Fun in Columbus, Georgia!

Flag waving in downtown Columbus

My niece was in the Miss Georgia's Outstanding Teen Pageant so I had the good fortune of going down and spending a few days in Columbus, Georgia.

Mel with her best friend

The Miss Georgia pageant has been held in Columbus for as long and I can remember though until my niece became involved in the pageant I'd never had an overnight stay in the city.  I'm hear to tell you that Columbus is great.

I was able to do some interesting work while visiting the city which was actually quite fascinating.  Our firm is helping with a really timely project called Race, Law and Law Enforcement and I had volunteered to conduct some interviews and it just so happened there were candidates willing to be interviewed living in Columbus.  It was an unusal way to be introduced to some of the local people while at the same time, very interesting. As much as I was helping, I felt like I learned a lot.

 My hotel was located in the downtown which happens to have lots of shops, restaurants, a riverwalk and on Saturdays a fantastic farmers' market not to mention that it is right in the historic district so there are lots of beautiful homes nearby.

In the afternoon I managed to walk about 3 miles but who wouldn't? The scenery was lovely!

  Did you know that you can go whitewater rafting in Columbus?  And if you cross the bridge you enter Alabama!

I ended up buying a mess of purple hull peas at the market.  They are my favorite and when the afternoon heat got to be too much it was nice to sit in my hotel room and shell peas.  (I bet the cleaning ladies got a kick out of the trash I left behind)!

We were the cheerleaders!!!

My grandgirl came down to enjoy the pageant so it was fun to be able to have play time after everything was over.

Columbus is a beautiful city and after conducting interviews I decided it is a really friendly city. Most of the time I'm rushing around to get to wherever it is I need to be but it was really nice to slow down and enjoy a city in this great country of ours.  We've got some great towns, great people and lots to be explored.  Happy 4th to those who are celebrating.