April 19, 2011-Living in the 1900's...

     For our last full day in the small Alabama town of Huntsville, my dad and I took the boys to Burritt on the Mountain, which is a now a living museum built by a local doctor back in the 1930's as his retirement home.  Having no heirs, Dr. Burritt willed the house and its surrounding 167 acres on Round Top Mountain to the city upon his death in 1955. Since that time, the land surrounding the doctor's mansion has been transformed into a historic park showcasing several restored 19th century homes from around the South, including a working barnyard and even a church. In all the years I lived and grew up in Huntsville, I had never been to the Mansion.  Of course, it has expanded a bit since I was a permanent resident of Alabama, but the Mansion itself (which is unusual because it was built in an X shape) was here then.  It's funny how we often don't take the time to visit the interesting and beautiful places right in our backyards. Instead, on vacations and weekends, we plan trips to far away places that take hours to get to. For me now, getting back to Alabama takes actual days, so I act more like a tourist when visiting my "home town."
     This past summer, we visited the Huntsville Botanical Gardens to see their annual "Tree Houses" exhibit and attended the traveling "Star Wars" exhibit at the Space and Rocket Center the day before leaving. This trip, we enjoyed not just the Burritt museum, but also hiking and playing on Monto Sano mountain.  We often think our home towns are boring when we've been there all our growing up years, but there are always quaint sightseeing or interesting historical areas to visit, even in the smallest of places.  It's too bad it took me having my own kids and living on an island really far away from here to really explore these treasures of the city of my birth, but it's better than never exploring them at all.  The best part is that my kids were actually really excited about checking out the 19th century homes and barnyards at Burritt today, which makes it even more fun for mom!