Up Close & Personal with Butterflies

A couple of weeks ago we took a short trip to Raleigh, NC.  We were going to be meeting family for dinner, but decided to spend the afternoon doing something fun with the kids.  So we decided to head to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, a free museum with many exhibits!

I had heard about one of the permanent exhibits, a living conservatory, where live butterflies accompany you through the room that "recreates the sights, sounds and smells of a dry tropical forest."  There was also a sloth, although he was in a protected area, of course!

We were in awe of the butterflies, they flew all around, even inches from your face, at times.  There were several beautiful types, and here are some that we saw.  One thing that was interesting is that sometimes it seemed as if you were looking at different butterflies, but then would realize after a simple movement that it was the same.  They had different patterns and colors on the other sides of their wings!

We had a fun trip and a nice dinner with the family, and we will definitely be making another trip to that museum!

If you look closely, you can see that this is the other side of the wings on the blue butterfly!