First in succession- Henry.

We were sad to have to leave the beach, but John and I were big help taking luggage down the elevator to the cars.

Is this one ready to go down, mom?

Mama had the idea of getting a picture of all the kids. This was as good as it got.

We stopped in Columbia to eat lunch at Mister Tony and Miss Juliet's favorite restaurant ever- Qdoba! It was still early in the afternoon so mama decided we all needed a little culture in our life.

And culture is what we got. She took us to the South Carolina Capitol House.

June liked the House of Representatives chamber. I liked that you voted by pushing a button that said "Yea" or "Nay." Mama liked that all of the walls were covered in padded wallpaper that either had the state seal or a very fancy "SC" insignia.

The best part of the whole state house was the escalator. It took me a minute to get the guts up to go down. But I was the only who who actually got the guts. Mama is timid enough around escalators and she couldn't work up the nerve to pull June on while she was holding Jo.

The grounds were covered in so many monuments, we didn't even get to half of them. Luckily, I had a map to show us all of them. This guy on the horse is Civil War General Wade Hampton. He was at Gettysburg.

Mama thought this Palmetto State Statue was hysterical. That's a fake tree back there.

Here's the memorial to the Confederate woman. That's right, she's being crowned by an angel while being flanked by two adoring cherubs. As we walked around the grounds, mama got more and more worked up. This state LOVES the fact that they were the first state to secede from the Union. You may remember that South Carolina came under some scrutiny a few years back for still flying the Confederate flag on the state house. You'll be glad to know that they no long fly the flag on the building. Instead, it holds a prominent place in front of the state house.

Mama's blood was boiling when we got to the African American History monument. And all it told us about history is that Africans sailed from different places to Charleston on a boat. Mama then took the time to explain to us that those Africans didn't want to come to America and that the boat ride wasn't that fun. (At that point a college kid walked by and told mama she was awesome for teaching us history. That calmed mama down a little bit.)

I was especially concerned when I read that the original wooden state house was burned down by Sherman's army. I asked incredulously "You mean Gram's and PawPaw's army burned down the Capitol?" Mama then gave me an earful about how Gram's and PawPaw's army is also our army.

All of that information was a LOT to take in. We hit the bus stop and headed back home.