Huntsville, AL-Monte Sano State Park

Well this week started out a little scarier than I would like. As we were leaving the Birmingham area, it was brought to our attention that bad weather was on its way for the whole state. We made it to our next campsite at Monte Sano in about 3 hours and chose a great site (no campsite envy here!). That night though, we looked at the weather to see the scariness that lay ahead.

Monday was STRESSFUL for me! I could only think about the danger to come that evening. We had the NOAA radio on and watched the TV weather report when it came on. I went to talk to the campground office and they acted very nonchalant about it and made me wonder if they even knew that bad weather was on the way. And then they said “Well the only thing to do is to go take shelter in the bathhouse.” Well, it's not really rated as a "storm shelter".

So from there, I went back to the trailer to locate the nearest shelter. The bathhouse would certainly be where I would go in a pinch especially since it was right across the street and it was brick, but I wanted to find the next best option. I located the nearest shelter which was the United States Space and Rocket Center 11 miles away. And since we were up on the mountain it would take us at least 20 minutes to get there. So here is the most interesting part: Did you know, they only open the shelter once a warning has been issued?!! Yes, a warning not a watch! And did you know that the average lead time for a tornado warning is 13 minutes?

So we decided that we would just leave the campground and go sit in the parking lot of the Space and Rocket Center and wait for the alert. Well, we did not have to wait. As we were getting ready to head out, a tornado warning was issued for our county. Fortunately, not for our part of the county but that meant the shelter would be open. We arrived safely and stayed there for a few hours. 

We got back to the trailer around 9 pm and checked the weather again. We all headed to bed and then around 11 o'clock that night the weather radio announced another tornado warning and the warning siren was sounding outside. We jumped and turned the TV on right away. And fortunately it was quick to tell us the tornado warning area was to the south of us. Phew!

The rest of the night was uneventful except for some rain. BUT the next day the risk of bad weather was returning. By about 3 pm, they were pretty sure the danger for our area was gone.

We were so fortunate! The danger passed on both sides but we were safe. Below is a map indicating the tornadoes.  The campground it just northeast of the Huntsville dot.  So you can see why we were concerned with all of those heading right in our direction!

THANK YOU to all who said prayers for us!! Another positive is that we will be better prepared next time having had this experience because I bet this was not the last. EEK!

Finally, we could relax and enjoy the place we came to see! Monte Sano State Park was also very nice. It means Mount of Health.  According to wikipedia it is because the "curative health resorts were located on the mountain".

As I said earlier, we had a nice campsite with a little grassy area for the kids. The bathhouse was across the road and had a washing machine and dryer. 

There were some little structures for the kids to climb and play on on both sides of our site. And there was a huge playscape in the day use area.

The cabins looked nice and some of them had great views.

The kids had a blast hunting for and playing with the millipedes.

In the downtown area, we visited the Early Works Children's History Museum. The most amazing thing to me was that I did not have any trouble finding a meter to park at. It was near the courthouse and some other emergency service building but I still had my pick of spaces. I was in heaven especially since I am not sure I know how to parallel park the truck!

It was a great little museum (we got in for half price). I really liked how they had clipboards out with scavenger hunt and trivia papers. If my kids were a little older I would have had them complete one.

The General Store is always Jacob's favorite.

This boat was actually surrounded by real water!

Jordan was raising the flag.

Ma and Pa had a good time preparing dinner in the log cabin.

And then Jordan had some American Girl play time

and Jacob had some construction time.

We also visited the Alabama Constitution Village which is also part of the Early Works group of museums. It is a living history museum. Most if not all, of the building were constructed based on fire records from the 1800 period. Even down to the type and spacing of nails.

When we arrived there was a school group there. They, of course, get the full demonstration of the areas, and luckily, we were able to tag along with their group. They had already viewed several of the areas but the first talk we heard was on the herbs. This woman told us about the types of herbs that would have been found in her garden and what they would be used for. The kids were able to smell and touch all of them.

From there, we went to the cabinet and woodworking shop where we viewed another demonstration. The man showed us several of the tools from that time period and many of the popular wooden toys as well. The most fascinating for me was the lathe. As you can see in the video, they suspended a hickory branch from the ceiling because of it's flexible nature and ran the rope to the tool and ground which rotated the tool.

After that, the kids were able to do a craft. They were taught about thaumatropes and quilling and could choose which to make and take home.

Then we were on our own to explore. There was a house from that time period (I don't think I would ever sleep if all my children were in the same room),

with a detached kitchen (so that in the event of a fire, it would not burn the whole house),

slave quarters (in this urban setting, as many as 6 slaves would share this tiny room),

the apprentice's quarters (a white male would leave his family at 14 to learn a trade. He would spend 7 years doing so. I had no idea it would be that long! Longer than college!).

There were several other buildings to see, as well.

Just a short stroll from the Constitution Village there were many historic buildings and homes

Next was Sci-Quest Science Museum (free admission with our pass). It was an interesting place. It was in a warehouse type building like all the bouncy house places so it didn’t feel very inviting and it was loud but some of the exhibits were quite unique.

The kids' favorite was this earthquake simulator. I can attest that the shakes feel much more severe than they look in the video. I really had to hold on!

They also liked this magnet that you could pick up the filings and attach them in different designs.

And who doesn't like the distorted mirrors??!!

Jordan had fun on this

And they both took turns reporting the weather.

The craziest section was that on the human body. It was mostly about gross things like belching, tooting, skin lesions and body odors.

There were a few nice ones like this awesomely big version of Operation

So after waiting a few days for the trails to dry up from the rain, we went for a bike ride. It was still very muddy in some places but it was a nice ride-5.5 miles. There was an old fire tower there so we stopped to check it out and on the way back there was a fun downhill ride

There was probably a little fear in that scream but it was mostly excitement ;)

On Saturday, we headed back to the US Space and Rocket Center, this time for a REAL visit. This too was free with our museum pass and the best deal yet!! There was soooo much to see and do. When we pulled into the lot, we parked in a spot designated 8-hour parking and I thought who in the world would spend 8 hours here. I soon learned that it is not hard to do.

We watched an amazing IMAX movie on the Hubble telescope.

The kids loved the Mars Rover ride, which really did not have anything to do with space other than it was named Mars and had aliens in it.

And they had a good time flipping all of the switches in this simulator.

I enjoyed checking out this Airstream trailer that the Apollo 12 crew were quarantined in for 65 hours after their return to Earth because there was concern that exposure to unknown organisms on the Moon could result in an epidemic. It seems like a very small space for that many adults but I guess they were quite used to confined spaces.

There were just so many things to see and do!!

And though all of the space and rocket stuff was cool, this was actually Jacob's favorite

Jacob and I went first.  What I learned:  Never ride a ride that you have not seen what it does first!  The anticipation was agony!  It shot us up into the air and then bounced down and up repeatedly but since I had not watched it before, I did not know if we were about to be shot up again.  It makes sense now that they would only do that once but at the time I could not think rationally and it was SCARY!

I would much prefer the Jordan sized version

We had a great time but it was time to say goodbye to Huntsville and move on to Chattanooga, TN!