Callaway Gardens - Day 2 (Butterfly Center)

We got up early this morning, but fortunately the bus load of old people (41 ppl in all) got there first, so we weren't between them and the Fantabulous Breakfast Buffet! :-D Hubby could get as much bacon, sausage, eggs, bisquits & gravy, pancakes, waffles, grits and coffee to his hearts content. I ate all the above also (except coffee), but particularly loved the grits (with butter, bacon crumbles and cheese in them.) However, after a breakfast like that I can't eat again until at least after 4:00...but my hubby is ready to eat again at lunch. Arrrghh! I can't hang around him all day every day...I would be way fatter than I am now!!!

It was rainy and even more c-o-l-d-e-r today. All weekend long (except on Sunday when it suddenly got warmer and foggy)....I wore a long sleeve t-shirt with a sleeveless turtlneck over that with a sweater over that. Nylon long johns under my jeans, 2 pairs of socks for my breezy tennis shoes, a coat, scarf and gloves. I know...technically...it was not THAT cold...but the cold windy rain must seemed to cut right through ya, especially on the Fantasy of Lights trolley. Sorry, I would never survive Alaska.

First Stop: The Butterfly Center. Here is the warm building.


Statue out front:


Entrance:




As I was taking a picture of the cupola...which belonged to the old "Hand House"(?)...in some small town close by...which was sadly torn down by the town...which had hundreds and hundreds of yards of gingerbread built on it...etc....etc....etc... How do I know all that you ask?? Like I said, as I stopped to quickly take a pix of the cupola, an OBVIOUSLY gay guy stopped to rapturously tell us all about it. I remember part of the story, but I guess I was really trying to figure out if he was deliberately trying to grow those boobs on his chest. hahahahahhahaha! (Mike thinks he has to lock me up sometimes.)

So we finally made it into the Butterfly center :-D....and you could stop and see butterflys pinned to boards under glass or some scientific lady in a lab coat behind a glass window pinning round things to a board.(cacoons I presume..which looked really sad, especially since I saw one of the cacoons moving!...but then I realized she was pinning paper to the board, NOT the cacoon...which probably meant she was trying to HELP them...not hurt them.)

Well anyway...the sign on the door said that the warm atrium thingy was a federally protected space and that it was a federal offence to take ANYTHING living or dead out of the facility. So no sneaking butterflys out kiddies!

From Calloway Gardens

Oh, we must pause here. As you see, Mike is holding his baby (Iphone) which he was using to take pictures. This was Saturday morning. By Saturday night...we had a terrible tragedy!!! When we dashed out to grab some desert (and sandwich for Bro. Mike to stave off his starvation for the third time).....perhaps from the Country Store.....in the cold, dark rainy night...Mike accidently dropped his baby....and yes...it shattered the glass and ceased to work. Sadly...he instead bought a sandwich at the local Subway in a gas station.....and went back to the hotel to eat and mourn his loss. ~moment of silence please~

Okay...back to happier times...before the tragedy.

From Calloway Gardens

From what you hear...when you walk into the Butterfly Center, they usually fly around and land on you and the place is filled with Butterfly's. Which it IS full of butterflys...but the butterflys seemed to long for sunny skies too because they all sat on the window sills gazing out the windows. :)

There was one beautiful large blue fellow who flew around and captivated everyone, but he was very fast and I couldn't get him on the camera. However, after landing, he folded up his wings and looked similar to this one...brown....with no blue showing.


So the butterflys wanted to play hide and seek today...so you walked around...enjoying the warmth and looked high and low for them. We were rewarded.






It's a good thing the butterflys probably don't see or get afraid of flashing lights. hahahahahha. Because when everyone saw a butterfly, lots of cameras pointed their direction. It wasn't too crowded when we arrived and we left when the families started pouring in with all the children. Poor butterflys. :)











A butterfly...not a dead leaf:










This was a very nice tour. We enjoyed looking at the butterflys and were assured that if we returned on a sunnier day, they would fly around more and land on you. By now it was getting crowded, so we moved on to the next location.