A couple of weeks ago, on our way up to Kansas City, the boys and I had some time to kill so me made a pit stop at the State Capitol.
I have NEVER been there.
Amy assures me that she went with one of her classes, so I'm not sure how I missed out on that field trip considering I was in all the same classes only a year later.
She's probably lying.
Anyways, we were excited to do the dome tour.
We were sort of flying by the seat of our pants, so I didn't put much research into it. I knew the times it ran and that it required A LOT of stair climbing.
In my head it was flight after flight of stairs and then suddenly you pop out of a door and into the top of the dome. My biggest concern was little legs getting tired half way up.
I can't tell you how shocked I was when we only went up a handful of stairs and popped out a door to a view of 5 or 6 floors below me.
I talked myself into getting close to the rail to look over, but it was only a quick look!
Luke and Henry stayed glued to the wall. My kind of boys!
The next step in our fun adventure required us to climb another flight of stairs to get above the inner dome--I didn't realize there were two. The biggest problem I had with this was that the staircase was open on one side so you could get a REALLY GOOD view of the floors below.
I would have been plenty happy to throw in the towel at the first level, but Eli and Josh Oliver followed the crowd and headed up the stairs.
I felt like I was reliving my nightmare at World's of Fun. I had no choice but to leave the older two clinging to the walls on the first level and follow the younger ones up to my certain doom!
Up the stairs was actually not horrible. The dome rose up in the middle so there was nothing to look down on. I quickly noticed, however, the unbelievable number of stairs that "floated" up to the tip-top of the outer dome.
I immediately told the boys that there was absolutely no way I was going up any higher.
NO WAY!
The climb back down the stairs to the other two boys was COMPLETELY TERRIFYING.
Not only was it open on one side, but I had to look down to make sure I didn't trip on the stairs so I couldn't help but see out of the corner of my eye just how tiny the people were on the floors below us. It was a turtles pace for me.
Once we made it back to the safety of the 5th floor--an actual functioning level--I decided that I need to get a grip on things and decided to take a peek over one of the balconies.
Unfortunately I failed to notice that there was a small step down about 3 feet from the actual balcony. As soon as my feet hit that step, I thought for certain I was falling over the edge. The kids all had a good laugh at me as I quickly got as far away from the balcony as I could.
The rest of the time we spent roaming around.
I was so unbelievably weak in the knees after the dome tour that the stairs were killing me. For years and years and years, I've had a reoccurring dream/nightmare where I can't remember how to walk up or down stairs. I just stand there petrified. I kept expecting that to happen to me at any moment!
The Capitol Building was really cool. Nothing like I expected.
We were in such a rush to get to the dome tour on time that I didn't pick up the self guided tour info and then I was so flustered after it that I couldn't find our way back to the visitors center--and then later couldn't even find our way back into the building because I couldn't even comprehend what the signs were telling me.
I was a mess!
After roaming past a guy mowing the lawn a few times, he finally told us how to get back in and down to our car.
I was grateful, although the outside is pretty amazing itself!
Linda, Amy, and I are planning on going back up there with the kids. Linda wants to see the building. Amy wants to go so she call me a complete chicken after she bounds her way up the very top.
I'm debating on doing the tour again just so I can see the terror come over her when she sees what she's up against!
I'll probably chicken out, though!
