Minnesota State Capitol

What is my next favorite thing to do when I can't visit a winery? Go on a tour! I prefer the tours to be historical in nature, but also to have something unique about it. So the Quadriga (yeah, I still can't say it so don't ask) Evening Viewing and Tour at the Minnesota State Capitol was right up my alley. I tried to attend this tour last year and it didn't work out so I was even more determined to go this year! I have never been to the State Capitol. I don't know how that happened. I have been here all my life and since I have committed to making this my home I felt I had to go. It was pretty sweet. Construction, on the 3rd capitol building MN has had, took 9 years and finished in 1905. This is one of those buildings that you are just not going to find anymore, modern construction is really a big failure when it comes to beauty and presence. The building's estimated value now is $400 million dollars and yup, that sounds about right.

The tour itself was 90 minutes and included the much acclaimed climb to the rooftop for a close up view of the Quadriga. What is the Quadriga? Yeah, it is the fancy word for the 4 gold horses on top of the capitol. Turns out Quadriga is just 4 horses pulling a car or chariot. And according to Wikipedia, there are 13 significant ones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriga. Now my new goal in life is to visit all those listed on Wikipedia's page. The one on the MN capitol is titled "Progress of the State". So the horses were cool and all, but sadly the approach you view them at pretty much leaves you with a bunch of pictures of the horse's ass.

The most unfortunate part of the tour? The 3 costumed characters that you "run" into while on the tour. I didn't know about this. "Oh, fancy running into you, Mr. Sibley - the first MN state governor who served from May 24, 1858, until January 2, 1860". Sigh. The people wore time-period inspired clothing and did their little act, thankfully it was over quick and it gave me more time to figure out my camera. Seriously, I spent half the tour trying to figure out where the setting for "inside/low light" was. I know I have that setting. I never found it. Help me. Oh well, I still enjoyed seeing the building - it is pretty impressive!


Oh and look - someone spent 100 hours to create the capitol using Lego's!

~Posted by Ann