Rocket City Furmeet 2011, Part 2

Over Memorial Day weekend, I traveled down to Huntsville, Alabama to attend the event known as Rocket City Furmeet.  The event itself is described in the first part of this two-part blog post.  While I was there, I went exploring the city to snap photos, take down drawings, and get inspired for more of my comics.

Huntsville was founded around 1805 and was formally incorporated around 1811.  Located in Madison County, the city has a population of 180,105 as of 2010.  It’s grown quite a lot and has a thriving business scene.  In fact, many electronics and technology companies attached to the space program are located in Huntsville.  That’s why the city is nicknamed “Rocket City”.

In fact, the city of Huntsville was actually named one of the best places to start a small business according to CNN in 2009.  I might have to remember that when I work on my business plan in the future.

This place you see here is called Thrasher Memorial Fountain.  The first day I was there, this fountain ran at full blast and was spraying water everywhere.  In the hot climate of the south, that was very welcome.

There was no shortage of fish and waterfowl in that fountain.  It was quite inspirational for an artist like me.  I spent time walking around the fountain, drawing in my sketchbook, and folding out plans for Sunnyville Stories.

There were plenty of waterfowl by the fountain and the nearby Big Spring Park.  I saw many ducks and plenty of Canada geese.  I also saw this strange bird in the park and by my hotel.  I’d never seen it before and it was only a few minutes ago that someone was able to ID the species: a muscovy duck.

Huntsville Museum of Art

This was the Huntsville Museum of Art.  I didn’t get a chance to check this place out.

Big Spring Park

This park, known as Big Spring Park, was very beautiful.  I also dubbed it “Goose Central” due to the huge amount of geese in that park.

The local cuisine was quite tasty.  Being a city, there was the usual fast food as well as a variety of pizza, Chinese, and Japanese restaurants.  I did get to try a few unique, independent places.  One of them was a place called Stanlieo’s – a sandwich place.

This place, one of two locations, specializes in freshly made sandwiches with a quality and taste that can’t be beat by chains like Subway and Quizno’s.  I stopped in there for a ham and swiss sub.  I was not at all disappointed.  Anyone passing through Huntsville should definitely swing by this sub shop.

My time over in Huntsville was well spent.  I’d like to return to this city someday and I was able to accomplish much while there.  I hammered out plans for the Sunnyville Stories trade paperback, began work on my business plan, and did some more conceptual sketches for episode 5!

In my next blog post, I’ll let you in on some of my other travel plans.  These will be to help spread the word about my comics as well as to network some more.

Feel free to comment too.  Anyone here like to travel?  Have any of you readers visited Huntsville?  What did you like about the city?