January Day-trip to Columbia

A Christmas present for Duncan was three day-trips, one in January, one in February and one in March to get us through the winter. Last Saturday, we went on the first:  sight-seeing in Columbia (that would be Columbia, South Carolina.)

We visited Riverbanks Zoo, the Botanical Garden and checked out the statehouse grounds.

One of my goals for the day was to see a giraffe. They are weirdly elegant creatures.

We were very impressed with the zoo. They had a lot of most of the animals (15 kangaroos, 6 elephants, 8 - 10 giraffes), nice habitats and good views. It was cold enough for hats and gloves, but sunny -- a great day for the zoo!

Rather than bore you with individual pictures of different animals, I just made a collage. (To see better, press the "control" and "+" key as many times as you want to. When you want to return everything to its original size, press "control" and "0"

The Botanical Garden was an easy walk across the Saluda River from the zoo.

Not sure what this plant is but it was definitely planted to be interesting in the bareness of winter.

We saw lots of these glass ornaments throughout the grounds. They give some color and interest to a garden space in January.

Here is Columbia's Capitol Building. The center palmetto tree is a metal sculpture.

Here is the controversial site of the Confederate Battle Flag on the statehouse grounds. It is on one of the sides of the building, the Memorial is nearly to the sidewalk, and the flag is behind it -- in this picture, hanging quite limply. I can't believe they even have a discussion about it. The flag should go.

I'm sure it was installed to appease the critics of the flag, but there is this really nice African-American History monument on another side of the statehouse grounds. It is in two arced panels depicting the history of African-Americans in the state. This side shows slavery to freedom beginning with slave ships, showing the Civil War, finishing with Harriett Tubman at the far right.

From the other panel, this detail memorializes Briggs v. Elliott, the first of five cases that combined into Brown v. The Board of Education. Briggs v. Elliott challenged segregation in Clarendon County in 1952.

If I had visions of dining at a toney little Capital City hot spot, I had to remember who I was with and who's Christmas present this was. We had dinner at Sandy's Hotdogs -- a joint Duncan remembered from his days as a Park Ranger at Congaree. It reminded me of the Yum Yum in Greensboro. The entire menu was hotdogs and ice cream. And I have to admit, for a hotdog, it was really good.

Stay tuned to see where we go in February.