2023 Dec 13, McWane Science Center Museum Birmingham, Toyota Field Dancing Lights we took AVA

 Today, we ate breakfast at Jack's in Cullman. I ordered gravy with sausage and biscuits, Ave ordered sausage and biscuits, and Hubby ordered a ham and cheese sandwich. 

McWane Science Center, Birmingham, AL 

We traveled to Birmingham, stopping at the McWane Science Museum Center. Hubby went to level 3 to see the train display. 

Ava and I went to the second floor to see the dinosaurs, where we saw a Super Cell Tank and birds in a tree. Ava was a weather girl, and she rode the Sky High Cycle. 

Sky High Cycle

We walked up to the third floor, and Ave rode the train and the Zipline several times.

Ava rode the train

The World of Water Aquarium was in the basement, where Ave petted a shark and a ray. 

We saw coral, a variety of fish, and an eel.

AVA made large bubbles on the first floor and experimented with several science objects. Ava lay on a bed of nails. We went inside the distortion room. You were small in the top corner and prominent in the bottom corner. 

Ava on a bed of nails 

distortion room,
"Honey, I shrunk the kid."

 We stopped for dinner at Oh! Bryans in Hartselle. Hubby ordered steak, baked potato, and salad bar. I ordered a chicken wrap. Ava ordered chicken nuggets and fries from McDonald's.

Ava touched a Python before we left McWane Science Center.

Ava with the Blues Brothers 

After dinner, we rode to Toyota Field in Huntsville to see the dancing lights. 

Winter Wonder Land was not open, but we did get to see the light show. 

Traffic was horrible in Huntsville. 

It was way after dark when we arrived home. 

Ava spent the night. 

🎄🎄🎄🎄2016 November 29, Tuesday, Chad's Wonderland, Jelly Stone Dancing Lights and Opry Mills "Christmas"

We ate lunch at Ponderosa Steakhouse in Lawrenceburg.

New York Strip, baked potato, and Texas Toast 

Ponderosa Steakhouse 

Chad's Winter Wonderland

 Chad's Winter Wonderland is located between Lebanon and Mt Juliet, just north of the Hwy 70 and Hwy 109 intersections.
It features eight acres of displays, including life-size Native American scenes, live animals, and ninety drive-thru arches decorated with Christmas Lights.
With Conway Twitty and Twitty Bird singing Happy Christmas Clown,
  Ding-A-Ling, Christmas is for Kids, We wish you a Merry Christmas, Silver Bells, Frosty the Snow Man, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and many other Christmas Songs.

We saw Frosty, Reindeer, Christmas trees, Christmas Train, carolers, Christmas Stockings, toy soldiers, angels, a manger scene with live animals, a helicopter,  airplanes, and Santa's Train.
We talked to Santa at Santa's Workshop. We saw a live-dancing Frosty Snowman.
The cost was $15.00 per car
It was delightful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFZuFa0YVso

We rode through Chad's Winter Wonderland at 6 P.M., which took about 15 minutes.
We were about thirty minutes from Nashville, so we decided to visit The Dancing Lights of Christmas at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park.

Dancing Lights at Jelly Stone Park 

We paid $25.00, slid the top back on our van, climbed up, and stuck my head through the hole with my cell phone in hand. I began taking videos as we rode through hundreds of thousands of LED Christmas lights, dancing to Rockn' Christmas tunes. The park also offers special rides on its firetruck, but reservations for the Fire Truck must be made in advance.

Dancing Lights

We stopped at Fox 17's Santa's Village, where there was a Santa Claus, family activities, a spider hum, inflatables, and a petting zoo. 

There were fires for roasting Marshmallows and a big screen TV showing a Christmas
movie

 It was beginning to sprinkle as we left Jellystone Park.
We rode to Opry Mills and stopped to look at the aquariums at the Aquarium Restaurant, as well as at the Lego Land Store to view all the displays.

Lego Land 

A Visit with Santa 

Christmas Trees at Opry Mall

We ate supper at Panda Express in the food court.
It rained hard while we were inside the mall.

We went inside Bass Pro Shops to view their Christmas displays and Santa Village.

Fireplace at Bass Pro Shops

Bear at Bass Pro Shops

Christmas Tree at Bass Pro Shops

Santa's Village and Reindeer 

We exited the mall, and it was still raining as we headed to the van.
Traffic was light, and the ride home was enjoyable.
At home, there had been severe storms and some tornadoes. We had missed all the bad weather, just a little rain, as we traveled home.