Oct. 23: Woke up to a rainy, cold day in Rogersville, Alabama. New boater friends of ours lent us their rental car and we took a road trip to nearby Huntsville to visit the Space & Rocket Center. Thanks Jan and Dennis!Huntsville is the home of Space Camp. Our daughter Jess went to Space Camp here in 1993 when she was only 10. Per Jess it was the best week of education she ever had. She felt she learned more science in one week than she did in a whole year of traditional schooling. Over the course of the next two years, she saved up $500.00 so she could return in 1995 (that time she did the Aviation Challenge program). Space Camp dormitory. Unfortunately regular visitors were not allowed to tour the Space Camp complex. Field of rockets.Bob looking at the mock up for the Lunar landing module. Inside were all kinds of simulators. Lots of fun to be had at each one. Terry and Hal landing the LEM on the moon via simulator. Space campers!Lunar landing medallion. Took a guided tour of the huge Saturn building. Lots of info!This part was actually used for testing stress on the thrusters.
Scenes from the Saturn Building. Hard to believe that our cell phones contain more technology than what is on display here. Last picture is the actual Apollo 16 capsule. Next up – model of the planned rocket for transporting people to Mars sometime in the 2030s. I think I’ll pass on that! Side exhibit of jewelry depicting the relationship of the sun to the planets – in gem stones!So this necklace – if worn in zero gravity – depicts the Milky Way. Exiting the Space Center. Great day. Oct. 24 turned out to be another gray day. Moved on to Decatur, Alabama. Not much of a marina but we did have fun watching the beginning of the world series with Terry and Hal. Since they’re from Houston they were rooting for the Astros. On Oct. 25 we rented a car and drove to Chattanooga to visit the Tennessee Aquarium. Had we gone to Chattanooga by boat, this is where we would have docked. Inside the aquarium one of the first fish displayed was a mandarin fish. Definitely on my bucket list to see in reality. Sea dragons designed by Dr. Seuss. They had sea horses in just about every color of the rainbow. Piranha – Ouch!Who knew? Fresh water spotted rays. Mossy frogs. Lemurs duking it out. Fun in the shark tank. Bob being engulfed by a giant crab.
Jelly fish exhibit was amazing. Last photo is of walnut jelly fish. They look like alien ghosts rising up to go back to the mother ship. To my delight they had a butterfly garden. We happened to be there when the docent was allowing tourists to release newly emerged butterflies.
The outside of the Blue Morpho is very detailed…
Finally one of them opened its wings to display the iridescent blue. New butterfly to me, even the docent didn’t know its name. Part two of visiting Chattanooga was taking the high speed catamaran out into the Tennessee River Gorge, billed as the 4th largest gorge east of the Mississippi.
Scenes of the Gorge.To dock the boat the Captain brought out his pod controls. So cool to watch him dock while he chatted with the tourists. Hal and TerryLeaving the dock/aquarium area were train tracks depicting the various railroads that ran through Chattanooga. In this final section were the words/music to “Chattanooga Choo Choo” which of course we had to sing. Driving back (a two hour drive) we went a bit out of our way to go up to Signal Point. During the Civil War, the Union soldiers used signal flags to communicate to troops across the Tennessee River. Chattanooga is to the left. Sunset over the Gorge. Artist’s rendition of another vantage point of the river from the Tennessee Aquarium. Back at the Marina we watched the Astros get their first ever win in the World Series.
Islandia Grabo's Blog 
Love the sea horses and butterflies
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Thanks!
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I am totally jealous but thanks for sharing!
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