Butterfly Emporium

Mar 10

March 10th, 2014

Fruit-filled butterfly feeding station surrounded by tropical plants in Butterfly Wonderland. — *Ever watched butterflies eat!?*

Gosh...

This place is great.

Butterfly Wonderland is a butterfly conservatory in Scottsdale, Arizona, where you can frolic among thousands of butterflies.

But before being turned loose into the atrium, you'll watch a short film. Early on, it introduces a caterpillar that will eventually become a butterfly. Somewhere around the part where the narrator explains, "After the caterpillar hatches, it is very hungry and immediately snacks on its shell casing," I started struggling to hold in my laughter. The video proceeds to show the caterpillar doing exactly that while making exaggerated slurpy eating sounds.

Then I heard a lady nearby scoff.

"That's disgusting."

I barely held it together.

The atrium itself is awesome. My friend and I spent quite a while wandering around. A butterfly landed on my arm and stayed with me the entire time. I figured it would eventually flutter away on its own before it was time for us to leave.

That isn't exactly what happened.

At some point, my friend's face suddenly turned flustered as he flashed back to his Florida days thanks to the heat and humidity inside the conservatory.

"I can't take it anymore. We must leave now."

"But there is a butterfly resting on me," I protested.

I insisted that I wanted her to drift away naturally.

Eventually, my friend took matters into his own hands and made a puff of air with his mouth toward my arm. The butterfly departed immediately. To this day, there is still an ongoing debate regarding the naturalness of this departure.

So...

If your timing is right, you might even get to watch a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. You'll learn how to tell males from females. You'll learn a LOT of things.

Mostly, though, you'll spend your time surrounded by butterflies.

And you'll love it.