don't mess with texas

Ok, Texas is serious about their state. I don't think their is a place with more state pride. we have never seen another state that has their own state store. At the mall and in downtown Austin there was the "Texas Store". That was the name...Texas Store. I wonder how a California Store would do or how many people would visit Utah Store.

Everywhere we went the Texas star (or some form of it) was displayed proudly. I saw it on fronts of houses, on backyard fences, on buildings, store fronts, cars, etc. I am not kidding when I say it was everywhere.

Here is a Texas rangers star in our hotel bathroom. There were also stars on our room walls. On a side note the hotel we stayed in (The Driskill) was pretty amazing. It was built forever ago by an ol' cattle baron. It had some cool history and was beautiful. Of course the star was present in force at the capitol building. One morning I took a walk through Austin by myself while Derek was in meetings and I ended up at the capitol. What a beautiful building with so much history.

The walk was miserable because of the heat - how does anyone live there? I can't believe I served a mission in the south and tracted and rode bikes in the heat and humidity. Gotta love California!

Door into the capitol

Looking up at the ceiling in the capitol

the front gate

a room in the capitol building - the lighting fixture is the star

I could have taken hundreds of star pictures - I probably should have it would have been a cool gallery but oh well, the stars will just have to live on in my heart.