We didn't spend any time in Columbia, but rather hit the road after breakfast to head southeast to a unique national park I didn't even know existed prior to my planning this trip: Congaree National Park. Congaree is the largest intact expanse of old growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the southeastern United States. Its 26,000+ acres became a National Park in 2003, yet remains one of the least visited in the system.
It was lush, verdant, muggy, but not buggy so we enjoyed our 2.6 mile hike on the Boardwalk Loop Trail. We encountered many different types of trees including bald cypress and tupelo trees in the lowest elevations and loblolly pines, oaks, maples and palmettos in other parts. We even saw wildlife: numerous spiders, squirrels, snakes, alligator gar, and an armadillo. This was a great park and I'd encourage anyone coming through central South Carolina to take a jaunt off the main roads and go see it!
After Congaree, we continued east and grabbed a quick lunch at Sumter before turning Vansen southeast for our main destination of our trip: Pawleys Island. We arrived at the Hampton Inn before dinner for once. We got our many bags unloaded and Jason, Franklin, and I hopped back in Vansen for Myrtle Beach. Jason and Franklin had tickets to see the Myrtle Beach Pelicans play (the lower-A baseball farm team for the Chicago Cubs). After dropping them off, I headed back to the hotel where the rest of us learned that many restaurants here are closed on Sunday. Additionally, during "peak" season many restaurants stop doing take-out/to-go orders because their dining rooms are too busy. Good for the economy, but bad for us when we aren't eating inside a restaurant. Fortunately we did find an amazing local spot and we enjoyed yet another great meal, back at the hotel room. A short time later I drove back up to Myrtle Beach to pick up the guys.
We're hear for several days now and beach time is on the agenda for tomorrow.
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