Last week we had to go to Columbia. We decided to make a day of it and go to lunch and the South Carolina State Museum.
We had planned to go to a Mexican restaurant downtown for lunch, but we ended up parking in front of a Korean BBQ restaurant, Moa. That looked really yummy, so we changed our plans last minute (I’m getting more used to doing things like this!). It was a good thing we did, because the Mexican place was super crowded and the Korean place was nice and calm and really amazing.
When we went in, the waitress tried to tell me I couldn’t eat inside because I had Felix with me. She went to get the manager, and I was getting all ready for a challenge. But as soon as I said Felix was a service dog, he was all smiles and said it wasn’t an issue. So that was good!
We got a few pictures with Tam’s phone while there of the three of us and our food. Brad got a Bibimbap with tofu, I got a lunch box with beef bulgogi and a few other sides, and Tam got BBQ pork Korean tacos with parmesan truffle fries. It was SO GOOD and we will definitely be back next time we are in Columbia.
Next we headed over to the museum. Brad got some pictures of Tam and me outside the museum, some sunflower lanyards on offer, and of Tam and me in front of a graffiti wall and on the way to the planetarium.
The first thing we did when we got there was head to the planetarium for a show about Auroras. It’s an IMAX theater, which are very difficult for me sensory wise. I was very nervous before the show started. Brad got some pictures of us before the show started, and you can tell I’m not feeling relaxed. But the show was good, and only overwhelmed me a few times for short durations.
After the show, we headed to the bird photography exhibit. That was the one Brad was most excited about seeing. We spent a very long time in that exhibit looking at all the photos. Brad got a few pictures of us enjoying ourselves, and one of me flapping my arms like the bird in my favorite picture which was flying over pink flowers.
On the same floor there was a dinosaur exhibit, and other natural history exhibits involving animals and habitats. The dinosaurs were the exhibit Tam most wanted to see. There are a few pictures of those along with the birds.
Next up we went to the exhibit I most wanted to see, which was the transportation exhibit. They had an old train called the Best Friend that I LOVED! It had a place you could sit in it, but you had to climb stairs to do so. So I did, with a bit of difficulty, and got some great photos!
Finally we took the elevator back down to the first floor and went to the gift shop. I took a video, and Brad took pictures of me taking a video! Brad also got a picture of the accessibility tools for the museum, which were very cool! I wish I had known about captioning in the planetarium– I would definitely have taken advantage of that!
We had fun in the gift shop, and I fell in love with an Easter mug that said “Some Bunny loves you”. I had Brad take several pictures of me with the mug, thinking it was too expensive for me to purchase. Only Brad and Tam secretly bought it for me and gave it to me the next day! I was so excited! Brad also got some pictures of hot sauce in grenade bottles.
There’s much more to see in the museum, we just ran out of time having so much fun at the exhibits we did see! We will have to go back! A day trip to Columbia is a lot of fun! All four of us enjoyed it. It was nice to be in a museum without a bunch of screaming kids like the last museum we visited.