columbia, south carolina

i left florida a day early and made my way up highway one (a less superior hwy one than california's) to columbia, going through savannah, georgia. the florida coast is beautiful, lined with expensive houses with private beaches, just the place i would never live. savannah was about four hours from orlando and i was looking forward to spending a little time there. unfortnately, it was 100 degrees and i was dehydrated so after walking around for an hour, i couldn't stand it anymore. at left is the only picture i took. i walked along the river front and had some gelato and walked around a few streets. it's a beautiful city and i would definitly like to spend more time there at some point.

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in columbia, i visited a friend of mine named joe that i knew in minneapolis when he lived there a few months last year. he knows just about everyone (important) in columbia so we were always running into people he knew and i met many that i will not remember if i ever see them again. he took me around to his usual hang outs: a coffee shop, a tattoo parlor (where i awkwardly stood having my chest piece examined for quite awhile by one of their artists), a piercing place, and a community house of sorts where we attended a metal show in their living room. it was fun, though i can feel very uncomfortable around lots of people i don't know, in large part because i am not a conversationalist at all so unless someone approaches me and starts talking, i kinda just sit there. and (sometimes) i'm okay with that. i did really like a couple of his friends inparticular so it was cool to hang out with them.

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other than that we didn't do too much. the weather made anything outside pretty miserable. so we went to the state house, to continue in the vein i began in topeka. the south carolina capital is a weird place, very different than the other two i have been too. it's much more closed up and protected and pretty small. we went to the state museum and saw an art show by an artist named edmund yaghjian which was actually quite wonderful. the museum also has a lot of south carolinan history and stuff from the civil war (being the state that started the thing) and lots of other cool stuff. he treated me to a wonderful sushi dinner which was much appreciated. and we went to the greenville county mountains (the appalachians) where it was at least 10 degrees cooler which was nice. it was really hazy but beautiful none the less. we walked around a bit, drove around a lot of winding roads, and enjoyed a roadside waterfall. it was a nice trip. it was nice to have someone to do stuff with in south carolina. i will say that i saw enough maury to last me the rest of my life, and poo on the video store for not having the movie we wanted right when we wanted it, and i have a knack for sitting in "the dog's spot" but at least they seem to like me. i think that about sums it it up; i don't think i'm forgetting anything...

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so, that was my trip to south carolina. we realize now that there is quite a list of things we had wanted to do and didn't, but that just means i'll have to visit again. and that's okay with me.