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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Monarch Butterfly Festival!!


Mr. Old Glory is on vacation this week, so I twisted his arm and made him take me to the Monarch Butterfly Festival! Actually he was happy to go! We haven't been since our daughter was little, so I was pretty excited to go. We saw a sign for it by chance on Friday, so we were meant to go!

It's held at a really lovely nature preserve, with a little waterfall....

and lots of wildlife, like geese and ducks, and you could go canoeing for $5, which seemed a really good deal, but we didn't go.

Here's the first butterfly we saw! Isn't she adorable? We saw lots of little girls dressed as butterflies.

Here is the sign leading into the tent. We were lucky that we got there when we did, because there was only a 5 minute wait to get in.

Look at those gorgeous zinnias just covered in butterflies!

There were all kind of beautiful flowers inside the tent for the butterflies to land on, like zinnias, asters, sedum, marigolds. It was a riot of color!

Here's my first encounter.


I would love to know what it was that Mr. Old Glory smeared on his head before we got here, because they loved landing on his head!

I wanted to take this one home! I don't think I've seen any monarchs in my garden this year.
Note to self: Color your hair regularly, once a month. It may look ok at home, but outside, you can see every. gray. hair!!

When we got out of the tent, we saw several escapees flying around, and I wonder if this was how they made their escape, on peoples' legs!



This is the butterfly garden at the nature preserve. Aren't those sculptures gorgeous?

There was also a Bug Zoo that I was excited to see. I would have liked to hold this tarantula, but I heard the girl running it say that she was ok with being the one to hold it because she's been bitten before!

And these are Madagascar beetles! They were huge, and again, I would have liked to hold one, but I heard the girl say that they might have mites on them. No thanks! Well, it was a beautiful day, spent outside with my guy. Now let's see, what can I get him to do next.....

15 comments:

Jane said...

First I have to comment that I can't believe you would want to hold the tarantula or those beetles :)
I don't see many butterflies where I live...they really are beautiful. Glad you had a nice outing!

barncat (Lisa) said...

Looks like a lovely day. :)

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous butterflies but you can keep that big hairy spider. Your hair looks fine by the way. I can't see any grey at all.

Susie's country cottage said...

How could you possibly want to hold one of those beetles. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near one! It looks like a really nice place to go and the butterflies are beautiful. I've never seen a Monarch butterfly but then I'm not sure we have them here. Oh, and I'm with Kate...your hair looks fine to me too!
Susie

Unknown said...

Looks like such fun. We took two of our grandchildren to the Chattanooga Aquarium a couple of months ago. On the very top floor, they have a butterfly haven you can walk through. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, for some bizarre reason, our 5-year-old grandson was terrified of the butterflies. He's not at home, so maybe it was the closed in space. I'm ashamed to say it was hilarious!

Dawn said...

Awe, hubby looks so cute wearing that butterfly on his head. You were kidding about holding the trantula and beetles right...right? Please say I'm right. Looks like you had a really nice day.
Dawn

Olde Dame Penniwig said...

Gosh, a whole troupe of butterflies in that tent! How nice! I love festivals!

Anonymous said...

Oh wow...how fun that looks! We visited a bird cage in the Bahamas...and bird poop was flying around so I said no thanks...at least the butterflies were clean and very friendly...Lucky YOU!

Coralie Cederna Johnson said...

What a beautiful butterfly adventure! Isn't it amazing that they follow the same route every single year! Glad you got to enjoy the day!

Kammy said...

Hi Carol !
Wow, that is soooo neat..I don't think I have seen any butterflys at all this year...oh maybe a couple of those yellow ones....my pup loves to chase, LOL ! I loved your pictures...so cool ! I planted some butterfly bushes so...maybe next year or two. I had lots of bees - I love to watch them.
Thanks for stopping by my blog ! I feel soooo much better and have the rest of the week off, yeah !
Hugs ~ Kammy

Sandi said...

The butterflies are beautiful , but no thanks on the beetles and tarantula! I am not a bug person! LOL
Blessings~

Protector of Vintage said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful day. The photos are beautiful!

Sue said...

EEWWW ... Carol, no way I would want to touch those beetles or the tarantula! You are a braver woman than I am! LOL The butterflies were neat, though. Too funny w/the comment on how they escape via pant legs...
Glad you came to visit my kitchen. What- you don't cook?! And you now have pantry envy....
:-) Sue

Tootsie said...

that stove looks like the one in my little girl's kindergarten classroom....it is super old too....as for the bugs...you guys are too brave for me...I would not even look!

Julia said...

That is wonderful! One of my favorite kids books is Hurry and The Monarch. I would love to go to a monarch festival! Cool pictures and a great organization must put that on. :)