We only spent a couple of days in Boise, so my photo offerings are going to be sort of sparse! We had thought we might get to visit with our friends' son Andrew, who's going to Boise State, but...believe it or not, he was in San Diego while we were there! (that's happened with a couple of folks now!) So we made a couple of forays into town and then headed on towards our summer home. First stop was the capitol building. Bill had been there once before while helping his granddaughter tour some potential colleges.
It's an impressive, beautiful building, both outside and in.
At entrance level...
Looking up into the dome... If you enlarge this photo (by clicking on it, hopefully), you might see the 13 larger stars - for the 13 original colonies, of course!! and 43 smaller ones, Idaho being the 43rd state to enter the union! Didn't know that? Me'neither!
Classy accent lighting, huh?
Looking down from an upper level... Look closely... (again, you should be able to enlarge a photo by clicking on it...) See something in the middle of the bottom floor? There were a bunch of students visiting the capitol that day... I don't remember if I knew he was down there doing that or not! He adds to the perspective though, no?
Just can't get over all the incredible marble pillars... Not sure where each of these types is to be found in the building exactly, but marble from Georgia (red), Alaska (gray), Vermont (green), and Italy (black) was used! And a composite material called "scagliola," made up of granite, marble dust, gypsum, and glue dyed to look like marble was mixed with plaster, in an exacting and laborious process, and used for most (or all?) of the columns. It sounds like the interior columns were a combo of scagliola and actual white marble...
"Winged Victory." A replica of a famous statue ("Nike of Samothrace") in Greece, found by a French explorer. In 1949, France gave US this replica in gratitude for liberating France from Nazi occupation at the close of WWII. Beautiful, isn't it? Classic hellenistic art. I didn't remember what that meant (basically, ancient Greek...), but I know I like it!
This statue, of George Washington, was carved out of wood and gilded with gold by Austrian immigrant - Charles Ostner - in 1869. Ostner created it for the Idaho Territory by carving "at night by torchlight for four years and used a postage stamp of George Washington as a model for the head"!!! It stood outside the Territorial Capitol in Boise until it was restored and rehoused inside the new state capitol building (in 1966?)! Ostner was born in Germany in 1828 and died in Boise in 1913. Sounds like he was a very good example of the many grateful, dedicated, determined, capable, and talented immigrants that helped make up our country in the earlier days.
One more look back, and you can see the liberty bell replica in front too...
This is just a drive-by, but one of the interesting "sights" listed on tripadvisor.com for Boise was this...
Freak Alley... It's a spot where "artists" can paint murals of whatever sort on the outer walls of the buildings there...and repaint...and paint over again...!
And just some cute (post-it?) messages in the windows of one building...
and artwork!
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