Sesquicentennial Report

A smooth and seamless event it was not.  

We made it to the capitol mall at about noon.  We wandered around the blacksmith areas, saw the old trucks there, and visited some of the statuary on the grounds.  We tried to go inside, but there were people guarding the doors.  "The entrance is closed until 1, there are too many people in there."

So we walked around some more.  The governor was there on the steps outside, and made a little speech.  Cool to see him in person.  We got in line (in line to get in the Oregon capitol building???) at 12:55, and got in at about 1:20.  The place was packed.  The main recepetion area (with the Oregon Seal on the floor) had a little room to move, but there was no movement in the connector hall between the front and back of the building.  Christian wanted to buy some rocks at the gift shop.  20 minutes in line.  The lines to get the free birthday cake and hot dogs were 20 minutes each.  So we skipped those.  We did find the cookie decorating area, and my mom decorated cookies with the other 3 kids while I was with Christian buying rocks.

Now who decided to have the hot dogs and cake inside the building?  I really wanted the kids to get a sense of the wonder of how the government works in a way that's a little more fun than it was on school field trips.  We were able to peek in the House chamber, and we pointed out the governor and his office on the 2nd floor.  So it wasn't bad, but it wasn't as fun as I had hoped it would be.  We'll go back some day when the legislature is in session and spend a day there looking at the paintings and walking through Oregon history and observing the legislature at work together. 

Pics are posted on FaceBook.