Ever since driving through the picturesque rolling hills of northern Alabama on his way to flight school in Fort Rucker, AL, my husband has wanted to explore Huntsville. We finally got the chance to check it out this past week, and it did not disappoint! The city boasts a mix of southern charm and historic significance with the vibrancy of an up and coming downtown center.
We go together like rockets and ducks??!! Huntsville is famous for both!
U.S. Space & Rocket Center
For our first day in Huntsville we decided to check out the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. If you really want to experience this to its fullest, it is a full day. There was so much to see and learn! The initial greeting is impressive, as you walk by one of the few remaining SR-71s, and then under the towering Saturn V rocket that launched the Apollo missions to the moon!
The center itself captures the imagination of all ages! Our boys loved the hands-on learning, reading about the mission to the moon, and left with a new sense of wonder and patriotism. We were a bit worried if the Apollo 11 movie in the National Geographic Theater would capture their attention, but we decided to go for it! They were selling popcorn outside the theater, how could we go wrong?! They ended up loving the movie, it was so well done! What a great way to learn about the Apollo 11 mission from start to finish. If you haven’t gotten your fill of science and history yet, take a walk outside in Rocket Park to check out all the outdoor exhibits.
Lucky Duck Scavenger Hunt
For our second day, we wanted to explore downtown Huntsville. The city has put together a very unique way to explore the downtown areas with its “Lucky Duck Scavenger Hunt”, named for all to ducks you will see at Big Spring Park. You can pick up a clue sheet a the Visitor Center and begin your self-guided tour there, and return after finding all 14 ducks for a cute prize! You’ll be solving riddles along the way leading you to historic points of interest. Some ducks were quite easy to find, while others proved to be more difficult. Plan ahead, this was almost a parenting fail for us! We didn’t start hunting until after lunch, on our last day there, and the visitor center closed at 3:00! Fortunately, the awesome staff at the Visitor Center offered to leave our prizes outside and we were able to pick them up when we completed our search…Southern hospitality at its best! We found all 14 ducks and persevered as a family team! You’ll need about four hours to enjoy this experience and be prepared to hoof it about five miles. If we were to do it again we would bike instead of walk, and pack a lunch or snack to enjoy at Big Spring Park. This park was beautiful with plenty of grassy areas and many ducks and fish to feed (bring quarters for food machines). If you don’t have access to bikes I would definitely recommend finding the ducks around the Visitor Center and then driving to a central part of the city, like Big Spring Park or Courthouse Square, to find the others.
Best time to visit:
I would definitely recommend visiting in late Spring – early Summer. You’d get greener grass and more flowers than we got in March, but hopefully beat the heat!
Where we stayed:
We enjoyed our Airbnb just outside of Huntsville. This was a great setup for our family, with lots of space, and even had a sport court in the backyard! We loved being only 10 minutes to the Space & Rocket Center and 15 minutes to downtown Huntsville.
Other things to do:
We enjoyed some BBQ at Gibson’s (they open early to serve breakfast and lunch).
Drive or walk the Twickenham Historic District, Alabama’s largest antebellum district (these homes were beautiful!)
