To be completely honest, when I answered the usual "What are you doing for Valentine's Day?" question asked by my coworkers with "Exploring Jefferson City," I was met with some interesting looks. Apparently, nobody goes there unless they have to. But, if you know Darren and me, you know that we can take any small town and turn it into an adventure to remember.
So, Saturday morning we set out for mid-Missouri's forgotten city. We have a few road trip traditions, including purchasing scratch off lottery tickets (our overall winnings are about even with the cost of the tickets, so it's just a fun game to play on our rare road trips). We've also made a habit of listening to NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me along some portion of the drive (I love the Limerick game!). It was nice to leave the city behind, just to take a step away from our usual sights and go somewhere new.
Upon entering Jeff City, we were immediately greeted with a view of the Capitol building, which lives up to your usual expectations of ornate architecture with a domed roof.
Prior to exploring the building, we decided to get brunch at the Downtown Diner. The food was cheap but delicious, and we explored a few of the little shops along the main street downtown. They even gave us free chocolate covered strawberries to celebrate Valentine's Day!
After that, it was time for the main attraction: the Capitol! Inside it's as beautiful as you would imagine. Intricate details on the ceilings, ornate light fixtures, echo-y hallways... there were a few museums of Missouri state history and Missouri's involvement in the Civil War. Both of those were really fun to explore, especially since Darren and I grew up learning Texas history. It wasn't all new to us, but learning about the different cultures that occupied Missouri over the course of history was neat.
Walking up to the building
Inside the dome
The MO state seal
One of the museums
Another view of the dome
One of the many skylights
Darren and Jefferson
Darren's favorite portion was an area put together by World War Veterans from Missouri that included this replica of the USS Missouri.
Up on the higher floors, we snuck peaks inside the rooms where the Senate and Legislature meet.
Another cool spot was the Hall of Busts, which housed busts of famous people either from Missouri or who became famous in Missouri. We had fun posing with the busts and learning about people who we didn't realize had ties to MO!
Some of the many famous people from MO
Lewis and Clark
As always, we found a couple of cannons to pose with, and were tempted to buy these "Cannon Crew" t-shirts for future use... maybe we will still make our own.
Cannon #1
Cannon #2
The awesome T-shirt
After exploring the Capitol for about 3 hours (now that's what I call free entertainment!), we decided to check into our hotel across town. To be honest, there wasn't much to the rest of the city (your usual chain restaurants and shopping spots). Fortunately, we had planned to just relax and didn't need any more attractions.
We selected a local Italian restaurant, Domenico's, for dinner that evening. It had the quaint atmosphere of a family business and delicious toasted ravioli (we had to!). We split a yummy grilled chicken dish with sides of pasta and salad. It was just enough food to be full, and we were pleased with our experience.
Can you spot our after dinner mints in our cheeks?
Sunday morning we made one stop at the infamous Ozarkland after having seen signs for it over the past few years. It is a novelty store with aisles upon aisles of interesting treasures. We didn't buy anything or even sample the fudge, but could see how it would be fun to stop there with a bus group.
As a whole, we enjoyed our mini getaway to the MO state capital and are glad to have one more down, 47 to go!
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