This was by far the most unique and odd capital that we have seen so far. Exteriorly this capital was different than most in that it has a tall (14 stories), thin building with a cupola and statue upon it in the middle of a large 3 story square building. As we entered the basement level (their "first" floor) we were immediately aware of the level of darkness and that there was no security check. Initially it would have appeared that they were not open if we didn't know better. The arched, stone hallways with their less-than-adequate pendant lights gave an eery, ominous feeling. The stone work was attractive although simplistic in form. We walked up the stairs to get to the tour meeting area and felt like we were climbing prison stairs. The staircases were completely made of a gray stone and gray marble with absolutely no artwork. The one architecture feature that I liked was that the handrails were cut into and turned into the stones so that if a level were placed on the wall vertically it would be straight. I had difficulty envisioning the process to make them.

As we entered the second floor we came upon a rotunda area. Initially I believed it to be the actual rotunda but later we discovered that in fact that was only about halfway up the 14 stories because on the 14th story you are able to see what would be considered the true rotunda. Our first impression of this capital was that it was completely different, way to dark, and aside from the lack of staircases this was a very Harry Potter-like building. As we were walking down the second floor hallway Katherine said all that was missing was some floating candles and I had to completely agree.

We had thought we were going to take a tour and even began with a group, however the tour guide must give LOTS of tours to young children as she was calling everyone "student" even though the group we were with were all 25-45ish as well as she spent an exorbitant amount of time explaining everything! Katherine was sure to tell us several times after we left the group that she tried to tell us the tour guide would take too long! So we continued on our own seeing the first floor, second floor, and the fourteenth floor of the tower all on our own. As the tour group was in our way to see the Senate Chamber (in Nebraska there is only one house of congress that is filled with members chosen on a non-partisan basis) we made our way up to the gallery in hopes of being able to look in from that vantage point. Luckily for us there were workers in the gallery and the door was unlocked so I popped my head and camera in and got a quick photo. We were really quite surprised that for such an impressive, unusual capital the chamber was exceptionally boring! Nothing extraordinary was to be found in that room. From there we made our way to the gift shop and back to car for more adventures. - Carrie