Butterfly Museum in Firefly City excites birthday Tiger
“… butterfly exhibit,” I explained.
The Martin’s are butterfly fans. We’ve been to butterfly gardens in several places in Europe. And when we moved to Santa Barbara, we were happy to see that butterflies are a big deal in this part of the world. Thousands, in fact, tens of thousands of Monarch butterflies winter in the area. However, those butterflies seem to be hibernating high in the trees. The numbers are impressive, but it is one kind of butterfly most of which are sleeping. The museum’s butterfly exhibit would be more varied.
it’s not the first time the museum has featured butterflies. A few years ago, I read about a similar exhibit. I talked Darius into joining me and we spent most of our visit in the ‘Hall of Insects’. Darius was, eh..
“Bummed, Dad.” This is nice, but I thought we’d see fluttering butterflies.”
We found the live butterfly exhibit just (barely) before the museum closed. So
“And this time, we’ll see the live butterflies right away,” I thought. .
Nazy, Tiger and I walked directly to the live butterfly display in a garden. Tiger seemed happiest with the flowers because plants don’t flutter and fly toward your face.
Tiger and the Zebra Butterflies
He also really liked the ‘colorful rocks’ that glow under ultraviolet light and the outdoor sculpture of a full-sized blue whale.
The museum had a visiting display — Sue, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Tiger was moderately impressed, but he thought that the whale was better. (The whale did not have a ‘roaring’ soundtrack connected to powerful amplifiers.)
At the butterfly tent exit, the museum had live trained kestrels, a barn owl and a perigean falcon. Once again, Tiger seemed happiest with things that don’t dart.
We had a (local) family celebration on June 13, Tiger’s ‘real’ birthday. Nazy cooked a fantastic Persian meal and all the nearby grandparents and uncles came to the house on Nirvana Street.
There were lots of presents to unwrap and this year, Tiger ‘got it’. He was really excited unwrapping presents (mostly cars). He even blew out the candle on the ‘car birthday cake’ that Nazy made for him.
Later in the week, I took him to the zoo. He liked feeding lettuce to the giraffe. (More specifically, he liked watching me feed the giraffe.) He sang Old McDonald Had a Farm, while we fed the goats and sheep. (More specifically, he sang “Old McDonald had a Farm” while I fed the goat and lamb.) He also had fun on the astroturf hill.
“The kids run up the hill and slide down on pieces of cardboard,” I reminded Nazy.
“Did he slide on cardboard?” Nazy asked.
“No, he told me that he wanted to ‘slide on his butt’.” I replied. (He actually said ‘lide on my butt’; leading ’s’ sounds are a still a bit of a challenge.)
“Wow!”
“And then he said he wanted to run down the hill.”
“But he could..”
“… fall! I know. I told him that he had to be careful. He had a quick reply:”
“You have to catch me, Dan.” Tiger said delegating responsibility.
Here, the June Gloom, an early summer weather pattern marked by fog and comparatively low temperatures, has given way to summer-ish heat. It’s hot and dry: perfect weather for the transition from ‘June Gloom’ to ‘Fire Season’. And, predictably, there is a large fire (about 7000 acres) just north of here. (I just wish that Donald Trump was around to make America’s weather great again.)
There is ash in the air and the fire can be smelled in downtown Santa Barbara. It gets worse every evening when ‘sundowner’ winds blow down the mountains and out to sea. The main north-south highway, US-101, has been closed in a 15 mile stretch the last couple of nights. (But, we’re safe here.) The butterflies have morphed into fireflies.
The Fire from State Street in Santa Barbara