We didn't travel to southern Alabama -- little kids want to play in the water not look at it. We drove north to Huntsville and visited the Air and Space Museum.
This is the home of one of the Space Camps. The picture
on the left is students doing control simulations. The
picture on the right is the "exercise" area. You can see
the gyro and full scale shuttle simulator. There is
also a complete water tank for low G work exercises and
centrifuges. For the ultimate gift for a space nut, this
is it.
But, for those who aren't spending the night to hang
upside down, there are wonderful hands on exhibits as
well and many life-size space stuff. Some are climb-on able
(a walk through space station and an Apollo spacecraft,
for example) while others are just viewable.
They even have rides. There is a moon gravity, counter balance setup for the kids. There is a "Trip to Saturn" ride which is one of those moving platform rides complete with the scattered robot pilot.
They have many, many things on display. Here are pictures
of some the life size rockets and paraphernalia that are
on the grounds.
All, in all, the kids and parents had a great time.
We drove on the local roads through Alabama to get back to the freeways. In May, this is a beautiful state. I was surprised, though, by the traffic jams we ran across in the growing towns through the center of the state. My sheltered, west coast life hadn't prepared me for urban sprawl in rural Alabama.
