Tallahassee, Florida

From Baton Rouge we headed east, just skimming the southern most sections of Mississippi and Alabama to find our way to Florida, where we plan to spend the next 6 weeks. Our first stop was Tallahassee for the Capitol Tour. Much to our surprise, this, too, was a towering capitol building, although not quite as tall as the one in Baton Rouge. The 23rd floor housed an enclosed lookout tower, and again, it provided fantastic views of the surrounding capitol grounds and the city at large. The inside of the capitol was functional, with a few highlights, such as the engraved State Seal on the floor of the first level, and a mural depicting scenes representative of the Florida environment. There was also an interesting photography exhibition on the 22nd level depicting the many faces of hard working Floridians.

Sitting directly in front of this very tall capitol building was the Old Capitol, which much to our delight, was open to the public. We found the architecture and design much more pleasing, and the displays spanned the history of Florida using posters and video clips. Another treat was the capitol dome, a beautiful kaleidoscope of colors, made bright by the sun shinning through.

We capped off the day with a visit to the Tallahassee Museum of Natural Science, where we walked around outside for a couple of hours among rescued wildlife indigenous to the area, rare historic buildings including a small plantation, and beautiful natural scenery.