Huntsville, AL

We took a day trip up to Huntsville today to check out their Botanical Garden and do a short hike in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.  It was a beautiful day for a convertible ride and both the gardens and the boardwalk we hiked were really neat. 

First here are some pictures from the Huntsville Botanical Garden.

They had a beautiful butterfly garden that included a pond with turtles, a box turtle, and of course lots of flowers and butterflies.

The gardens had a Chinese Lantern Festival the week before and were still working on taking down many of their sets.  Here are a few that were still set up.

There were plenty of beautiful flowers blooming as well. 

We then had a great lunch at Viet Cuisine before heading to the Beaverdam Boardwalk, a piece of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.  This is a short boardwalk trail through the Tupelo Swamp, home of many Water Tupelo trees.  The trail is full of wildlife (if you look closely for it) and ends at a small river.  We saw a lizard, two aquatic turtles, a frog, three water snakes, neon blue bees, a butterfly, numerous tadpoles, and heard so many different bird calls.  It was such a neat hike and our only disappointment was that we didn't see any alligators (the sign alluded to the possibility of alligators).

aquatic snake 

tadpoles

turtle

After being out in the heat all day (it was 93*F when we were at the boardwalk), we were ready to head home and jump in the pool to cool off.