1178. Go to the Arizona Capital Museum in Phoenix

One of the things on the bucket list is to see all the state capitals. I have been to several of them including Oklahoma City and Juneau. Since we were in Phoenix, I wanted to see the Arizona State Capital. I don't necessary have to tour the state capital or even get inside but I do have to see at least the outside of it. When researching the trip, I found out that the old Arizona State Capital is actual a museum and it is adjacent to the current state capital building. A Museum and a State Capital.. sounds good to me.

The Arizona Capital Museum is a fascinating place. It is three floors of history of Arizona. Now don't you moan and groan about it being 3 FLOORS OF HISTORY. First of all the building itself is worth seeing so even if you skip all the history you still need to visit all three floors and check out the dome from the underside. On windy days you can actually see the statue moving. Second, remember it was a working government building at one time so the rooms are really only offices and there are only a handful of rooms on each floor.

If three floors of history isn't your thing you can skip just about everything except this one room on the ground floor. Since it is a museum of Arizona history, it wouldn't be complete without the other Arizona.. the USS Arizona and Pearl Harbor. There is an actual piece of the USS Arizona on display and a flag that was rescued from the Arizona. This is best part of the museum.

Upstairs was the territorial history. The original house galley along with the Supreme Court are open to the public.

The Senate floor or the galley is not open to the public but if the door happens to be cracked you might just get a peek into the Senate floor or galley. This is how we ended up having a conversation with the Sectary of State of Arizona, Michele Reagen. She was showing the galley to a few guests and we peeked in. She welcomed us in and we ended up talking with everyone for a few minutes about the weather and baseball.

I personally liked the names of some of the offices -- Livestock Sanitary Board, Mine Inspector.

Outside is the Capitol Mall and Wesley Bolin Plaza Monuments. We passed several of them on our way back to the car. If I wasn't with the hubby, I would have spent more time exploring the monuments. Monuments just aren't his thing.

The hubby really enjoyed the museum. I was glad we went and didn't just drive downtown to see the capital at night. It is free to visit and there is plenty of parking on either side of the Capital. I would recommend checking out the Capital Museum if you are ever in Phoenix.