Augusta: May 23

Friday, our last capitol... We drove from Concord to Kennebunkport to stay the previous day, the quaint town on the coast on Maine. It was about 80 miles southeast of Augusta.

Atop the dome is the statue "Lady of Wisdom" a female figure holding a pine bough in the form of a torch and a pinecone in her left. Also of note are many American flags! Definitely displaying their national spirit.

The architecture is fairily simple, not ornate, without Latin quotes or symbols. It is a very stately building, with art consisting of paintings of governors, senators, and, of course, Presidents Lincoln and Washington. The walls are painted white, as is the dome, and there are white Doric columns. One interesting painting along the stairs was one of Washington next to the behind of a horse. Another piece was a bas-relief above a fireplace, a scene of soldiers returning from the Civil War.

There is a "fossil hunt" - throughout the capitol building there are four kinds of marine invertebrate fossils in the floor stones. Definitely unique!

The senate and house chambers were simple, clean, orderly and quaint white painted rooms. On the second floor, of note there was a porch that was open to the public, where you can sit on rocking chairs!

Another tid-bit is that on the bottom floor there is a room for massages! For visitors or workers, what a great idea.

There's also a history museum accross the street about Maine, and the capitol is amidst green parks, which was nice. Augusta seemed like a nice small town, but we didn't stick around long enough to learn about it. We headed back to the beach!