Guide to Getting Away from the Sunnyside Traveler

2019 Hiking Week 30 Can you believe that in  the 14 years that I've lived in Columbia since college, I haven't been out to Dreher Island State Park? One of the villas on the lake. We recently made the trip to Dreher Island with a couple of kayaks on our car that we borrowed from some friends. After a couple of wrong turns and driving into Newberry County, we made it to the park. The park is a series of islands on the lake that are connected. There’s a large marina and boat ramp that seems to be the most popular attraction. There are also campgrounds, cabins, villas, and picnic shelters for people to reserve. They have quite a few options for cabin-like rentals in the park. There are villas, which are like larger lake houses, there are cabins, which are simple but sleep ?? People, and there are these huts that look like one room cabins with simple accommodations.  In my opinion, some of the best looking sites were the camper and tent sites at the end of the isla...

2019 Hiking Week 29 Most of the time, people in Columbia take I-77 North to visit Charlotte. Whether it's for a flight, a concert, or just to shop at IKEA, many drive right past the Rock Hill area. Rock Hill is home to Winthrop Univeristy and has become a suburb of Charlotte. I enjoy stopping there on my way in or out of Charlotte, or sometimes we go there just because of the good restaurants and breweries there.  Recently, we were going to be in the area so I wanted to stop by the Glencairn Gardens . They were featured in the book "Classic Carolina Roadtrips"  and I thought of how many times I had been to Rock Hill but hadn't seen these gardens. They are just outside of downtown Rock Hill. Since we visited in the middle of summer, it was pretty green but not a lot of flowers. The park is 11 acres in the middle of an older neighborhood. It has many different sections: lawn, amphitheater, ponds, waterfalls, a "victory garden" and children's...