Author: Mark Alexander

Our final morning in Columbia was spent at the Riverbank Zoo and Garden.

It was still very pretty…

We didn’t spend a lot of time at the zoo. It was spring break and the place was crawling with kids. By the time we’d gotten through the reptile exhibit I was ready to bolt for fresh air and open skies. Thankfully, we actually did need to be on our way back to Atlanta.

And as they say, a good time was had by all.

Before we left Columbia, John asked if I’d ever done any technical writing. Nothing officially, I said, but I’d done a lot of documentation not only at my job in Phoenix, but also at my first job in Denver. The reason he asked is that his company might be needing someone with that skill set; a position that could be easily worked from home.

Right now I’m trying to track down the documentation I did for my last job. I’m going to tweak my resume a bit to add that skill, and then send it (and samples of that writing) off to him tomorrow.

We got back to Atlanta just in time for Ben’s cousin’s home-made tacos. They were just as delicious as they were the last time I had them at his parent’s house in New Mexico. Another early night and we were packed and on our way to the airport the morning.

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The next day found us dodging raindrops on our drive over to Columbia on I-2o. We splurged on a nice hotel directly across the street from John’s “Fancy Apartment in the Sky,” as he calls it, since we knew we’d be doing a bit of walking.

John took the afternoon off work and showed us around a bit of the University of South Carolina and then a short tour of downtown. I miss living somewhere that there’s an interesting urban landscape.

With our downtown tour finished, we headed back to the hotel and then met up with John and his friend Chuck for dinner at The Liberty Tap Room. A brief stop at Starbucks afterward (because, natch), and back to the hotel for the night.

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It took us a year to have a reception after Ben and I got married. Why shouldn’t it take an additional six months beyond that to go on our honeymoon?

I only call it a honeymoon because we used money we got as wedding gifts to pay for it. I view it as a much-needed respite from the absolute insanity both of us are dealing with at work. And Denver. Oh yes, a very overdue escape from this hellhole.

Our original plan was to simply fly to Atlanta for a few days and visit Ben’s cousin and his husband. When we realized how close we were to Columbia, South Carolina, the plan changed a bit because we realized we could drive over and visit our friend John, whom we hadn’t seen since we were in Arkansas a couple years ago when both he and I were getting inked by Erik.

The flight over was uneventful, save for the asshole who paid for priority boarding for himself, but then proceeded to save three additional seats for his family members who boarded later. I hate people.

We arrived at Ben’s cousin’s house after briefly getting lost (Thanks, Waze) and were treated to a delicious dinner at The Red Snapper. I guess we were both exhausted, because by the time we got back from dinner we both crawled upstairs and immediately fell asleep at the Denver equivalent of 6:30 pm. (I was falling asleep in the car, truth be told.)

An old house, a wonderfully chilly room, and a toasty electric blanket made for some very restful sleep. We were surprised when we woke up at 9:30 the next morning, having clocked more than 12 hours asleep.

Our plans for the day were to visit the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Lots of pictures to follow.

Done at the Garden, we then grabbed lunch and headed downtown.

We toured The World of Coca Cola. It reminded me of the Walmart Museum, but on a much larger scale.

I was kind of disappointed that while we got to sample some of their more bizarre brands from around the world, we didn’t get to taste actual Coke from anywhere other than the US. Ben’s cousin told us African Coke was a very different taste experience but it simply wasn’t available.

 

 

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