Concord, NH - Capitol #19

Before we could go to the capital, we had to say goodbye to all the amphibians at the pond.

Another beautiful drive with a rainbow trees.

When we first got to the capital, we were told that there are only self-guided tours unless you call in advance. Usually for a self-guided tour, I am the tour guide, so there are less photos.

New Hampshire's capital has many flags at the entryway. This painting in the hall of Pickett's Charge during the Civil War at Gettysburg further emphasizes their pride in their role in the War between the States.

A passerby told us that this painting was in a barn rolled up in a box for a very long time. At some point, The owners of the barn were planning to paint and remembered seeing canvas in the box. They went to use the canvas as a drop cloth and they found this original painting on the other side.

Our self guided tour sheet told us to step inside the Secretary of State's office to see the photos from the various presidential campaigns. In New Hampshire, to register for the first primary in the nation each candidate must come in person. So every president has their photograph on this wall from when they came to sign up. When we walked in, and there what two gentlemen talking, so I tried to stay out of their way. But as I started telling the kids what we were seeing on the walls, one of the gentleman said to me, "Do you know who this is? This is the Secretary of State!"

Well, I shook his hand, and told him I was nobody or at least I didn't have a title. At that point, he seemed to forget the man he had been talking to and proceeded to give us a tour of the state Capitol - for an hour and a half! It was pretty awesome because he is a history buff and he is the longest currently-serving Secretary of State in the United States. He seemed very wise and was really enjoyable to talk to. He told us many interesting stories about the various candidates who come to register for the presidential primary. In fact, they once had a gorilla come to register. The human with him insisted that he was qualified because he had been born in the U.S. and was 35 years old.

Secretary Gardner took us into the House of Representatives. New Hampshire has the most representatives in their house at 400! He told us all about working in the house because he is a former representative.

Then he took us into the Senate. Comparatively, the Senate is very small, similar to other small states we visited recently.

The senators do not use electronic voting. Rather they still vote using a ballot box. This is not surprising since New Hampshire citizens vote using paper ballots as well.

Finally the secretary walked us right out the front door. It was at this point I realized I did not get pictures of the dome inside or the governors office or a judicial chamber. However, parking at the Capitol  is limited to two hours, and rather than find a new spot, we decided we'd had a good tour and were content to move along.

On to Massachusetts…