Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all of you! We wish you a blessed day and year to come.

On Thursday we visited the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix. Somehow, it had escaped my attention all the other times we've been here that Phoenix is the capitol of Arizona. Although we don't go out of our way to visit state capitols, I enjoy checking them out if we are in the area.

The Capitol was built in 1900 at a cost of $136,000, twelve years before Arizona became a state. The exterior was constructed of all Arizona products. It was added onto three times, but by 1975 all government offices had been moved to surrounding buildings. The museum was restored and refurbished at a cost of $1 million and has been a museum since then. The senate and representatives each have their own office building on either side of the capitol, and the office tower behind it is for the governor and other state offices.

The statue on top of the copper dome is Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. We didn't know that was where Nike got its name. Makes sense for a sports company.

We've toured several state capitols, and I think this one is the smallest and least ornate we've seen. There are four floors with the dome at the top. There are no murals or paintings on the ceilings or the walls. There is a large mosaic of the seal of Arizona in the middle of the first floor beneath the dome. The only problem is there is something missing from the mosaic. It was placed there in 1923. The artist was from Ohio and worked from descriptions and drawings. Somehow, he missed putting the cow in the bottom right corner of the seal, and it has been incorrect ever since. I wonder why they didn't hire someone from Arizona.

This Lego flag was made in 2012 to celebrate Arizona's centennial. It is 6.8 feet high and 10.25 feet wide and consists of 114,000 pieces. The dark red color is a rare Lego color and was shipped directly from Denmark specifically for this project. 

George W. P. Hunt was the first governor of Arizona. He served seven terms. His office has been recreated to how it looked in 1912 when he was elected. All consecutive governors used this office until 1974.

Governor Hunt died in 1934 and was interred in a pyramid in Papago Park in Phoenix. It seems he was quite a character.

Each floor of the museum has exhibits on different parts of Arizona history including construction, voting, women in history, and government. One large wing is dedicated to the history of the USS Arizona which was attacked and sunk at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Much of the information was very interesting, especially how ships were named and how the states supported them.  I never knew that each battleship had an elaborate silver service that was paid for by the state the ship was named for. It took one whole room just to display the silver from the USS Arizona. I'm not sure why a ship would need all of this silver.

In 1915 Governor Hunt and the legislature refused to use tax money to purchase the $9,000 silver service. Private fundraising was not going well with only $1,000 raised when the work was completed. Copper mine owners came forward and donated the rest. The silver service was not on the ship when it sank as non-essential items had been removed in preparation for war.

On December 7, 1976 an anchor from the USS Arizona became the focal point of the plaza outside of the capitol. Its location was set 1,177 feet from the center of the dome, one foot for each of the sailors lost when the ship was sunk. The signal mast and a gun barrel from the ship are also on display in the plaza. 

The plaza had many statues and memorials including several veterans memorials. There were also memorials for fallen police officers, firefighters, K9 police dogs, Armenian veterans, Jewish veterans, homicide victims, domestic abuse victims, and many others. Lots to see.

Our next stop was at 3 Dudes Quilting in Phoenix. I had heard about this quilt shop on a You Tube video. One of the dudes has written several quilt patterns utilizing jelly rolls and The Missouri Quilt Company featured one of the patterns in their video. 

This was by far the friendliest quilt shop I have ever visited. One of the guys gave us a little mini tour of the shop. They have free cookies and drinks available while you shop. Ray, the designer of the jelly roll patterns, did a show and tell of about fifteen quilts using his patterns. They were stacked on a bed, and he went through each one of them and explained how it was done. I bought their row by row pattern from 2015. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but Kevin and I both liked it, so it came home with us. I highly recommend this shop if you are ever in the area.

After the quilt shop we went to the Tanger Outlet Mall. I found some shoes at the Sketchers store, and we scored a GREAT deal of underwear at the Jockey store. Sometimes its the little things that get me excited.

It was happy hour time so we stopped at BJ's Brewhouse. Kevin had a beer sampler, and I had a berry hard cider which was quite good. Mini-pizzas were half price for happy hour, so we ended up each ordering a pizza and having an early dinner. BJ's is a chain, but we had never heard of it. Both the food and beer were good, and we would definitely visit them again.

Today we've been invited by friends Frank and Betty for Easter dinner at the condo they are renting in Surprise, which is about 45 minutes north of us. We're looking forward to sharing a beautiful Easter day with friends. 

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!