Last week, my co-worker Clark and I went to Columbia, South Carolina for a WMS training course. While there, we kept busy during the days doing training. On our second night there (Tuesday), we went to visit the Congaree National Park (I believe this was formerly called the Congaree Swamp National Monument, but it was recently changed to National Park status). We walked around this park for a couple of hours, probably walking about 3 or 4 miles in all. That was an amazing place, and this park contains some massive Bald Cypress and Loblolly Pine trees that we could view as we walked along a boardwalk trail in the park. One interesting thing about the Cypress trees was how their roots grew out of the ground, possibly so they could drink the water from the swamp during one of the frequent floods.
Here is a picture of me next to one of the large Cypress trees. This was one of the largest trees I had ever seen:
As we continued along the trail and approached a lake along the edge of the swamp, we found a massive Pine with an 8-foot diameter trunk. Here is a picture looking up to the forest canopy from the bottom of that tree:
Clark and I had a strange feeling as we walked along the boardwalk above the swamplands in this unique, other-worldly place. We felt as we may have been on the planet Dagobah and that Yoda might pop out from behind one of the trees. Here is a picture of the sunset on the swamp as seen from the boardwalk:
Our first night there, after driving around to find the place where our training would be held, we walked around the South Carolina state capitol building and the campus of the University of South Carolina. The locations of shell and cannonball hits from Union guns during the Civil War can still be seen on the statehouse exterior. Here I am in front of the State Capitol building on that walk:
Our third night there, we walked around downtown after dinner at Motor Supply but did not take any pictures during our walk. The fourth night, we went out to eat at Outback Steakhouse, which was an 8-mile drive from our hotel. We left for home on Friday morning after completing our training and having a good week of work and fun.
