State Capitol Museum-Tours

Our first problem was trying to find parking. There are meters around the square, but only for 1 hr. max. There is a structure you can enter from 10^th Street off of L Street. They charge $ 5 for a couple hours but we stopped by See’s Candies on L Street and bought something small and they validated so parking was only $ 1.
We arrived just in time to start with the tour. We were able to see the House and Senate areas because they were off during our visit. Although I’ve lived in CA my whole life, there was still a lot of new and interesting info. After the tour our guide left us in the county hallway where each county has a window display and we were free to wander from there.

It was a fun tour, but don’t take the 11am one. Our guide made a BFD at the beginning about how a session started at noon so we might not have time to get in the Senate room before security sweep… and the proceeded to talk about the history of where the State Capitol was located for like 20 minutes. Dude if we are in a time crunch — take us to the Senate room first and *then* ramble on. Geesh. But it was still very informative. Tour the grounds too, if you have time. Oh and this tour is NOT good for young kids, they get bored and bug everyone else trying to listen.

Taking the tour of the state capitol was interesting, and being new to the state, I learned a lot of little facts about California that I would never have known had I not taken the tour. One example is that Lake Tahoe was at one time known as Lake Bigler in honor of the popular third governor of the state. The tour guide provided a lot of information in the short amount of time she had to present the information in each of the rooms, including both the senate and assembly chambers. Plus, the tour is free!
Outside of the capitol, the pathway toward the gardens is lined with orange trees and you can faintly smell the citrus fruit as you walk by. Make sure to walk through the gardens after your tour.

The tour was great.
Informative and interesting!
Nice walking tour with a great tour guide, we had Phyllis, who had so much love for the place, it was obvious in her voice!
Love the history in the place… rare in our country!

Take the tour. It’s surprisingly thorough. It’s true that I’m a history dork and therefore may be a little biased, but I found the tour to be quite entertaining and educational.