I am so incredibly sorry for the delay in my response.
We absolutely loved Columbia, and enjoyed our 1 night there! We willdefinitely be back again. I was particularly surprised by what an easy drive it was from Union County, NC. I believe it took us a little over 2 hours, which means we could easily make it a day trip.
We stayed at the Comfort Inn on Bush River Rd, Columbia. We chose this specific lodging because we really, really wanted a room with a whirlpool. We waited until the last minute on these accomodations and this is what was available.
Well, not only was the staff incredibly friendly, the room was very nice, very clean, and a good size. We were more than comfortable.
I'd ordered tix for one of the behind the scenes tours at the Riverbanks Zoo so that was our first stop (even before checking in) early that morning! I almost didn't order the tour because I knew my other half would only get a few hours of sleep before we had to get on the road, and I was terribly afraid we'd actually oversleep or be too tired to leave early enough. I'm so glad that we did the tour!
It was incredible, very informative/educational and just generally, a lot of fun. It was the Penguin Tour however, they have different tours avail, at different rates, offered at diff times. This one was $25 pp. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was all adults! There were 10 of us total alhough they take a max of 12. Two people didn't show, and it's just as well because it was a comfortable number, and a good pace.
The guide was very personable. Funny thing is the perspective gained. On one hand, especially when you're travelling as a family, you're grumbling about how expensive everything is (because we paid admission to the zoo and for the tour tix) but then while on the tour your mouth drops wide open to hear how much is spent on produce annually to feed the animals, or the zoo's utility bills.
Things you don't consider ... Well, after hearing it all I felt like we were getting this good time at quite a bargain!
The highlight was definitely getting to pet Ricky the Penguin. The pictures we took are priceless. I created an awesome book on Shutterfly of our weekend and everything looks so fabulous, we get to relive it over and over again (of course, my kids are tortured by the whole thing because they were left behind for once!).
The our was scheduled to last an hour, went closer to 1 hr 20 mins. They provided us with coupons to the cafe and the food was pleasant enough. Our qs totaled $6 off and we ordered (1) BBQ pork which comes with fries and drink and (1) Girlled chicken with fries and drink.
We spent close to 2 more hours exploring the zoo on our own and I was very impressed. We surely look forward to going back with the kids. I missed giraffe feeding time and was disappointed! The sea lions aren't there right now because the zoo couldn't afford proper keeping of them but they have a 7 year financial plan to bring them back. A lot of people inquired after them.
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