We first went to the US Space & Rocket Center. Their current temporary exhibit was called "GPS Adventures". It was a perfect exhibit for us :) In the exhibit hall there was a maze set up with four geocaches.
Each geocache had a special challenge to find the actual box once you were in the correct area. Most were some sort of puzzle - like matching letters to a set of numbers or doing a simple math problem using numbers located on a sign describing a landmark.
Inside each geocache was then a code to unlock a door.
Inside these four rooms they incorporated lots of other related activities such as reading maps (including topo maps with elevations lines that Brian was excited to teach Carter about), letterboxing (an activity I do with the kids pretty often), and geological survey elevation plaques.
The kids also got to stamp a paper that would lead them to a location on a map when they were all done.
These numbers that the kids stamped then matched up to a set of latitude and longitude coordinates that located a city the kids then had to find.
Overall we were really impressed by the exhibit and had a lot of fun doing it.
Next we headed outside to see those exhibits and also find four reach geocaches located on the property.
But first, Carter had to ride this ...
Unfortunately I missed getting a picture of Carter's first expression which was complete terror (he said he thought it was going to drop all the way down instead of bounce down). Once he realized that, he laughed through the ride. Rylan however refused to even try it.
To find the geocaches, we checked out a GPS unit from the center that the kids used to follow arrows to each geocache.
Inside each geocache were temporary tattoos for the kids.
The kids had lots of fun with this activity too. We may have to add that to our things to do when we have a little free time!
We did a little more exploring outside before going into the Saturn V Hall.
We spent a lot of time playing in here (and attempting to read some of the information). I was able to convince the boys to go in the simulation area for testing the rocket engines (it's pretty loud and I don't think I've ever convinced Rylan to do it before).
After almost 3 hours we finally decided to break for lunch. We went to Panera and then headed over to the Huntsville Botanical Garden (we got in here for free as well - this time with our Cheekwood membership). This was Brian's first time here (my mom and I took the boys here once before).
Checking out the trains ...
These bubbler rocks were what inspired us to put one in our own yard.
Giant chair (or tiny Carter?) ...
Random water area with sprinklers attached to a giant tool box ...
The Children's Garden was lots of fun for the boys.
Inside the Butterfly House, the kids got to pet some box turtles which they thought was pretty awesome.
There were TONS of butterflies in there. It was probably the most we'd ever seen at one of these places.
Before leaving we went through some areas that were new to us (and we still only saw about half the botanical garden). Brian's favorite spot was this one with about a dozen hammocks set up under a group of trees. It was pretty nice with the breeze picking up from some approaching storms!
We were really trying to leave before it started raining but saw this cool pirate ship and had to stop for a few minutes!
And then a tiny gnome house on the way out caused us to stop for a few more minutes but we made it out before getting wet. And I love these two pictures :)
It was a great day trip and I hope we can do it again this fall when it's a little cooler!
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