Title quote by R.H. Heinlein

Today we visited the Butterfly Pavilion for the first time.  It’s pretty cool.  Bugs, spiders and other creepy crawlies thrive in (safe and secure) glass boxes under warm lights.  Colorful fish, crustaceans and other wiggly, swimming, little sea creatures pass the time in what appear to be giant fishbowls.  Brave little kids let a scary, hairy tarantula named Rosie, crawl on their hands.  (I get the shivers just thinking about it.)  I put on my big-girl pants and touched a big horseshoe crab (only for a second and with permission).

My favorite part of our visit was the Wings of the Tropics exhibit:  a lush, humid, tropical garden filled with exotic plants and flowers with graceful curves and seductive swoops that have names I can’t pronounce without great effort.  The tropical colors are incredible…bright reds, pinks and fuschias, deep velvety greens, electric blues, brilliant yellows and warm golds.  A gentle mist filters into the garden keeping both sturdy plant leaves and fragile flower petals blanketed in sparkling diamonds of water drops.

Most incredible though are the beautiful, fluttering butterflies that fill the air.  Their colorful wings propel them silently about like hosts of swirling angels.  Sometimes you can’t even see them; nevertheless, you know they’re there.  If you’re lucky, one will alight on your sleeve.  Like being kissed by an angel.

Hibiscus

Peace Lily Backlit

Hibiscus Bud

Lowii Swallowtail aka Great Yellow Mormon

Powder Puff Flower

Peace Lily

Backlit Leaves

Red Stripes on a Butterfly

Common Buckeye

Clown Fish with Bubble Coral

Green Surf Anemone

Great Mormon Butterfly

Misty Bench

Spider Lily Bud

Pink Cone Ginger

Blue Tang Fish, Orange Clown Fish, Bubble Coral

Blue Tang Fish

Red Hibiscus

Painted Lady Butterfly