Capitol Capybara

Kimiko-san gave me a popsicle in the car

This is a long story because it was a long (but glorious!) day. I’m going to start at the beginning and hopefully you will stick with me to the end.

The photo above shows me with my favorite Japanese stalker, Kimiko-san, aka @CapybaraCamera on twitter and Facebook, feeding me a popsicle in the car. Do you have any idea how hard it is to eat a popsicle while standing in a moving vehicle?

Kimiko-san lives in Japan but she came to the US on vacation and found herself in Houston. Houston is in Texas but Texas is a big state. Luckily, Kimiko-san had a couple of free days and she spent one flying up to Austin to visit with me! Sheldon and my owner and I all went to pick her up at the airport. I wasn’t allowed inside (what is up with that?!!) so my owner and I stood outside and entertained the other travelers while we waited. Kimiko-san didn’t have any trouble recognizing me! I guess that’s because she’s seen all my videos and read my blog.

That is me and Kimiko-san in the riding in the car to the state capitol right after we picked her up at the airport. We were pretty excited to meet in person since we’ve been internet friends for a long time. We really hit it off and I even let her hug me a little bit, not something I usually do.

The path of our Capitol tour

The photo above shows the path of our tour of the state capitol and its surroundings. I guess these images were taken in the dead of winter because it was much greener than this last weekend. The red shows our path out and the blue shows our path back. Where they overlap is in purple. Our starting point is at the bottom of the image. My owner and Sheldon made such a big deal about having to park close because I am a slow walker but then look how far they made me walk!

Me and Kimiko-san on Congress Ave. at the start of our walk

The photo above was taken looking away from the capitol. That’s too bad because it looks pretty cool facing the other direction. There weren’t many people around because it was Sunday morning.

Me, Sheldon and Kimiko-san at the Capitol

Quite a few people had already taken my photo by the time we got onto the Capitol grounds. Oh, do you see the stuffed capybara toy Kimiko-san brought for me all the way from Japan? She is so cute–I mean the capybara plush but Kimiko too. I named her Kimikokappy!

Walking at the Capitol

If you look at the map, you can see I’m not one to be restricted to straight lines. I liked having Kimiko-san lead me because then I could go wherever I want. The grass is always greener somewhere else, as the saying goes. It was a little cool on Sunday but not too bad as you can see from the photos.

Photogenic Me

Soon we ran into a group of photographers taking a course at a local photo store. I guess they were pretty surprised to be photographing something as interesting and adorable as a capybara. I don’t know what their photos look like but my owner got a few good shots.

Capital Capybara

It’s hard to get a closeup of me and the whole Capitol building together so my owner had to settle for this. I stuck my nose straight out because I am proud to be a Texan. That is not to say I am proud of what goes on inside that building though. Most of the time I am not proud of that at all.

On the back steps of the Capitol

My owner went a little crazy with her camera but there were just so many great photo opportunities. And we wanted to make sure we got some good ones with me, Kimiko-san and Kimikokappy. And, oh yeah, Sheldon.

Family of Fans

Walking down the street behind the Capitol we met this family who were excited to see me in person because they’d seen me on 20/20. They were really nice.

Us with the giant star at the Bob Bullock Museum

We didn’t get to go in the Bob Bullock Museum, my owner just wanted to get my photo with the giant star. Seriously, there is something wrong with her. We walked all that way for this?

Me and a stranger

We met this guy on the walk back. My owner and I thought he was nice and when he said he didn’t have his camera, my owner took his photo with me and told him that if he sent us an email that she would send him the picture. Guess what? He never sent us an email even though we gave him my card with my email address on it. Anyway, Sheldon didn’t like him because he said he saw him throw his cigarette on the ground. We hate people who litter.

Me and Laura

We met this person whose name is Laura and we like her a lot. She writes a column about animals and she is going to write about me some day. I will post a link on my blog when she does.

Well, that’s not the end of my whole day but I think it has to be the end of this post. I’ll make another post in a couple of days with the rest of my exciting weekend adventures. I hope you have enjoyed this as much as we all did. And follow @CapybaraCamera on twitter and be her FaceBook friend. She has lots of wonderful capybara photos from the great zoos in Japan.