CHATTANOOGA – 77 miles – 1.5 hours:

• Tennessee Aquarium - The world's largest freshwater aquarium.
• Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park - Between 1890 and 1899 the Congress of the United States authorized the establishment of the first four national military parks: Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. The first and largest of these, and the one upon which the establishment and development of most other national military and historical parks was based, was Chickamauga and Chattanooga.
• Chattanooga also has downtown shops, a great brewpub (they serve great root beer too), minor league baseball, Rock City, Ruby Falls, The Incline Railway up Lookout Mountain

HUNTSVILLE – 35 miles – 45 minutes:

• US Space and Rocket Center - The U.S. Space & Rocket Center is home to Space Camp, Aviation Challenge and NASA's Official Visitor Information Center for Marshall Space Flight Center. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center is recognized as one of the most comprehensive U.S. manned space flight hardware museums in the world; including Spacedome Theater, Rocket Park, Shuttle Park and NASA's Educator Resourse Center. Here visitors may trace the evolution of humankind's ventures into space and watch as tomorrow's potential engineers, scientists and astronauts train in one of the Space Camp or Aviation Challenge Programs.
• Huntsville Botanical Gardens - In this dynamic young garden you will find inviting woodland paths, broad grassy meadows, and stunning floral collections. Paths meander through the shady woodlands of the Dogwood Trail and wildflowers quietly populate the Nature Trail. Daylily, herb, and butterfly gardens rival or surpass those of older, more mature botanical gardens. Maple trees line a promenade which encircles a glistening reflecting pool. The lush fern glade and the demonstration vegetable garden are provided with interpretative labels to enhance the visitor's knowledge and appreciation of our botanical treasures. The 5-acre Central Corridor Gardens, featuring aquatic, perennial, and annual displays are ablaze with color from early spring through fall. Open in the summer of 2006 is the Nature Center and Children's Garden complex, the largest seasonal butterfly house in the nation, where brightly colored butterflies live in their natural habitat, turtles sun themselves on rocks, frogs croak, and the rush of a waterfall takes you to a place of serenity, combined with a place where children can delight in a garden of their very own, where they can hide in a Secret Garden, host a special birthday party in the Half-Acre Wood; view aquaponics in action inside the Space Garden's real space ship; and see the world through a kaleidoscope of colors in the Rainbow Garden. Seasonal exhibits enhance the visitor experience.
• SciQuest - Sci-Quest is a hands-on science center with more than 125 permanent, interactive exhibits in seven different subject areas. Unlike a typical "museum," Sci-Quest's exhibits are designed to engage, educate and entertain.
• Early Works Museum - Children’s hands-on history museum featuring Alabama history from pre-history to the 19th century. Civil War soldiers, a Talking Tree and whimmy diddles - see them all at the Early Works Museums- Alabama Constitution Village, the Historic Huntsville Depot and EarlyWorks Children's History Museum. These three museums in downtown Huntsville will take you on a journey back in time-- experience history come to life in unique settings such as a 46-foot river keelboat, an 1860's era depot or the cabinet shop where delegates stood to sign the Alabama State Constitution in 1819. Your incredible adventure awaits at the South's largest hands-on history museum complex!
• Railroad Depot Museum - Circa 1860 - One of the nation's oldest remaining railroad structures. Climb aboard locomotives, see Alabama's largest public model railroad, visit Civil War exhibits & discover graffiti written by soldiers. Listen as Andy Barker, the robotic ticket agent tells of Alabama's railway history. "Kid's Corner" is complete with costumes, train puzzles & maps.
• Click here to find our much more about Huntsville area attractions.

TUSCUMBIA – 120 miles – 2.5 hours:

• Helen Keller Birthplace - At a plain, black well-pump in the small southern town of Tuscumbia, Alabama, one of the world's great miracles took place. It began one bright, spring day in 1887. Puffy white clouds floated overhead on a background of blue, while birds fluttered through oaks and maples and flowers burst forth from the fertile soil in an array of colors—all unheard and unseen by a pretty girl of seven. Standing at the totally blind and deaf Helen Keller's side was a young woman, Anne Sullivan. Miss Sullivan was steadily pumping cool water into one of the girl's hands while repeatedly tapping out an alphabet code of five letters in the other—first slowly, then rapidly. The scene was repeated again and again as young Helen painstakingly struggled to break her world of silence. Suddenly the signals crossed Helen's consciousness with a meaning. She knew that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the cool something flowing over her hand. Darkness began to melt from her mind like so much ice left out on the sunny March day. By nightfall, Helen had learned 30 words. Helen Adams Keller was born a healthy child on June 27, 1880, to Captain Arthur H. and Kate Adams Keller of Tuscumbia. At the tender age of 19 months, she was stricken with a severe illness which left her blind and deaf. At the age of six, the half-wild, deaf and blind girl was taken by her parents to see Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. Because of her visit, Helen was united with her teacher Anne Mansfield Sullivan on March 3, 1887. After Helen's miraculous break-through at the simple well-pump, she proved so gifted that she soon learned the fingertip alphabet and shortly afterward to write. By the end of August, in six short months, she knew 625 words. By age 10, Helen had mastered Braille as well as the manual alphabet and even learned to use the typewriter. By the time she was 16, Helen could speak well enough to go to preparatory school and to college. In 1904 she was graduated "cum laude" from Radcliffe College. The teacher stayed with her through those years, interpreting lectures and class discussions to her. Helen Keller, the little girl, became one of history's remarkable women. She dedicated her life to improving the conditions of blind and the deaf-blind around the world, lecturing in more than 25 countries on the five major continents. Wherever she appeared, she brought new courage to millions of blind people. Her teacher, Anne Sullivan is remembered as "the Miracle Worker" for her lifetime dedication, patience and love to a half-wild southern child trapped in a world of darkness.
• WC Handy Birthplace and Museum - The museum houses the most complete collection in the world of Handy’s personal papers and artifacts. The library is a valuable resource center for African American history. A 1,447 square foot building has been added to the property to contain the items Handy left to the museum after his death in 1958.

CATHEDRAL CAVERNS - <30 minutes using local roads: The first thing you notice about Cathedral Caverns is the massive entrance. The huge opening measures 126 feet wide and 25 feet high. And it gets even better. Inside the cavern, you will find Big Rock Canyon, Mystery River and some of the most beautiful formations Mother Nature has ever created. Among them, you will see Stalagmite Mountain, The Frozen Waterfall and Goliath, a huge stalagmite column that reaches the ceiling of the cave some 45 feet above!

RUSSELL CAVE NATIONAL MONUMENT – 46 miles – 1.5 hours: For thousands of years bands of prehistoric Indians came to the area we know today as Russell Cave National Monument. The cave provided a shelter. The surrounding forest provided food, tools, and fuel for their fires.

SHOPPING – Boaz, AL – 35 miles - 1 hour: Factory outlet stores, antique and specialty shops, and historic downtown shopping.Click here to go to shopping in the Boaz.