Flutter Fantasy

Flutter Fantasy is a special summer exhibit at the Botanical Gardens this summer. They have a traditional butterfly garden, but this exhibit is contained in a closed area. I had been wanting to go ever since I heard about it, but there's been so much going on, I just hadn't been able to make it there. So Monday morning I headed there with Regina, Alexa and Cari. The skies were overcast and the temperature was only in the upper 70's to low 80's ... but the humidity was suffocating! The sweat was rolling off of me like a waterfall. UGH! (Sorry, that's probably a visual you didn't need to have, huh?) Even so, the incredible array of roses was tempting enough to waylay me. I loved how the water droplets still remained on the petals after the overnight rain. Here's a few of my favorite shots:

Eventually, I tore myself away from the roses to proceed along the path toward the butterfly exhibit. Along the way, I had to stop repeatedly to capture more of the beautiful flowers blooming and the bees pollinating them:

We were all melting by now, so I made myself bypass most everything else to get to the butterflies before I passed out. After we got inside the butterfly house it was ok - not exactly what I expected. Of course, it didn't stop me from clicking away. I love some of these shots, but I had really hoped to be able to photograph some species I didn't see in my own yard. Oh well.

Between melting and starving, all of us were ready to go. By the time we got back to the car, a shower is really what we wanted, but the air conditioning in the car did it's job and Baker's Crust was our destination for lunch. We felt like everyone stared at us as we we were led all the way to the back of the restaurant to our table. Hmmm, maybe we did look as bad as we felt! LOL Lunch was wonderful! I tried a new sandwich - don't remember the name of it though. It was an open faced, toasted sandwich with chicken, munster cheese, spinach and apple slices. A bit different, but it was really good. I'd get it again and, to me, that's the true test.

Now, time to rest up for the midnight showing of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince."