Tuesday, May 29, 2012

SE Roadtrip Day 10: Columbia, SC 2012

Our next planned stop after Charleston were the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, but that's pretty far away, and we try not to drive long stretches while James is awake, so when he woke up from his afternoon nap we stopped in South Carolina's capital Columbia.  Um, yeah.

The capital building is probably the main attraction, and it's beautiful, but it displays a Confederate flag right in front, and it's all alone.  Possibly the American flag and the flag of South Carolina are in the back somewhere, but you don't see them; you just see the Confederate one.  Still divisive after a 150 years! Good job, guys.  My friend who is from South Carolina says that in her state they have an expression, "South Carolina: We are not making this up."

Columbia, SC 2012
We still took a photo in front of it, just away from the flag

Also, do most South Carolinians see the irony in having an African American memorial, complete with a slave memorial, just a few feet from a Confederate women's monument and a statue of Senator Strom Thurman? Ugh, forget it.

Anyway, we went to a coffee shop, Cool Beans to cool off and then we walked around the campus of  The University of South Carolina. It's very pretty there and James loved running around "the horseshoe."

Columbia, SC 2012
Talk softly and carry a big stick

Columbia, SC 2012
James, after the stick was taken away. Awesome. 

We had a bit more time to kill until it was close enough to the time James might sleep in the car, so based on Wikipedia, I thought it might be nice to see Finlay Park.  It was sketch. How sketch? After James ran around for a few minutes we decided to leave because the crowd there was making me nervous. James must have felt the same because he decided to puke all over me. I took him to the bathroom to clean up both of us, and there was a knife in the stall. True story. When I came out of the stall, puke-covered, looking really nervous, and with a baby under my arm, a possibly-homeless woman asked me if I was okay.

Columbia, SC 2012
James having fun in Finlay Park

Columbia, SC 2012
James puking on me

Then we were off to the Smoky Mountains...

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