Day 8: Birmingham, Huntsville, Chatanooga

Welcome back to Birmingham as you go vicariously on our trip with us!  We started off the day doing the Civil Rights walking tour through Kelly Ingram Park.  We picked up a brochure that allowed us to dial in for additional information and to explain the various statues and art around the park.  I would highly suggest it if you are going to be in the area.  We started by seeing the 16th Street Baptist Church, this was the site of a bombing in 1963 that killed four little girls while they were in Sunday School.  

The park is home to some beautiful sculptures and amazing art by very talented and inspirational artists.

This is a memorial to the 4 little girls that lost their life in the bombs.

After we saw the park we did the self-guided tour of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute/Museum. Pictures were not allowed inside, but it was moving.  There was an amazing photography exhibit that showed real pictures from the Civil Rights Battle.  I think that was the most moving part for me.

Next up was an added bonus. From the start we were not sure if we would get to make it to Huntsville cause it was about a 90 minute detour (plus I was not overly excited about it), but boy was I wrong.  This place was awesome!  I think CJ and are both convinced it is a place we need to bring our nephews one day.  There was tons of hands on stuff and lots of cool space things to see, definitely worth checking out!  Don't forget to use your AAA card here, it saves a bunch!

Astronaut Laura

Moon footprints!

After leaving Huntsville we were back on the road for Chatanooga.  We had planned it perfectly that we would get to Rock City with about 75 minutes to see everything before it closed at 5pm.  Then we would head over to Ruby Falls which did not close until 7pm.  What a wonderful plan, that is until we realized we would enter back into the Eastern time zone, thus loosing an hour before we made it to Rock City.  As it turned out we arrived at Ruby Falls about 4:45 Eastern time (since we jumped from 3:45 to 4:45 because of the time change--don't forget about these things when traveling people!)

Popped into Georgia ever so briefly!

Well Hello Tennessee!

And Hello Dolly!

Well we made it to Ruby Falls with plenty of time to see the falls and enjoy the views around there.

Ruby's Fall!

Breathtaking Views of the mountains and city

After we toured the falls, we had dinner at Aretha Frankenstein's for their world famous pancakes and overall yummy food.  (Hint: spilt the pancake order, they are HUGE).  It was then back to our hotel for the evening before beginning our journey home the next day.