Texas Trip: Day Five

Day Five - Saturday


It was supposed to be a quiet-do-nothing-day. Well, it started out that way. We slept in late, (7 o'clock is late for us.) and started some laundry. Grace and Matt asked if we were interested in watching a movie on the IMAX. We had never seen a 3-D movie.

The theater was on the University of Texas campus, where they also have a museum. We got our 3-D glasses and found our seats. The incline was rather steep so as not to be blocked by the person in front of you. We watched "The Legend of Flight" about the designing of the Boeing 787.

The 3-D effects were spectacular. I jumped back a few times, feeling like something was going to hit me. I loved the scenes where we felt like we were flying over mountains and lakes. I didn't like the parts of the movie where it felt like we were going through the inner mechanics of the airplanes. (not so much because it was boring, but because it felt like I was a ghost passing through walls) I want to see the Hubble 3-D movie!

It was a gorgeous day - sunny skies -temps in the 60's -a bit windy, but nice. We decided to walk a couple blocks to the state capital building. We had to go through a metal detector at the door, which happened to be a back door, but we didn't know.

We got some brochures and follow the self-guided tour. The central rotunda was beautiful. (Interesting fact: the star at the top was placed there the same year I was born, 1958.) In the floor of the rotunda is a design showing all the different flags that Texas was under: Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Spain, Republic of Mexico, Confederated States of America, and United State of America. The had portraits of the governors on the walls. It was nice to see President Bush's smiling face.

As we walked around, we could hear music playing. We were on the second floor, looking at the state senate and representatives' rooms. As we neared the center, we looked down to the main floor and saw a group of young teens playing Christmas songs. It was beautiful -echoing up through the dome and hallways. We climbed to the 4th level (and still had the whole dome above us)and down to the ground floor. Texans sure like putting their star on everything!

After finding our way out of the parking lot, we drove down into the college hangout road for lunch. We ate at a small taco shop. I got a fried avocado one....mmmmmm!

In the afternoon, Grace showed me their Wii Fit. I had fun designing a fashionable, tall and skinny Vonnie. We had lots of laughs as we hula-hooped and walked a tightrope and ski-jumped down imaginary hills. (I actually lost some weight in just a half hour! I need to get one of those.)

Later, Grace and Matt went to a Christmas party. Randy and I made another trip to WalMart for some more gifts and wrapped them while Grace and Matt were gone. I thought it was going to be a relaxing day. My legs are killing me! Where is the ibuprofin?