The Houstonian Fall: Butterfly Encounters

We were a little more motivated this morning. My wife got up early to get ready, because she was supposed to have a video call with work. Troy and I went to get donuts from Shipley’s Donuts. But my wife’s call ended up getting canceled, so we hit the road for a second day at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. My wife desperately wanted to go to the planetarium, but we didn’t have time yesterday. We made a special trip to go back for her. The show she picked was later in the afternoon, so we decided to go through the Cockrell Butterfly House first.

You start in a display room that has butterflies and beetles pinned to the wall…they’re already dead, not being tortured…it’s for education. I’m sure they died of natural causes after a good long life. Okay, moving on. They also have live bugs and insects to observe and learn about, like scorpions, spiders, and stick creatures. But to our absolute delight, there was a volunteer there, showing off several bugs. My favorite was the Giant Australian Spiny Stick Bug. She was climbing on a stick to blend in, but she kept trying to crawl on the volunteer’s hand every time she went to put her down. She just wanted to be held. It was so sweet, and the volunteer was so patient with her. Even though the volunteer gave off those tough, no nonsense grandma vibes, she was very sweet with the bugs. Troy liked the Giant Millipede, which he got to touch.

The butterfly house was amazing. There were so many butterflies, casually fluttering around or enjoying the sunshine on an assortment of tropical flowers and leaves. The place was awash with colors as the butterflies displayed black, white, orange, yellow, blue, green, red, pink, and brown. There were even a few iridescent ones. My wife and son saw a few butterflies land on people, so they went on a mission to look as appealing as possible to get the same treatment. I was on a different mission…to see an elusive Glasswing Butterfly.

By the end of the journey through the house, neither of us had accomplished our mission. I had a butterfly land on my head, but that was as close as any of us had come, and no sign of a Glasswing. Troy was very upset. So much so, that he actually declared that it was the worst day of his life. And that’s when our luck would change.

As we neared the exit, there was a young woman sitting on the steps, holding a butterfly on her hand. Her grandmother was a taking a picture of her. And when she was finished, the young woman turned to Troy and asked him if he’d like to hold it. You can imagine the elation in my son as they tried to coax the butterfly from one to the next. The butterfly finally flew to his little arm and contentedly sat there licking his skin. And a few seconds later, one landed on his back too! He couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he tried to stand still and not scare them off. And as we took pictures of Troy, another butterfly flew up and landed on my arm. And then another landed on my wife’s arm.

All too quickly, all of the butterflies flew off, but they weren’t done yet. One last giant Banded Owl Butterfly with iridescent blue on the insides of its wings landed on the front of my wife’s shirt. As it lazily opened and closed its wings in the sunshine, she couldn’t stop smiling. The dream carried through so many butterfly houses through the years was finally fulfilled. And even though I still haven’t seen a Glasswing, it was still an amazing butterfly encounter.

After that, we went to the Burke Baker Planetarium to watch Dark Universe, which explored dark matter and dark energy and their supposed part in creating the universe. The images were breathtaking, but of course, the focus was on the Big Bang Theory and how things just “happened” out of nothing. If we were to believe them, then God was not instrumental or even needed in the making of the universe.

We were starving by this point, so we walked down to Fria’s Pizzeria for a late lunch, which was good. Then, we headed back to stroll through the McGovern Centennial Gardens right across from the museum. There is a large mound set up on one end with a spiraling walkway around it. It apparently represents the life of a tree from seed to old age, starting at the top and spiraling ever farther away from the center. Troy and I decided to check it out while my wife enjoyed the shade under a hundred year-old oak tree. We explored a little more as a family before the heat became too unbearable. So, we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.