US Space and Rocket Center

Did you know Huntsville, Alabama is also called "Rocket City"? Apparently, it is where America's space program was born. That means they have a really cool Space and Rocket Center to house all the history and artifacts. We had been driving by this place for a few days now on various errands and the boys were always fascinated with all the rockets and the space shuttle. So I decided to take a trip there. 

One of their exhibits right now is GPS Adventures. It is based on the Geocaching trend. You go into a maze and have to visit every corner. At each corner is a locked door. In order to unlock the door you have to figure out the code using clues you find in that room. It was pretty fun. I let the kids do most of it. They were pretty good and caught on pretty quickly.

This is Josh inputing a math problem in a calculator to get the code. 

They would have things to do for the kids once they got through the locked door.

The kids got to see how much they could fit in the backpacks and what they would bring depending on what type of trip they were taking. 

This area was for designing the next use for a GPS. Daniel drew a car and Patrick just scribbled. Oh well. Maybe they won't be inventors. 

This one was cool. It was a Mars Exploration simulation. Both Daniel and Josh got to ride it while Patrick and I watched from the outside. Patrick was not a fan of the noise or motion, even from the outside, but the big boys loved it. I'll have to bring Dad next time and ride in it myself.

There was also a lot to do and see outside the building as well. 

They had a kids play area...

...with a kid sized Space Shot.

They also have the Pathfinder-the world's only full-stack space shuttle display. It is huge!

We were there for almost two hours and didn't even see half of it. A lot of it was outside and I forgot sunscreen so we had to leave earlier than the boys would have liked. I did find a deal where you can buy a summer pass for the whole family for only $40 and come back as much as you want in the summer. That's only $5 more than the cost of one visit. Yeah! We will definitely be back here.