...and this man did not found Colville...)

Look!  I'm immortalized!!  There's Kylie...who's that other kid?!

The view into the courtyard.

Here is the official portrait of Minnesota's coolest governor ever, Jesse "The Body" Ventura.  He is depicted smoking a fine cigar in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic Minnesota... 

Everyone smile!

The basilica's silhouette in the afternoon.

These sandwiches were amazing.  The one on the right is called the Cheesemonger and is the Minnesota sandwich as per the Food Network state sandwich guide we are using to travel the US.  So much better than Montana's sandwich....

The St. Paul Cheese Shop, purveyor of fine sandwiches!

Thanks again to Jac & Jude for such a fun day!

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