Base Camp to Space Camp: Our U-haul camper goes back to Huntsville

Base Camp!

After our trip to Huntsville, Alabama in April during Spring break, my son begged us to go to Space Camp. The traditional Space Camp is not cheap and I thought he might be a little young to spend that much time away from us. Fortunately, there was another option: Day Camp!  The rocket center does a day camp version of Space Camp during the summer for local elementary age kids. It's called the Rocket Explorer Experience. It's 8am-5pm Central time, and they get to do a lot of fun stuff. With this in mind, we took the camper to Monte Sano State Park again and became locals for a week!

The camp is less than $300/week at the time of this writing. There are 3 options: Space, Aviation, and Rockets. We opted for the Space one which was an all around focus. We may try this again and opt for a different one next time. You will need to plan early and sign them up in advance of summer to ensure a spot. They did a lot of simulators and rides and exhibits at the center. The fee includes lunch and afternoon snack. All I had to provide was a water bottle and morning snack. On one day they have a water day and go swimming. They also build rockets though my son didn't get to launch his that week. It was still a neat souvenir to bring home. (We will likely build and launch rockets at the park now that he's into it.) 

So my daughter was not into the space camp idea (though after hearing "bubba" talk about it she may want to go). So the rest of the time, we set out to explore the city, just the two of us. The first day we spent setting up camp and relaxing in the hammocks. We picked up my son from camp and met up with my cousin, who happens to live there, for dinner. The second day we began our exploring. The first stop was the Huntsville Botanical Garden which was a real treat. They have a large series of gardens to explore and this summer had a mythological scavenger hunt throughout the gardens. The scavenger hunt was really fun and they had all these various sized sculptures of mythological creatures scattered around the park. The botanical gardens is also home to the Purdy Butterfly House. My daughter really enjoyed that. They also have a children's garden area that's complete with playground, sandbox, sprinkler/misting stations and all themed for kids. For the adults, among some of the highlights are a vegetable garden, birding trail, and water garden.  Definitely worth a visit.

After three hours at the botanical gardens in the morning, we had lunch and found a splash pad at one of the local parks. There are 3 parks in Huntsville that have splash pads. We visited Brahan Spring Park which wasn't far from the gardens and had a splash pad. It also has playground and a small lake for fishing.

Many folks don't know this, but you can go to the space center and check out one of their IMAX or other movies without buying a pass to the entire center. Tickets are around $7/8 (kid/adult). We've done this a couple times and it's a great way to get into some air conditioning out of the summer heat for an hour. My daughter and I watched one this time about Saturn with great pics from the Cassini space craft mission. So if you've done the space center before but are still looking for something to do, you may want to check out what they're showing and catch a film.

On the fourth day, we stumbled onto two of my daughter's top 3 favorite things from the trip. First we found the EarlyWorks Childrens History Museum.  Over the years we've visited a lot of children's museums. Some of them, like the one in Greenville, SC, are amazing. Others, like the one in Atlanta, are not great. This was one of the better ones and we spent 3 hours in the morning there. The museum has various historical (Alabama history focused) locations like a log cabin, keel boat, and, my daughter's favorite, the old general store. There's a story telling tree, activities everywhere, and a nice Helen Keller area (she was from Alabama). Everything is hands on, from dressing up to selling supplies in the general store to setting the table in the log cabin and even hoisting the flag on the keel boat. It's very well done and I highly recommend it. Alabama is celebrating their bicentennial next year so I expect they'll have lots of special programs in 2019 there. This was my daughter's favorite thing we did all week.

Big Spring Park

A couple of blocks from the EarlyWorks museum is Big Spring Park. This is a nicely laid out park with a large lake that feeds into a canal like system. There's lots of green space, walking/running paths and literally thousands of fish in the lake. I've never seen so many fish and school (herd) of them will follow you as you walk around the lake. We really enjoyed this place and feeding the fish and ducks and visited a couple times during our stay there. If for nothing else, you have to go just to see all the fish!

Look at all those fish!

We really enjoyed staying at Monte Sano SP again. We camped at a site with an overlook of the valley, and it was generally cooler by 7-10 degrees up there in the trees than down in the city. The park staff was very pleasant, and I've made this our go to park if we plan to be in the area again. The trails and atmosphere is great there. I can't recommend it enough.

Overall, we had a great trip. It's a bit unusual for us to stay in a place for a whole week. We did enjoy ourselves and exploring a lot of what Huntsville had to offer. I also really enjoyed the one-on-one time with my daughter. Oh and my daughter's other item on her favorite top 3 things we did this week was breakfast with me at Galen's Restaurant (which we wrote about in our first Huntsville trip). If that doesn't melt your heart, then I don't know what would. Not sure where the road will take us next or when, but always looking forward to the next adventure.

A Trip out of this World in our U-haul Camper

With the wife in nursing school full-time this year, we don't have many options for traveling. We did manage to squeeze in a spring trip thanks to her and the kids being on spring break at the time. My son has gotten really into space recently so as an early birthday present, we planned a trip to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This would be a 4 day trip.

Little River Falls

We left out on Tuesday with the goal of stopping by the Little River Canyon National Preserve. After a few hours behind the wheel, we made it and got the kids setup with the Jr. Ranger program (we're big fans of the NPS Jr. Ranger program). Little River Canyon is an incredible area along the Little River in Northeast Alabama. It's a great place for hiking and outdoor adventure. Little River Falls is close to the visitor center and the views are amazing. The park staff at the visitor's center were really great and friendly. On the way home, we would come back through the park and take part of a scenic drive as our last little adventure before heading home.

With potential storms and rain heading from Mississippi towards Huntsville, we pushed on after our brief stop to try to get into to our camping destination before the rain. We rolled into Monte Sano State Park around 6:30 pm and setup camp. With the rain expected to blow in that night, I opted not to setup everything (camp chairs and screen room included) until the next morning. I had packed most of the gear in the car or in the waterproof action packers on the roof. Monte Sano SP is located on top of Monte Sano Mountain and overlooks Huntsville from the east. It has lots of trails for hiking and mountain biking and even has an planetarium and observatory that's open on Saturday nights (unfortunately we left Friday so didn't get a chance to check it out). The campground and bathhouses are nice. Though our first campsite, (#18) was on a curve and had someone directly across from us in a much larger rig. The layout of the entrances to these sites made it impossible for even us to get our tiny camper backed in due to the sharpness of the turn. The camp hosts at check-in had even warned me to feel free to come back if I couldn't squeeze in. (So I'd avoid #18 unless you're setting up a tent.) We were moved over to #21 which proved to be a better site. After being at the campground, I'd actually recommend sites in the #44-61 range as many of those are on the ridge with great views of the valley. I'll definitely be looking to book there next time.

After unhooking the camper, we decided to grab some dinner. After driving all day, I wanted something quick; so we headed down the mountain into Huntsville. We lucked out and found a Ted's Bar-B-Q at the bottom of the mountain. I had been introduced to Alabama white Bar-B-Q sauce a decade or more ago close by in Decatur, Alabama at Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q. White barbecue sauce is pretty awesome and different from many places you go. So if you're ever in Huntsville area, try out Ted's (or Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur, Alabama) and grab the white barbecue sauce.

Bedding down in the bathhouse during the storm.

After dinner, we bedded down for the night and I listened to the weather radio. If you've seen my post on being prepared for bad weather, you know I always carry a weather radio. The storms were getting bad, and we were on top of the mountain so I prepared to move us to the bathhouse if things got bad. They did. I've grown up around thunderstorms all my life so they don't really bother me. But I know when they can get out of hand too. When the reports rolled in of the Huntsville airport seeing 70 mph winds, I woke up the wife and kids and moved us to the bathhouse. The NOAA weather radio broadcast antenna on top of the mountain went offline as the front edge of the storm hit the mountain with wind, hail, and rain knocking out the power. Several other campers joined us to weather the storm. As with most southern storms, they blow by pretty quickly. After about 30 mins to wait out the worst, the weather had settled into a calm rain on the back end of the front. No major damage was detected to campers other than a few that didn't get their awnings up and they tore in the gusts. Lots of limbs had come down but power was restored within mins. We moved back to the camper and slept calmly the rest of the night.

The cold front rolled in behind rain dropping the temperature to the 30F's. So we put on our warm clothes the next morning and prepared to spend the day at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. This was my third time there and it was still as much fun as I recall from my childhood. The kids had a blast and we had a picnic in the car for lunch (because it was still cold and windy). We watched an IMAX movie about the space station that was incredible. The kids wanted to see another 3D movie so we were able to get a discounted ticket for one the next morning. Yes, you can buy tickets for the movies without buying admission, they'll escort you to the theater when you arrive for your movie. So if you're going to be there for a couple days, you may want to buy admission for one day and the movie ticket for the next day.

While we were in Huntsville, we also were able to meet up with my cousin that had moved there several years back. It's always good to see family. We also discovered a great market/grocery at the bottom of the mountain called the Star Supermarket. I wish we had one of these in our town. The people were so friendly and they really have a lot to offer. This is what a small town market should be. They even sell firewood bundles for about half what the state park does. On our final day, we packed up early. We left the campground and drove back down the mountain into Huntsville for breakfast. I love finding a good breakfast place for the last morning. We stumbled on Galen's. It's got plenty of parking room for a camper and the staff are really friendly. The breakfast was excellent!

With full belly's, we started the trek home. Cathedral Caverns was on our way so we made a stop so the kids could get their first cave experience! The downside to this park, like most caves, is that you can't do anything without a guide. You can see the mouth of the cave and the gift shop, but beyond that you have to pay to get into the cave on a guided tour. The cave tour is about a 1.5 mile (round trip) in and out hike that takes around 1.5 hrs. It has some really beautiful views. We enjoyed it and our guide was great. At about $20/adult and almost $10/child (under 13), it's not the most economical way to spend a couple of hours. However, it is comparable to Desoto Caverns and Ruby Falls tour prices. Check Cathedral Caverns website for tour times and rates before you go.

Even with the ranging weather conditions on the trip, we had a great time. I'd like to go back and spend more time with family and we'll definitely camp at Monte Sano SP again. It was good for us to get away and break up the monotony of our daily life. Adventure always seems to me to be a way to refill your cup. It puts excitement back in your life after the daily grind. Knowing how busy this year is and the minimal opportunities we'll have as a family to get away until next year, I'm thankful for the opportunity to get out and go. Hopefully, I can squeeze another trip in this summer between some renovations I want to focus on. More about those to come.