We had the chance to go on a tour of the state capitol with our charter and I thought we should take advantage of the field trip. Sacramento is really not too far away for us--about 1.5 hours, which it easily takes us that long to get to SF most of the time, too.
I have found that homeschoolers tend to be habitually late. We were listening to a really good audio book on the way up, The Boys in the Boat, and were at a crucial part of the story when we got there, but even though we sat in the car until the last possible moment, we still were the first ones there and our tour started about 20 minutes late while they waited for everyone. It did give us a chance to look around the rotunda a little and take a few pictures.
Most of the group finally arrived.
I love old architecture, especially in these domes.
We got to visit the State Senate room and our tour guide explained how it runs in there.
Interesting note--everything in this room is green. The State Assembly room is a replica, but done in all red. Guess that would help you to make sure you weren't sitting in on the wrong meeting.
Another interesting fact--the state mammal is the bear, which I knew, but I found it funny to see the various artists interpretations of bears throughout the building. I wouldn't have recognized these wood carvings in the stair posts as bears if they weren't pointed out. Looks more like a wolverine or something.
And another one--a little more bear-like, but he has pretty scrawny legs.
Our guide was excellent with the kids and talked a lot with them about how important each individual is to making the system work for the people. Maybe it's time to get the kids involved a little more in politics. I need to pay attention to the opportunities that come up.
CA state seal--the kids were able to identify a lot of the symbols in here from our CA history last year, which was fun.
The capitol at Christmas--looks like they were just getting everything set up.
And then, our group went to the CA State Railroad Museum. We had just been there in May, but school groups can get in for free, so I figured why not? Plus, there were a couple things we had to rush through last time, so we tried to get to those.
And some things had a little more significance after the rest of our learning last summer. We listened to a great audio book about the Chinese involvement building the RR, the Dragon's Gate, and learned just how dangerous scenes like this were for the workers.
And this diorama is of the spot of the Golden Spike, which we got to see in real life this summer.
We also toured the different cars, like this mail car, and a dining car, and sleeper cars. I would love to do an overnight train trip with the kids someday.
We also explored a circuit exhibit--these kids love hands on stuff.
And saw the models, which are always fun. Such a great field trip in the capitol.
