New Jersey State Capital

Our first impression of the area that the New Jersey State Capital is in - it's a pit! Honestly a block from the capital we saw several men whom looked quite entrepreneurial with goods that were of questionable legality!?

The capital itself is grand enough. It does house Chris Christie for goodness sakes! We got there right at 3:00 and although I knew that the last tour began at 3:00, I had figured that we could just look around as everything obviously wouldn't close down until the last tour was over...well I was wrong! I walked in and there were three security guards standing around the metal detector area and they said that the last tour was at 3:00 and I stated what I thought we might be able to do instead. This lead to me being told that the only way to see the capital was with a tour!!! Luckily for us the tour lady was late and we were able to see the the stomping grounds of New Jersey's pride in joy, Chris Christie. The first comments from the tour guide were regarding our t-shirts. As every tourist should do when going to NY we got the $5 I (heart) NY shirts, however they should not be worn to any of the surrounding east coast states capitals because there are apparently "friendly" rivalries between each of them. She continued to make snide comments throughout our tour!

The capital itself was nice and middle of the road as compared to the other capitals that we have seen. It was constructed at various points in time and the architecture reflects this in all its forms; the area of the rotunda is grand and colorful with many architectural features and art, whereas the back portion of the building where the legislative branch had its rooms the architecture was somewhat more subdued and although elegant it was not as regal feeling. We were able to see the House and Senate Chambers from the galleries, but not the floors. We were also not able to go into the Govenor's office, however we were given a large bag of Chris Christie paraphernalia so what else could we ask for to end a tour? As we left the capital we took our standard photo trying to hide our t-shirts as even the postman walking by at the time had a comment to say about them!

We left New Jersey and headed our way up toward Connecticut!