Hartford, CT -- Check another state capitol city off our list!

As we're leaving our campground in the little town of Bristol, Connecticut, we can't help but notice that there is one skyscraper in town. It's so much taller than anything around it! When we looked up the name of the company at the top of the tall tower, we began to understand the reason for such a tall building in such a small town. This is "Otis Inc.," the world's biggest manufacturer of elevators. If you're going to manufacture an apparatus used in a tall building, you should probably have an office building that makes use of your product.

We passed over the impressive Arrigoni Bridge as we headed across this tiny state. We traveled a whopping 33 miles in the motor home on this moving day.

From our new camping spot at Nelson Family Campground in the center of Connecticut, we have several day trips planned. We're just 18 miles from the capitol city, so we spent a day in Hartford to see  their gold dome.

This capitol was designed by a cathedral architect, so we vote it as the capitol building that looks most like a gothic cathedral. We took several pictures as we circled the outside of the building.

As we walked around to the park-side of the building, we found the perfect spot to get a picture of us and the gold dome in the same camera shot. That's where we met another couple that is checking off their list of capitol buildings visited. We have never stopped to count how many we have visited, but they told us they were at number 36. They asked us to take a picture of them with the capitol, and we took several from different angles. Then he took a picture for us. It wasn't straight and he cut off the gold dome--but besides that it was perfect!

Our tour of the inside started in the adjacent Connecticut Legislative Office Building, which looks more like a hotel atrium than a capitol building.

The flooring here is made of several different types of marble, and the shading makes the floor almost look 3D.

The dome is literally the high point of most capitol building tours, and this state has a small dome that is a little hard to photograph.

That's because the statue of Genius is standing right under the dome. She is the symbolic protector of the state and she is taking up some prime real estate right under that dome.

Originally, a 17-foot-tall version of Genius stood proudly on top the dome. But she was damaged in a hurricane in 1938. Because people were worried that the damaged 3.5-ton statue might fall from the top of the capitol with catastrophic results, she was taken down from her perch. Genius was stored in the capitol basement for years. Then she was melted down in 1942 to make ammunition and machine parts in the war effort. A new bronze version of Genius was installed here inside the dome in 2009, until enough money is raised to put her back on the roof. 

We think that Connecticut gets the award for the busiest capitol interior. We're not talking about workers scurrying around being busy. We're talking about the many different colors and shapes that are used on floors and walls and ceilings that make for busy patterns. Standing in one place in that rotunda, we could see three very different busy patterns of hand-painted and stenciled surfaces.

Our tour guide was great at pointing out significant statues in the building. This in the state's favorite son--Nathan Hale. He is the official state hero, and is best known for his bravery during the Revolutionary War. When he was caught spying on the British, he was hanged at the age of 21. But his famous last words were, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

Again, check out the busy patterns painted onto every surface in this nook of the building.

Our tour took us into the Hall of the House of Representatives, which is not surprisingly very ornate. Not only did the architects design the outside to look like a cathedral, but this room also felt very church-like with the stain glass and arched windows.

Built in 1878, this wasn't a decorative fountain.  The tap on this water source was tall because it was used to fill buckets with water for the legislator's horses that were parked outside.

Again, we could stand in one place and see dramatically different patterns on different surfaces very close together.

After our capitol tour, we walked the grounds surrounding this area in downtown Hartford. Right across the street is one of the most ornate state museums that we have ever toured. Housed in the old state supreme court building, it included several rooms of interesting displays that seemed small in that grand room.

The back entrance of the capitol looks over Bushnell Park. With a walk down the grassy hill, we could finally get that perfect capitol picture--without the dome cut off.

We would also find Connecticut's Liberty Bell replica that each of the fifty states received in 1950.

This is a very nice walking park, scattered with statues and memorials. We especially like this grand-sized Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch over Trinity Street in the park.

But Denisa's favorite stop of the day was probably this 1914 carousel, complete with the music from a Wurlitzer band organ.

She got a private ride on one of the 48 hand-carved wooden horses. We're not sure that they get a lot of white-haired riders on the carousel.

When we were at the state museum, we snapped this picture of one of the biggest industries from Hartford's history. The factory covered many acres, and included housing for workers and even a church. The signature entry of the brick factory was the bright blue onion dome seen in the front center  in the picture below.

We went to visit what is left of the factory, and to see the onion dome for ourselves.

This is the Colt Revolver factory, which produced more than 30 million fire arms here in the Hartford factory. Google maps lists this location as the "Pending Coltsville National Historic Park" More reading on the national park web site explains that they are waiting for the transfer of ownership of several buildings before the site will officially open. In the meantime, it looks like work is being done to touch up the property that has been transferred to the national park system.

The Colt family used the fortune that came from the manufacture of fire arms to build several impressive buildings in this neighborhood. One was this beautiful church that is within walking distance of the factory.

It has the most interesting detail work in the columns and walls of any church we have ever visited. Do you see the revolvers that are worked into the top of the columns?

More pieces of the stocks and barrels of various fire arms are used to adorn the entry.

We couldn't help but notice the bright orange sign on the door where Denisa is standing. It reads, "United Against Gun Violence" in all capital letters.

After her husband's death, Mrs. Colt had a memorial built to him in Colt Park. This will become part of the pending national historic site. It includes two statues--the larger of her husband at the top of his very successful career, and the smaller one that Mark is sitting beside in the picture below.

The smaller statue is of a very young sailor named Samuel Colt, who is working on the prototype of the revolving cylinder that would make him a millionaire.

Another beautiful building near the park was built in 1896, by the same architect that designed the church years before. In fact, that architect came out of his 18-year retirement to oversee the building of this Parrish House in memorial of the Colt's only son.

Caldwell Hart Colt was an avid sailor and outdoorsman. Just like at the church, the architect used interesting details in the ornamentation of the building. It is a tribute from a broken-hearted Mother who lost her only child.

The Parrish House was used as a community center for Coltsville, and included a library, a bowling alley, and an auditorium. It will also be included in the national historic site.

After walking around the pending historical site and learning about the Colt family, we drove to another section of Hartford to explore the property of another famous citizen of this city. This is the home of Mark Twain.

If the building style seems a little familiar, it was designed by the same architect that the Colt family employed. It was here that Mark Twain wrote his most famous books--"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

Inside the visitor center, Mark and Mark are sitting together in a thoughtful pose in front of a picture of the house. This was an affluent neighborhood at the time, and Hartford would soon become the wealthiest city per capita in the nation.

On the other side of the visitor center, Denisa is hanging out with Mark Leg-o Twain.

This is a neighborhood that produces great authors. Mark Twain's next-door neighbor is Harriet Beecher Stowe, and her house is also open for a tour. While Mark Twain was writing about the escapades of Huck Finn, abolitionist Harriet had just finished writing her classic, "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

Denisa had read that Hartford's famous art museum--Wadsworth Atheneum--is open to the public for free at 4:00 today. We did a quick run-through of the more famous pieces, which included one of Vincent van Gogh's self-portraits from 1887.

This art museum is an interesting mix of very classical and very modern. The two come crashing together on this stair-well.

Part of the contemporary art display includes this smashed guitar exhibit that visitors are invited to enter.

Visitors can also participate in the art by standing beside the painted by-stander. It is art when two old grandmothers overlook the formal Great Hall together.

Wow! We feel like we have done a pretty thorough job of exploring Hartford, Connecticut. We've seen the capitol and the best art in town, while learning more about some of this city's most famous citizens. Check another state capitol city off our list!