By Simran Jayasinghe
We woke up in Omaha to see that it was raining (again!) and packed our bags. We were heading to Columbia Missouri, on our way to St. Louis Missouri. We were going to stop on the way and visit the Nebraska Statehouse in Lincoln. The drive was about 1 hour to Lincoln, and very dreary as it rained the whole way.
As we entered the statehouse, we all had the same thought, that it looked like Hogwarts. There were stone passageways and staircases, inscriptions, and carvings on the walls, ancient clocks, tiny elevators with doors that looked like they were made of oak. All these ancient looking features made the statehouse look like what we had imagined Hogwarts to be based on the harry potter books and movies. We wished we could have explored all the hidden passages! The architect chosen to design the capitol building was Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. The building started in 1922, and finished in 1932. The capitol building has 15 floors above ground, and on top of the tower is the 19 foot tall bronze statue of the Sower. The Sower signifies that Nebraska is an agricultural state.
We would’ve loved to get a souvenir or two from the Nebraska statehouse, but unfortunately the gift shop was closed on Saturday. By the time we left the statehouse, it was still pouring outside. We ran to our car and started our 6 hour drive to Columbia, Missouri to visit one of our grand dad’s friends (Susil Seeya). The drive was not that fun because it was raining again. We only stopped once, to get ice cream even though it was raining! We got to Columbia at about 6:00 p.m. We were going to stay the night at our Susil Seeya’s house. Kiran and I got a bedroom in the basement. Svara was with our mom and dad in their room. We slept soundly and were surprised to hear the next morning, that there had been thunder and lightning. Our mom also told us how at 2:00 in the morning, she woke up because her phone was beeping with a flash-flood warning. We were in an area classified to be a flood zone, closer to the Missouri river. Because we don’t get a lot of thunder and lightning in Southern California, our mother was awake most of the night, although we slept through all of it!